It was a night of glitz and stars. It was also a night of songs and dances. Members of the carnival bands of the Rivers State came in their full costumes. People became excited as some of Nigeria’s finest home video icons sauntered into the banquet hall of Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt. There was Monalisa Chinda, Ini Edo, Mike Ezuruonye, Norbert Young and many others.
But it was not all about the screen; it was also a display of all that was good in the culture of the riverine people. There were the voluptuous and beautiful adorned maidens in their traditional regalia. They were bedecked in huge beads, some as huge as the arm of a child and other colourful attire.
It is a night like this that one truly appreciates the richness of Nigeria’s diverse culture.
The night was for tourism and all had gathered to unveil a tourism product that is geared towards wooing local and inbound tourists, and in the process to celebrate all that is good in our culture and environment.
It was for the unveiling of the theme and logo for this year’s edition that the Rivers State Tourism Development Agency (RSTDA) decided to explore seriousness, even in the revelry of a boisterous street party. The theme for this year is the Green World Edition. The thought process that led to this, according to Dr. Sam Dede, is the efforts of the tourism board to engage in sustainable tourism. According to him, over the years, the environment has been degraded by the activities of man, hence the need to engage in conscious efforts to make a change. What better opportunity than to pass across this message through the boisterous revelry of the CARNIRIV, a fiesta that has the whole state and beyond glued to it.
The Rivers State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr. Nabbs Imegwu, talked about the what the night was all about: “As Africans and especially as Rivers people powering the cultural base and resource of Nigeria, we do have a lot of activities relating to our culture. When we say culture, it is not about masquerades. Ordinarily, we relate with culture as masquerades, but it goes far beyond that.
“We have a lot about our culture which basically and fundamentally refers to our customs and values within families, within communities and within societies. A lot of activities that hallmark the very essence of us as a people tend to be concentrated in the last quarter of the year. On behalf of the governor of this state and the deputy governor, I fully express their apologies for their inability to be here tonight.
“This is a state that has over time , especially in recent times, attached importance to the development of our rich economic potential and improved economy. It is not just the black gold, but for the fact that there are diverse rich elements within us, one of which is the rich cultural heritage that should and ought to be harnessed as a product of attractive tourism.
“This administration is aware of the fact that tourism perhaps ranks second to some other economic sector. We are, therefore, working towards that. We will do the best we can to headline the tourism products we have identified to assist in driving and expanding the economic space in Rivers State.
“The local government chairmen are very important in what we are doing; there cannot be CANIRIV without the local government chairmen. I say so because often times the chairmen have stood out as the anchor point for the first lap of out street parties. The street party is what carnival is about and it is two-pronged – we have the heritage float and the sea side floats. Majority of us are aware, but we have to say this for the benefit of all and for the benefit of the press and publicity.
“Our heritage street party is anchored on the very core value of our existence as a people. We use as a rallying point the local government unit which is the last unit of governance. And over the years in our experience to rejuvenate what we initiated in Nigeria, the first ever carnival in the country was initiated in this state. Now in our attempt to rejuvenate that, we have used the local government chairmen as the rallying point being the last point of formal government, formal administration to mobilize our people and till date, they have done resourcefully well.
“Many people see Nollywood as a local phenomenon, but except you travel wide, you would not appreciate how Nollywood has impacted globally, how much Nollywood has sold this country in the aspect of diplomacy and economy”.
Dr. Sam Dede, the Director–General, Rivers State Tourism Development Agency (RSTA), is used to glitz of the nights like this. But his was a sombre capture of what the essence of what the tourism board was trying to rekindle.
He said: “This is the second in the series of our strategic development of CARNIRIV Global branch. We have a five-year development plan, so we have one year down, and in the next four years, we are thinking that if you tell anybody in Australia about CARNIRIV, they will say yes I know about that carnival. It took place in the city of Port Harcourt. Last year, we had our centenary celebrations and we titled that carnival ‘Port Harcourt 100 Edition’.
“ So, we thought that we could use carnival to mobilize our people to realize the extent of damage that we have done to our environment and we begin to make amends towards righting the wrong. So the theme we chose for this year carnival is ‘Our Environment Bedrock For Sustainable Development’, for short ( Our Environment, Our Sustainance). We call it the ‘Green World Edition’, and we are hoping that at the end of the carnival season, even in our merriment and joyous dancing and singing, we will remember to do good for our environment before it gets worst than this. Incidentally, the world tourism day has the theme: Tourism and Water. And we are water people. We have conterminated our water and this is the time to get it right again .
“Ok, we want you to leave this place with this statement in your mind that our land is green, and we must celebrate this. We need to celebrate the greenness of our land with potential investment opportunities, lingering on the horizon and with the rest of the world, singing the now familiar tune of environmental sustainability.
“The time to join in order to utilise attendant opportunities is now. So even the papers that you use help in a way to deplict the environment, so we need to begin to get conscious and get involved. I will like to leave you with a statement by the president of the United State of America during his last visit to Africa. He said that we must teach our children to treasure what the earth gives us and nurture it for the next generation.
“I think the greatest gift that the people of this generation can give to the next generation is the extent of green green we can leave behind. It is so simple, it is no money, it is not gold, it is not silver, it is not diamond, but just leave some kind of green green for the future generation to inherit.
“So,during the carnival season, we are going to plant together. All the bands, RSTDA, all the ten bands in the free style parade from the 23 council areas are jointly going to plant one thousand trees to commemorate this edition of CANIRIV.
“Let’s look at the brands for CANIRIV this season. Last year, we introduced the Egelede, and it became an instant success at the carnival village, but this time around we are going to get a celebrity wrestler to be a guest at Egelede. Those of you who are diehard fans of wrestling like me, you are likely going to see one of those major wrestlers as a guest at our own traditional wrestling. If you love John Cena, if you love Undertaker, if you love Hoc Organ. Just pray for us, we will do it for you.
“CANIRIV Praise Jamz is also one other event to look out for. It is the carnival that opens the entire carnival season. We give all the praise to God. For those of us who go to church, those of you who believe in God, we will give you that. And for those of us who believe in the ancestors, we will also give the praise.
“The International Heritage Parade is one other event you should not miss. It is what we call the boat regatta. We have the Garden City Free Style Parade, and you can see all the beautiful colours here representing the ten bands of the CANIRIV brand. The entire carnival season will close with the World Peace Concert. Last year, we had an incredible sixty thousand viewership at Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium, and before we knew it, the police asked us to stop the show because the stadium was bursting. We had to stop it. So this time, we are making the preparation to accommodate more of the crowd. We will put huge mega screens outside so you would not need to come into the stadium.”
Gradually, the festival is becoming noticed and drawing support from ouside.
Former CEO, Notting Hill Carnival,London, Mr. Shabaka Thompson, said: “One thing we have achieved in CARNIRIV in London is that the project has become a forerunner at the front of cultural tourism in the United Kingdom, and we should take pride that Rivers State is leading that good example of how we can sell cultural tourism to the upside of this country and CANIRIV is a very good example of that for the efforts of RSTDA.
“ It was the first time in the 25-year existence or maybe they have won before,but they came first in their catergory and second overall in the carnival, and it boils down to the presence of that wonderful creative float and the masquerade that followed.
“What we have learnt as well is that in including the float and the music to Notting Hill, we are generating a particular interest for the whole of Nigeria, the whole of Africa. Afrobeat music was popular on the parade route because the parade route was used to the Caribbean calypso-sucar music. The introduction of the Afrobeat muscic has attracted a large flock of well-behaved Nigerians who are only too eager to jump behind the Afrobeat music. We intend to build that, we hope that will continue, that RSTDA and the government of Rivers State will see it neccssary to continue building this relationship with NottingHill.
“We at NottingHill welcome it. It has injected a new dimension into the carnival, and we want to make sure you continue to be leaders in this cultural, tourism development”.
It was not just all about the future, the past was celebrated as the last year’s event winners were given prizes and monetary rewards.
