Gov Imoke in his costume
Work of art by Seagull band
Seagull Senior King
Masta Blasta Senior King and Queen
Masta Blasta Junior King
Carnival Calabar:
A Spectacle to Treasure
The annual Carnival Calabar is a lot more than brightly-costumed people dancing on the streets. In essence, the carnival is drama in motion, with dance being one of the many ways of interpreting and expressing the particular theme for each carnival. And as Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke intimated, the carnival also serves as the bedrock for an alternative economy driven by tourism. Demola Ojo and Funke Olaode report…
Regardless of the number of times one attends the annual Carnival Calabar, it still retains its ability to entertain and awe in equal measure. The 2013 edition was no different. It is rare, if not impossible, to find anywhere else in Nigeria that condenses as much varied entertainment into a single day (or more) as the adult parade of the most famous Nigerian carnival does.
The theme for 2013 was “Ain’t No Stopping Us” and from all indications, the carnival has come to stay. Despite the heights the end-of-year showpiece has hit in recent years, the last edition upped the ante with even more impressive performances by dancers, Nollywood stars, acrobats, jugglers, clowns on stilts, giant-size puppets and illusionists (yes, you heard right, illusionists performing tricks to a live audience). Inventively embedded in the entertainment was education, with the bands infusing history lessons – African, Nigerian and Cross Riverian – into their performances.
12 Kilometres of Dance and Drama
Dubbed “Africa’s biggest street party”, the adult parade of the Carnival Calabar spans a distance of 12 kilometres through the streets of Nigeria’s first capital city, before culminating at the U.J.Esuene Stadium, where tens of thousands wait for the finale of performances from the five competing bands namely; Masta Blasta, Passion 4, Seagull, Freedom and Bayside. Last year’s carnival started just before noon on December 27 and didn’t end until the early hours of the next day. The stadium and the town were agog with celebration even at 3am on the 28th.
Driven by Passion
Over the years, fun seekers have come to expect and appreciate the most glamourous costumes, extremely ingenious floats, well-choreographed dances and the great levels of endurance that go into pulling off a show of the magnitude that the people of Calabar welcome tourists with. In contrast to many other carnivals and festivals in Nigeria which seem contrived, the carnival in Calabar is driven by the palpable passion of the indigenes to host and entertain, regardless of age, gender or class. For example, the day before the adult parade, there is a cultural parade and also a children’s parade.
Famous Participants
Participation at the carnival cuts across different strata of the society. This was highlighted by the participation of the Cross River State first lady, Obioma Imoke, who showed off her dancing skills at the stadium when leading a group of choreographers.
In actual fact, the carnival performances at the stadium were kicked-off somewhat by the appearance of former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke and his wife, Onari. As leaders of the Bayside band, they threw the venue into a state of frenzy as they wheeled in on Segway Personal Transporters (a two-wheeled electric vehicle), with superhero costumes to boot.
Another famous performer was Seagull band leader, Sen. Florence Ita-Giwa, who was welcomed with a loud ovation worthy of the only female band leader in Africa. She was accompanied by Nollywood stars like Funke Akindele, Osofia, Mr Mbu, Uti of Big Brother and many others.
Deputy Governor Efiok Cobham and his wife also participated in the procession as leaders of the Freedom band while many others like the Nigerian Minister of Tourism and Culture, Edem Duke, were resplendently decked in the colours and costumes of their respective bands.
For good measure, the chief executive of Cross River state, Governor Liyel Imoke, was dressed in military fatigues (appropriately, you might say)reminiscent of the American special ops team, the Seal Team.
Different Folks, Different Hues
For the uninitiated, each band has a colour it is identified with. So generally, Masta Blasta are identified by the colour orange, Passion 4 is green, Seagull is red, Freedom is yellow and Bayside is blue. Obviously, the bands are allowed to play around with different colours but are – to a large degree - identified by their colours.
At the end, Masta Blasta emerged winners for the second consecutive year. It was no surprise, as among other thrilling performances, they presented the aforementioned illusionists, who simply put, were amazing.
Executive Vision
Still at the stadium and with the last performing band barely out of sight, Governor Imoke took out time to speak with a select group of journalists on the impact of the carnival and the vision for the future. “We have been at this for long enough to understand and appreciate that when you have a good product people would come. We also understand that no matter how good your product is, the fact it is ‘made in Nigeria’ means it doesn’t attract the type of attention it might attract in other places.
“So our focus is domestic tourism because we believe we have enough people in Nigeria, including expatriates living in Nigeria, as well as West Africans that want to enjoy the experience. Basically we think that our emphasis should be not just on the domestic market but the sub-regional market in terms of attendance.”
A Year-round Destination
Speaking further, Imoke said; “The key thing for us is that we are not trying to build a one-month event calendar. For instance, we have the Jazz Festival, the mountain race and we are trying to introduce some other things. We know that some of the things that command traffic in Nigeria are conferences, meetings and workshops.
“Today, Calabar is the third largest destination in Nigeria after Lagos and Abuja. We think we can overtake Abuja very quickly once our international conference centre is ready. With the international conference centre comes two brand new hotels; a resort hotel and a 4-star business hotel.
“We think if we can complete that and a few other things we are doing, Calabar will become the type of destination we want; which is with traffic all year round.”
Reduced Dependence on Oil Revenue
The state chief executive was keen to stress that “We cannot possibly survive as a country or a state depending on oil revenues that are shared from Abuja. And our focus is that can we create an alternative economy that is driven by services.
“We think we are well positioned and a lot of investments are coming to Calabar now. You can imagine having an event like this that runs throughout the night and everyone is in town having fun.
Where else can you try this without heavy security personnel? It is something we think we can build on and that is what we are trying to do now in terms of social services, basic infrastructure, entertainment or hospitality.
“We would like Calabar to be top in the minds of Nigerians as a place where they can go for holidays. It used to be Accra and I have been focusing on getting that Accra crowd to start looking in this direction because every time I land in Accra, I look for what it has that Calabar doesn’t have. And I can’t find it.
“We also understand that there is a new emerging middle class in Nigeria that does not go to the village anymore for Christmas. While I was growing up it was an abomination because you couldn’t think of celebrating Christmas without going to the village. But the emerging middle class no longer goes to the village for a number of reasons and they are looking for where to spend their holiday. And if we can position ourselves adequately we become that destination.
Planned Carnival Village
Speaking definitely about the future regarding the growth of the carnival, Imoke revealed; “I have instructed that all the bands must have their official offices and one or two of them have already done that. There, you can see their previously used costumes. Beyond that, we are trying to create a Carnival Village on the same side as the Convention Centre.
“We are trying to build a Tourism Circuit around there.
The Carnival Village will have a massive carnival museum where we are going to have some of these outstanding winning costumes, outstanding presentation videos and so on. So that when you are touring the museum, you will be able to experience the carnival.
The Carnival Village will also have performances where people can go to watch a mini-show with all the five bands performing. So you don’t need to wait until December to come to Calabar.
“Also, all the five bands are going to have their own workshops and you can go there as a tourist to see how Carnival costumes are made. So all year round you are going to have Carnival festivities in the Village and that is what we are trying to achieve with this project.”
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