Bad Calabar-Itu Road Will Be Fixed For Calabar Carnival, But We Are Helpless On High Air Fares -Tourism Commissioner
After two years of suspension, the Calabar Carnival will hold this year. But there are fears that people may not be able to attend the event because of the situation of the Calabar-Itu Road as well as high cost of air fares.
But the Executive Secretary of Calabar Carnival Commission, Mr Austin Cobham told TNN in this telephone interview that the government was collaborating with the contractors handling the road, for remedial work to be effected before the world’s biggest street party takes off.
Excerpts:
What is the level of preparedness right now, for this year’s Calabar Carnival. This is October and the carnival is in December. How prepared is the state government for it?
Having done carnival for 16 years, you should have known that it’s like a way of life, even at the slightest push, we can. It’s a plug and play. The state dry run is in two weeks, on 16th October. So that should be the picture.
But in practical terms, what are we looking at, what are we expecting, what should the people look out for?
For the total content, you know, it is a work in progress until execution. So for total content, I cannot holistically tell you in finality because we are still putting up the content. But in terms of events, you know, there are one or two new events that have come up; the African Black Music Festival, where you are going to have the big ones, then there is also an Arabic night, Arabic party. There is also a love feast. So, there are about four or five of those new. It makes a whole long calendar. You just took me on the spot so I can’t go round through it now.
There are two things that people believe may really affect the successful hosting and participation of this year’s carnival. First is the Calabar-Itu which is still in a very bad shape; and second is the high cost of flights. How does this worry you?
That is like a national issue because we do not have control over what the flight values are. But I know the works ministry has been in close contact with the handlers of Calabar-Itu road and by November, during the dry season, towards November ending, there will be a lot of palliative work so that we have a smooth track and then it is also expected that the areas handled by Julius Berger will be able to open one lane for people to use. But if it has to do with flights, I think we are almost totally hopeless. But our liaison offices, both in Lagos and Abuja, we are working on escorted road transportation. We have security escorts and luxury vehicles to bring people in. for those that want to explore this option. By the next two, three weeks, there will be announcement for people that want to come in through luxury coaches by road.
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(Cuts in) Luxury coaches by road I guess?
Yes. Of course, there is no rail to Calabar. That is what we are suffering. So it definitely has to be by road. The issue of travelling by road is a security concern. So, we are also making arrangements to give security support, the ones organized by us, so they can totally secure the roads for everybody. We are just a state inside the federation. But we can secure the organized trip.
I’m sure you know that a lot of people are actually afraid of using our roads, especially on long journeys. I don’t know which road you are even looking at, but if you are looking at people coming in from Abuja and they want to take the Ogoja-Ikom-Akamkpa-Calabar road, the road is also very terrible…
(Cuts in) No, no, no, no, you don’t, there is just a, the point in-between Biase.
(Cuts in) Biase-Akamkpa axis is in a terrible state.
No. Not the entire stretch because almost the entire Biase is almost done. It’s the area that is close to Akamkpa that has hitches which are going to be spotted. We are working on that to get them filled if they do not reach there. I know the company that handled the Soku project had told us that it’s because of the high rains, torrential rain fall that disturbed. But they were still pushing down. So I hope they will record some progress completing the road. If they don’t, we will still push them like we are pushing Sematech and Julius Berger of Calabar-Itu to please make palliative measures. But I’m sure that is the only terrible part of the entire road.
What’s your major fear about this carnival, considering the fact that it has not taken place for like two years now?
You know, you would have also known that it is not the only event that was put on hold for at least two years globally. Almost all carnivals were put on hold for at least two years. The first that opened this year was the Notting Hill Carnival and they also had challenges. What we did as a people is that for us it’s easier to learn from other people’s mistakes. So as they revealed their challenges, it was as we kicked off the 2022 carnival, my office started with consulting with all the heads of security unit, military, parliamentary, and back up forces in the Cross River State. We visited division commanders, brigade commanders, all of them to hear their input and security is not something we discuss in the public domain. But we had a feedback from them and they were working on their feedback.
I know that in the past, other countries used to participate, Brazil and the rest of them…
(Cuts in) they will still participate.
So, how many other countries are coming in this time?
You don’t know until they finish sending in their confirmations, but we’ve sent out invites already.
How many countries have been invited?
We normally send about 70, 60 invites and then their confirmation will then give us the number of countries to confirm that are going to participate. So far, we have done 60 invites. There are some countries that are still in travel ban, some level of travel ban, so we didn’t explore all those because of the travel conditions in those countries, we won’t be able to keep them for like 15 days before they will be able to come into Calabar. But the ones that have loosen travel bans have been invited.
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Part of the concerns like the first two times or so that Brazil participated, people said oh, why are we inviting people to come to the streets of Calabar and be dancing naked on the road. Did you hear such things, were you bothered about them?
When we talk about naked people on the road, I wonder why Nigerians don’t even think before they make reactions. Do you watch Igbo movies? Have you seen the typical Efik maiden before? What are we talking about? You see the Jigida girls, is it not the same thing?
Those Igbo girls when they wear Jigida, you see how they dress. Is it not almost the same thing? So, why are we complaining about them when we cannot complain about our own. The maiden dance in Efik reveals certain parts of the females. You are an Ibibio man, you know how the maidens dance, how we are dressed. So, what are the concerns about nakedness? Does anybody dance, walk strip naked? No. Revealing, yes. Do Africans reveal? Yes.
There were churches who actually kicked against it and for that they called for the ban?
(Cuts in) Did they go to dance in the church? The blood money people, the evil men, the occult people that serve even as pastors, have they been able to sort that out yet? Hypocrisy my brother.
They go back and watch Nigerian films where girls wear almost our traditional dresses come up the same way, and they clap hands. You see, when you don’t like a thing or a government, it doesn’t mean you must destroy the institutions of that government. I can say this because I am not just sitting in carnival commission as commisisoner, but I am sitting as a technocrat, a stakeholder. Now, to just answer you in fairness, you will not expect to invite Brazil to Nigeria and they will dress like Africa’s royal women; they will dress like Brazilians. We went to Brazil three years ago, we dressed like Nigerians, they didn’t force us to dress like Brazilians, that is their identity. In Tanzania, there are dances that they come with bare breasts. In South Africa, the same thing. They are Africans. Let them go and kill those ones to change their culture. In as much as I am not supporting nudity, I am saying that if it is someone’s representation, let the person be.
What would you say we have gained from Calabar carnival?
First, is that Calabar carnival is one of the few carnivals that are structured on academics. We play to themes, we interpret themes that these research works in finding a good presentation on the road. If you look at our themes closely, you will see that every year, we seek to solve problems. Every year, our themes seek to solve problems. I will give you an example, when we played humanity as out theme, one band told us the reasons why there is war in Africa. One band was trying to make us understand that Europeans came and put us into war, we fight against ourselves; we cannot have a common foundation and then they take away our minerals and get fat and rich, while we are impoverished. It’s what carnivals do, it’s a presentation of the story on the road, using costumes and props. You want to talk about the economic aspect?
Yes.
Now, if you are aware that the pressure to hold carnival this year came from the masses, not from government. Government was a little shy, to say we are just coming out of COVID, we’ve not recovered, companies will not be able to bring in money, our partners will not be able to bring in money. But there is a whole lot of commerce behind carnival, there is a whole lot.
So, on the part of the state government, how much is the government looking at investing into this year’s carnival?
What we normally do, we have a projection and then the rakings from sponsorships, from partnerships will now tell us this is how much we will be able to have from invoices, even if the cash does not come immediately from companies. Like some banks have started putting in their invoices now already. You have an expectation from a few banks that have already established how much they are putting into carnival. So, some companies like have also done the same thing. Now we can succinctly say by next month, we have so, so, so and so amount, how much do we need? We now check our budgetary request to the governor, we sit back and say government cannot do more than this, you have already written this. So, it is always a technical session. Nobody can specifically say government is investing this because government invests only after we have had sponsorship values.
