Carnival Calabar positions Nigeria on global stage, ranked among top four

The Carnival Calabar has significantly created a brand signature for the image of Nigeria as one of the must visit yearly events with veritable contents that holds people of diverse origins spell bound through its socio-economic and cultural fiesta tucked in a robust 32-day festival.

2019 carnival brought new memories of reality of the golden age of peaceful co-existence that exists among people of diverse cultural norms and values where they leave as one people and one destiny in Africa with theme humanity.

The governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade who spoke at the flag off of the carnival said Carnival Calabar is not just a street party, but a lecture; training and formative structure to build new character and create opportunities for young leaders.

With Governor Ayade already adding many flavour to it, the international carnival holding the ace in marketing ideology which has been giving Nigeria and Africa a clean bill of safety certification which the international carnival delegates have seen and preaching it to others that the country is not only safe but peaceful and accommodating.

However, with the recent innovation, Carnival Calabar has received documentations having been listed in the carnival calendars of the world as the first in the whole of Africa and the fourth in the world.

This was disclosed by the chairman of the Carnival Calabar Commission, Mr Gabe Onah, while announcing the results for the best competing bands for the 2019 Carnival.

Freedom Band and Passion 4 emerged joint winners of the 2019 Carnival Calabar as the best participating bands. The two competing bands emerged joint winners with 1648 points each in the keen contest at the just concluded carnival in Calabar.

The chairman of the Carnival Calabar Commission stated that the carnival bands recorded a tie some four years ago. In the results announced by Onah, Seagul Band came second with a total of 1581 points, followed by Bayside Band with 1453 points as third position and Mastablasta with 1466 points as the fourth position.

In other categories, Seagul Band emerged the best king of the road with 1173 points and best theme with 1161 points while the best decorated truck and best costume band went to Passion 4.

In the local government participation, the first position went to Calabar Municipality, Odukpani Local Government took the second position while the third position went to Akpabuyo Local Government.

For the states category, Anambra State came first followed by Lagos State in second position and Enugu State in third position.

In the words of Onah: “In the last five years, we have seen challenging themes, critical themes, cerebral and mostly intellectual in content. You saw (the Carnival) which is God’s gift to Cross River State and Cross River state gift to the world. His Excellency, Professor Ben Ayade has energised the bands and added excitements and that is what drives tourism to a destination and it happens. For the first time, we are urging everyone here to see the new look carnival marking scheme called the high low, we have trained our adjudicators in Trinidad and Tobago. It was this same governor that renewed our patent as a registered trade mark. Four weeks ago, “we received documentations being listed in the carnival calendars of the world, listed as number four in the world and the first in the whole of Africa. We have observers from Trinidad and Tobago, in the persons of Mr David Lopez and Patricia D. Dureni, they found Carnival Calabar worthy, four weeks ago after two years of trials, they came here as mystery visitors and gave us the go ahead and we thought they should come here to see what they saw online.”

 

Ayade game changing carnival innovations  for Carnival Calabar

In line with the adding extra flavour, style and class to the spectacle delivered yearly by the five competing bands, the governor in 2015 launched a band which till date, has provided what many have referred to as a royal platform for guests and friends of the governor to have a first-hand feel of the carnival.

 

International carnival

The International carnival has added a whole new dimension to the entire gamut of activities of the carnival Calabar and festivals.

Growing in both popularity and number of participating countries yearly, the International carnival is giving Carnival Calabar proper, a healthy run for its money.

 

Miss Africa

The Miss Africa pageant which in the last four year gained prominence globally has given Calabar in Cross River State another status as some of the international contingents now ask if the carnival destination is a country, this is because the governor has consistently made introductions that keep Calabar, and by extension, Nigeria on the lips of the world. In its fourth year, Governor Ayade has provided a global stage out of which a true African queen with a charitable spirit is crowned and she will champion issues raised by the theme of her year of emergence as queen.

 

Bikers’ Carnival

Bikers have brought another level of delight to the frills and thrills of the carnival through their wonderful stunt and display on the carnival route. It is now what everyone expects to see and in 2019, it attracted thousands of onlookers not only by the stunt but also by the vintage designs of the different brands of motor bike.

 

Green carnival

The carnival capital of Nigeria and organizers of the biggest street party in Africa, Cross River State was at home with climate change and Governor Ayade’s message of a cleaner, greener, safer, sustainable environment for all marked the beginning of Green carnival for further create awareness on the climate change, theme of 2015 and 2016 carnival and today it has become the culture of the people in preserving environment which is a model for other today.

 

Youth carnival

The future of any events or programmes depend on how the youths were engaged, and the introduction of the youth carnival has replaced the children carnival. This, however has become an ingenious way to provide meaningful engagements for the youth who otherwise may be idle. With youth carnival it will enable their early training to take over the carnival in the coming year.