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Ghana is to host the first World Igbo Diaspora and cultural summit in August, which will feature cultural festivals including dance groups, age grade performances from different Eastern states in Nigeria, and cultural displays from Ghana. The summit is to restore the Igbo culture and tradition for the teeming Igbo sons and daughters in the Diaspora especially in Ghana. Dr Chukwudi Ihenetu, Eze Ohazurume 1, Eze Igbo Ghana, King of the Igbos in Ghana, the Organiser and Convener of the summit, in a statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday explained that most Igbo�s have lost touch with the language and the core traditional cords that identified the Igbo man in the past. He said having come to settle in Ghana and having achieved a certain level of economic freedom; they have integrated into the society by mostly inter-marrying with Ghanaians or foreigners. �The children from these marriages and indeed children of Igbo families who have been living in the Diaspora for a long while, have lost track with everything an Igbo man should hold dear,� he said. He said the summit would be an opportunity for the Igbos in the West Coast to re-establish a firm relationship with their root through a process of tutelage which would in the long run make the Igbos in the Diaspora to be part of the decisions that affect Ndi-Igbo in general. Eze Ohazurume noted that the Ghana summit would also serve as an opportunity for Ghana to have a clear picture of the contribution of the Igbos in the economic well-being of the economy and to showcase the socio-economic ties between some of the tribes in Ghana and the Igbos. He said the main attraction of the summit be the launching of the �Ezeigbo Foundation�, which has been set up to assist Igbos in Ghana in trade, business and education. The Ezeigbo Foundation according to Dr Ihenetu has discovered that there are a teeming number of Igbos especially the youth loitering the streets of Accra, constituting themselves as nuisance and making the indigenes to paint the Igbos as bad. He said the foundation intends to rally them, identify those that should be sent back to school, those that need to be supported to set up business and those who need counseling. �With this data, the foundation will be able to empower them,� he said. Additionally, the Foundation is championing the erection of the Igbo Village in Ghana which would serve as a rallying point for the preservation of Igbo culture and tradition. Already 250 acres of land has been acquired for this purpose. The Foundation also since February, 2013 has been running the Igbo language schools at different centres in the Greater Accra Region. Papers will be presented by eminent historians, academicians and sons from Igbo land, Ghana and beyond and expected to grace the occasion are high-powered traditional rulers from around the continent of Africa, including King Mswati III of Swaziland. The date of the summit is from Friday August 29 to Sunday August 31 at the Ghana Physicians and Surgeons conference centre Ridge Accra, while the new yam festival will be held at the Efua Sutherland Park, Accra on Saturday, August 30. The Igbos are one of the largest and most distinctive of all African ethnic groups predominantly found in Southeastern Nigeria, they number about 40 million worldwide, with about 30 million in Nigeria. They constitute about 18 per cent of Nigeria's population, with significant Igbo populations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Ivory Coast. The Igbos predominates in five states in Nigeria-Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Abia. In three other states- Rivers, Lagos and Delta, they constitute almost 25 per cent of the population. In Ghana, the Igbos constitutes about 40 per cent of the population of Nigerians permanently and legally living in the country.