Cultural heritage does not survive by accident. It survives because those entrusted with it are willing to protect it.
When elders neglect their responsibilities, remain silent in the face of distortion, or allow personal interests to override tradition, they do more than mislead the present generation—they plant confusion for generations yet unborn.
The younger generation cannot be blamed for misunderstanding a heritage that was poorly transmitted to them. When custodians fail to document, explain and defend what they inherited, false narratives can gradually take the place of authentic history.
This is a serious warning: a culture can be weakened from within when its own custodians abandon their responsibility.
Elders are not merely beneficiaries of tradition; they are its trustees. They have a duty to preserve the truth, correct distortions and ensure that what is handed down is worthy of inheritance.
Tradition is not personal property to be manipulated, and history is not a story to be rewritten for convenience. Once cultural truth is surrendered to negligence, ambition or silence, reclaiming it can become painfully difficult.
The responsibility is therefore collective: elders must preserve with integrity, and the younger generation must question, learn, document and verify with wisdom.
What we fail to protect today may become the very heritage our children struggle to recover tomorrow.
-Chief Abiodun Lasile DL MnbRÂ
Orunto Baalufe Owu Kingdom AbeokutaÂ
