Efio-Ita Nyok|31 October 2016
Calabar, Cross River State capital city which, for obvious reasons, has been appropriately described as an ancient enclave in which both the residents and numerous visitors 'Come And Live And Be At Rest' has its variant enviable shades notable among which is leisure and fun. This credential amongst others is what cut out the capital city as a tourists haven.
The reader would readily agree with me that without entertainment there's barely leisure or fun in every ramifications of the words. Musical entertainment isn't alien to Calabar as the Efik, Qua and Abakpa ethnicities as well as other tribes that constitute the state all empty their profound high-life genres into a mesh of something that the listeners can't deny maestro to the performer.
Obudu, Cross River-born, Lagos-based social commentator, Simon Utsu, recently took a swipe at the dwindling influence of a set of high days in Cross River capital city calendar, the annual Carnival Calabar christened Calabar Christmas Festival initiated by a former Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency Mr Donald Duke (1999-2007) in which there's a month-old of entertainment, leisure, fun, and what have you. Utsu was recently walking down the street of Lagos when he heared Caribbean calypso music from the legendary Mighty Sparrow. He was forced to recalled Maxi Priest who both featured in the Carnival Calabar during the hay days of Duke. Today, through the lacklustre days of Gov. Liyel Imoke (2007-2015) and especially in the disoriented and disenchanted era of Gov. Ben Ayade (2015-present) the funfilled element in the Calabar Christmas Festival has evaporated into thin air within the years. Excerpt of Utsu's remark:
'Taking a stroll down the streets of Lagos and I hear the music of Caribbean calypso music legend, Mighty sparrow blaring out of some speakers. It immediately triggered my reminiscing on the early days of former governor of Cross River, Donald Duke, when he invited Mighty Sparrow and reggae great, Maxi Priest down to Calabar to come headline the first two Xmas festivals or so.
'In the last couple of years, the Calabar Xmas Festival nay carnival has lost its lustre; I remember stumbling (online) on a poster last week advertising this year's carnival- where Faze of the Plantashun Boiz fame was supposed to be one of the headline acts. That alone buttresses what I just said above or doesn't it?', Utsu concluded.
Whatever has been responsible for the mediocrity of the previous years in prosecuting a successful Carnival Calabar may not be relevant in this present discourse, however, for this year, if anything, security will be paramount in determining a successful Calabar Christmas Festival. The suspicion is that the Carnival Calabar 2016 edition will be a festival of violence, fear, theft, pickpocketing, abducting, rape, running helter and skelter etc where the infamous Calabar South Area Boys, daring Calabar Street Children and a docile police force will take the day. Maybe Ayade will prove this suspicion wrong only time will tell.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger, the Editor & Publisher of NegroidHaven.org
Efio-Ita Nyok
