By Onwa Ekor, Calabar
Cross River governor, Prince Bassey Otu, says the biggest street party in the world otherwise known as Carnival Calabar, remains a specialty of the state which others continually emulate.
Otu stated this, Sunday, while flagging off the second Carnival Calabar dry run at the millennium park, Calabar, an event that attracted the Presidents’ daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, representative of European Cultural Centre project, Sunny Onuoha, among others.
The governor who was represented by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, also assured that the event this year, would be the biggest of all times.
“Today is yet another one, for Cross River we are noted for this, it is our specialty and in the sub-saharan Africa, we have sold Carnival to the world.
“Cross River is known to be a model state, when we do, the rest of the states copy. With the kind of governor that we have now, the carnival is going to be the biggest of all times,” Otu assured.
Tinubu-Ojo, on her part, implored the citizenry and entire Nigerians who value culture and heritage to upraise the sector, by encouraging Carnival Calabar which she remarked, “speaks volume of you as individuals and the society at large, so we need to commit whatever we can to encourage this Carnival as it is no more a Calabar thing.”
Also commenting, Onuoha applauded the government and people of the state for sustaining the event and introducing more aesthetics using local costumes that have also helped to interpret the yearly theme and its entire coordination.
“There is need for our people living overseas to come back and enjoy Africa, we need to promote Africa, we need to promote our culture, the way we live and the way we dress.
“It is the way of life of all of us and we are completely indigenous people, so all of us as Africans need to promote our culture,” the representative of European Cultural Centre advised.
Onuoha further assured that the European Cultural Centre, Abuja would help in the area of technical training as well as do a lot in the area of promotion being part of exchange program to support Carnival Calabar.
This year’s event which has as its theme, “Our shared prosperity,” saw revellers of both performing and non performing bands, parading the 12 kilometres Carnival routes, immediately after the flag off of the event.
