Bongo festival, Njiko carnival… double celebration of Igbo heritage

WHAT do Bongo Festival and Njiko Carnival have in common? They are festivities of music, arts and culture with the aim of promoting the cultural heritage of the eastern region of Nigeria. Timely planned to hold during the end of the year’s holiday when people are due to return home for the season’s festivities, these events are expected to attract culture lovers from all over Nigeria and in the Diaspora as well as from South Eastern states of Nigeria such as Abia, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu.


The symbolism of the Bongo musical instrument as adapted into the festival was explained by Tony Anyadike, one of its organizers,  “The essence of the Bongo musical instrument in our heritage cannot be ignored. It signifies a lot in our history. It is a symbol of strength, a strong voice, announcement of great passages, events and entertainment. Because of its strong presence in our history, we chose it as a symbol of this festival of Ndi Igbo.”


This year’s maiden edition of Bongo festival, which is being organised by the Bongo Festival Limited and endorsed by Imo State Government, promises to showcase the cultural heritage of the Igbo people.
The three-day event began last Monday and curtains would be drawn on it today in Owerri, Imo State.







“This festival will gather all Igbos from around the world and people from all works of life to the South East. It will be a national and an international congregation as various embassies and international agencies have been put on notice about this great event. The first of its kind,” Tony added.


In contemporary times when cultures are going extinct, it has become imperative that bold and conscious steps are taken to revive, protect, promote and maintain the cultural heritage. Bongo Festival, according to organizers, is designed to embark on cultural renaissance in Igbo land to foster unity of purpose in the quest for a united Igbo identity.
According to Tony, Bongo Festival is out for the future and portrayal of the Igbo culture. Why so much value is placed on women and why the bride price is so high are part of the areas to be explored and reflected upon during the festival.


In reference to the ongoing agitation for a Biafran state, Tony asserted that no manner of violence nor aggression will be linked to the festivities which in defence of the festival, he said, is primarily aimed to foster social interaction.



He said, “The Biafran agitators have in no way harmed or kidnapped anyone. Security will not be an issue. The issues around the Biafran agitation will in no way affect the proceedings of the festival.”




Njiko Carnival is an annual festival that ultimately bring together every Igbos in Nigeria and diaspora, to celebrate unity. The Njiko Carnival, was borne out of a strong desire to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the South Eastern Region which overtime, is being eroded and lost. The name Njiko means Togetherness/ Unity. The name Njiko was coined as a clarion call to encourage the Igbos to unite through the medium of Arts and Culture.


The Carnival with an expected crowd of over 80,000 spectators and participants from all over the South Eastern States, is aimed at engaging the youth in productive and result oriented activities. Njiko Festival is expected to attract a mass movement of people of Igbo origin within the country and those in diaspora to unite and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Igbo people.


The venue for the Carnival is in the beautiful environment around the Blue Lake of Oguta. The Oguta Lake is the second largest of its kind in Nigeria and it is chosen for it’s potential as a perfect tourist location. According to its organizers, it is the only carnival site in Nigeria with this feature which could mark the beginning of a major tourist destination able to rival that of the Calabar carnival which has become one of the biggest carnivals in West Africa.


The Njiko Carnival 2015 with the theme: The Rising Carnival, is scheduled to hold between December 28 and 29, 2015.
 Charles Oputa, Chairman and National Coordinator of the Njiko Carnival said, “It is with great pleasure that we introduce the first ever Igbo Carnival with an expected crowd of over 100,000 spectators and participants from all the five South Eastern States converging in one place.


“Njiko Carnival is an annual festival that ultimately bring together every Igbos in Nigeria and diaspora, to celebrate in unity as it name connote through art and culture. Njiko carnival seeks to foster a sense of community, pride, belonging and connectedness by celebrating our Igboness through Arts and Culture.”


Charles Oputa a.k.a. Charly Boy, is a seasoned broadcaster with over 30 years of media, socio-cultural and street experience accrued via ‘the Street University’. He has an outstanding academic background with a diploma from Harvard University, a degree in Suffolk University and a Masters from Emerson University.








Published in The Guardian on December 23, 2015

Govt rules out sale of National Theatre

THE Government of The Federal Republic of Nigeria has assured that the National Theatre remains a national monument and will not be sold for whatever reason but said it was open to a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the management of the asset.


"We are not averse to a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement that will add value to the iconic (National Theatre) complex,'' the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said during a visit to the complex as part of the tour of the parastatals under his Ministry.


He said the process of selecting a preferred bidder under the PPP arrangement is currently underway.
''The National Theatre is a national monument and a tourist attraction. We will not allow it to go derelict or become a magnet for hoodlums. This monument is the pride of the nation, and it has always served as the point of convergence for Nigerians seeking fun and relaxation, especially  during festive periods, and a centre for the promotion of arts and culture,'' Alhaji Mohammed said.


He said the security around the complex would be 'beefed up' to prevent a recurrence of the molestation by hoodlums of fun seekers at the National Theatre on Christmas Day, and also ensure the safety of the priceless artifacts within the complex.


''It is totally unacceptable that fun-seeking individuals who throng the National Theatre for relaxation during festive periods or at any time will become the victims of attacks by hoodlums.


''We will work with the security agencies, especially the Police and the State Security Service, to upgrade security at the National Theatre. It is also important for the management of the complex to ensure that its perimeter is better secured to ward off hoodlums,'' the Minister said, adding that a high-tech security surveillance system may even be introduced to better secure the complex


Alhaji Mohammed said the on-the-spot assessment of the security and other situation at the National Theatre has revealed the challenges being faced by the management, and assured that there will be noticeable changes at the complex within the next few months.


''We will restore the National Theatre to its pride of place and make it more user friendly. We will also ensure that the management engages with stakeholders in order to increase the patronage of the various facilities at the complex,'' he said.


The General Manager of the National Theatre, Mallam Kabir Yusuf Yar'Adua, conducted the tour with the Minister around the facilities at the complex, including the banquet, cinema and exhibition halls, the sub-power station, the water works, the police post and the artiste village, among others.



“The National Theatre is a national monument and a tourist attraction. We will not allow it to go derelict or become a magnet for hoodlums. This monument is the pride of the nation, and it has always served as the point of convergence for Nigerians seeking fun and relaxation, especially during festive periods, and a centre for the promotion of arts and culture,’’ Mohammed stated.




He said the security around the complex would be ‘beefed up’ to prevent a recurrence of the molestation by hoodlums of fun seekers on Christmas day, and also ensure the safety of the priceless artifacts within the complex.
“It is totally unacceptable that fun-seeking individuals who throng the National Theatre for relaxation during festive periods or at any time will become the victims of attacks by hoodlums”.




Published in The Guardian on December 29, 2015

Tourism as a way of diversifying economy

Tourism has been identified as a veritable option for sustainable development as Nigeria grapples with the challenges of the revenue depletion.




At a workshop in Abuja, organised by the Department of Domestic and Eco-Tourism Promotion of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, themed: “Mainstreaming Tourism into the Economic Agenda of Government”, issues and challenges affecting the economy due to the country’s dependency on oil was examined.
As noted in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism in 1980, Tourism is an activity that is essential to the life of nations because of its direct and indirect effects on the social, cultural, educational and economic sectors of a nation.



 The uniqueness of tourism as an important sector is also evident in its ability to employ skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower, and despite wars, political conflicts, natural disasters, medical scares, terrorist attacks, and economic and energy crises in various parts of the world, international trade in tourism revenue has grown in geometric progression since the 1980s.



According to United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the direct economic contribution of travel and tourism worldwide amounted to approximately 2.16 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013.




The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said there is urgent need to build a resilient and dynamic economy that is well placed to harness the country’s abundant resource endowment.



 The minister described Nigeria’s experiences in the past three decades as clearly highlighting the shortcomings of a development strategy that placed a premium on foreign exchange earnings from non-renewable natural resources, especially oil and natural resources.




He said the economic and social challenges, which the country has been experiencing from the 1970s, is connected to the fall of the international oil prices.
“Our experiences in the recent past also clearly demonstrate that oil and mineral resources are non-renewable and have very limited potential for addressing the development challenges that face the country today and over the medium and long term period.




“These include providing gainful employment for the masses of school leavers and various categories of under-employed workers, addressing the challenge of poverty and tackling the environmental challenges all arising from the high rate of incidental and situational urban migration, desertification, floods and other natural disasters”. This reality makes diversification into tourism a rational consideration.




Nigeria, however, is not the only country aspiring to take advantage of the potentials offered by the tourism sector. According to UNWTO, developed countries such as Spain, France, China, Germany, Italy, Turkey, the United States, and the United Kingdom are among the world’s top earners on tourism receipts. According to Alhaji Mohammed, for the tourism sector to meet the country’s development expectations, the government is determined to provide a more conducive environment for investors and potential tourists. In spite of all these, the minister believes there is room for development and improvement, which requires the collaboration of both public and private sectors.




The areas of need include development and improvement of infrastructure, strengthening security to enhance investor’s confidence (especially against terrorism and kidnapping), establishment of Tourism Development Fund (TDF) to serve as a pool of funds for the private sector for tourism development, and the general lack of awareness of the importance of the socio-economic importance of tourism, etcetera.




Other areas in need of the development and improvement are: Environmental development in the areas of forestations, mitigation of desert encroachment, flood disasters and development of national parks, sustainable institutional framework for public-private partnership to provide the required confidence for prospective private investors, functional collaboration among the relevant MDAs in tourism and the establishment of a national carrier. The minister consequently admitted that the government is statutorily expected to provide unique opportunities and the enabling environment for the development of a consistent long-term framework on which private investors could base business decisions.




However, it goes without saying that a prevailing atmosphere of political stability coupled with the policy of economic liberalization, diversification and the strengthening of institutional bottlenecks will give cause for optimism. In 1989, a national conference on tourism was organised in Maiduguri with the objective of appraising the state of tourism in Nigeria vis-a-vis the performance of the Nigerian Tourist Board. The recommendations from the Board led to the establishment of a department of tourism in the Federal Ministry of Trade and the promulgation of Decree 81 of 1992.




This Decree established the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the replacement of the Nigerian Tourist Board. The main focus of the NTDC was to promote and market Nigeria as a tourist attraction and destination, encourage Nigerians to take holidays in their country whilst attracting foreign visitors to visit and enjoy the ambiance of Nigeria.



 The Nigeria Tourism Policy hinges on the principles of National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS).
The policy thrust is to make Nigeria a leading tourism destination in Africa thereby generating foreign exchange earnings, creating job opportunities and promoting rural based tourism enterprises and foster cultural understanding among others.



 In 1996, Nigeria produced a Tourism Development Master plan which articulates the tourism resources of the country ranging from natural endowments, cultural and historical resources into five tourism clusters for the purpose of development and making Nigeria a tourism destination in Africa. The clusters and their values include Tropical Rain Forest, Atlantic Gateway which included states like Lagos, Bayelsa, Rivers etc., Sahara Gateway which includes states in the north like Kaduna, Yobe, Jigawa, etc., Conference Capital including Kogi, Nassarawa, FCT, etc., and Scenic Nature.




Ashamu Sewanu Fadipe, President, Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Services of Nigeria and former Permanent Secretary of Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, criticised the tourism policy as though being a good document, but lacks synergy among the players.




 Ashamu listed what he considered as challenges of tourism development namely lack of political will and enduring policy, lack of basic amenities at tourist sites (road, water and electricity), high hotel tariffs especially in Lagos and Abuja, negative image of Nigeria as perceived by the international community and inadequate power to drive the industry.




The UNWTO and UNEP set out 12 aims for all nations particularly developing nations like Nigeria for achieving sustainable development in tourism.




According to the UN, the aims, which are set to reduce poverty in the world, bears the overall objective of identifying specific policy areas for policy formulation, which will deliberate on actions towards achieving sustainable development and success of Nigeria’s Tourism Master Plan.



 They are economic viability, local prosperity, employment quality, social equity, visitors’ fulfillment, local control, community well being, cultural richness, physical integrity, biological diversity, resource efficiency and environmental purity.




Ashamu maintained that these aims must be mainstreamed into a sustainable tourism agenda for economic development in Nigeria and an operational policy must be established in line with these aims.




 Also, Ashamu made further recommendations to the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture including a recommendation for developing Operational Framework to drive the implementation of the tourism policy and the tourism master plan.




He also advised that the Ministry should “Organize a National Tourism Conference with the involvement of public and private sectors, tourism organizations and selected tourism active communities.” He explained that the conference is to create tourism awareness and strengthen the Public-Private partnership.



The activities of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), he also recommended, should be reviewed with the aim of strengthening the two bodies for better efficiency and service delivery.




The development of a National Code of Practice for tourism practitioners such as tour operators, hospitality establishments, transporters and owners of heritage sites and the re-establishment of a National Carrier were also highlighted while the re-establishment of the National Carrier was identified as important to block leakages from air travel.




Published in The Guardian on December 24, 2015