Icheokudotcom condemns in an unequivocal term the abuse of innocent young girls for the sexual proclivities of these Abuja carnival organizers and watchers. This is because a country, Nigeria, which will not tolerate the hosting and staging of a Miss World beauty pageant on grounds that it is anti - their religious viewpoints and beliefs, will readily acquiesce to the display of nude girls just for a mere festival? What a double-standard of speaking in a bifurcated manner? Which of these, the bikini-cladding or bare-breast damsels, do the mullahs of Nigeria consider to be more offensive ? The four day event Abuja Cultural Carnival of 23rd of November, 2008 themed as 'the promotion and celebration of humanity, dignity and identity of Nigerians as a people ready to live together in the undivided acceptance of Abuja as their capital city' was nearly marred by a display of explicit girls by Kogi State. In a speech, Dr Ahmed Yerima, Director-General Abuja Carnival Committee, said Kogi was disqualified from all the contests for parading naked girls! Monday, December 1, 2008
ABUJA CARNIVAL, AN ABUSE OF INNOCENT GIRLS!
Icheokudotcom condemns in an unequivocal term the abuse of innocent young girls for the sexual proclivities of these Abuja carnival organizers and watchers. This is because a country, Nigeria, which will not tolerate the hosting and staging of a Miss World beauty pageant on grounds that it is anti - their religious viewpoints and beliefs, will readily acquiesce to the display of nude girls just for a mere festival? What a double-standard of speaking in a bifurcated manner? Which of these, the bikini-cladding or bare-breast damsels, do the mullahs of Nigeria consider to be more offensive ? The four day event Abuja Cultural Carnival of 23rd of November, 2008 themed as 'the promotion and celebration of humanity, dignity and identity of Nigerians as a people ready to live together in the undivided acceptance of Abuja as their capital city' was nearly marred by a display of explicit girls by Kogi State. In a speech, Dr Ahmed Yerima, Director-General Abuja Carnival Committee, said Kogi was disqualified from all the contests for parading naked girls!
Abuja Carnival Of Profligacy
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Emmanuel Onwubiko
November 14th, 2008
November 20th 2008 has been earmarked as the commencement date of the Abuja cultural carnival by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism. At that event, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ funds will be spent in an attempt to entertain the members of the powers –that- be and other hangers -on in the nation’s seat of power with very little financial resources going to the transportation and other logistical demands of the cultural troupes that would be brought into the nation’s capital for the short period that the fiesta would last. Already, the organizing committee headed by the respected Professor Ahmed Yerima has started running from pillar to post literarily, to brief Nigerians and members of the international community on the import, essence, and philosophy of the Abuja carnival which has become an annual ritual for officials of the Federal Ministry of culture and tourism. The Abuja cultural carnival to a lot of Nigerians does not have a soul, philosophy or any nationalistic or patriotic import but is a huge contraption aimed at funneling funds to the members of the political cabal that rules Nigeria.
Professor Yerima told the media in Lagos recently that the 2008 edition of the Abuja Carnival would be a significant improvement of the past editions and that nearly all the events have been expanded while the quality of participation would be raised both at the state and international levels. Professor Yerima, who has been in the culture sector for years, also told the media that this years’ edition would facilitate elaborate tourism activities, adding that countries like Brazil, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, and South Africa would also participate at the fiesta. Yerima told his audience that last year’s Abuja carnival witnessed the participation of Ghana and Niger Republic even as he listed some of the activities at the event to include masquerade dances, exhibition at the craft centre in Abuja and Boat regatta at the Jabi Dam in Abuja.
However, Yerima stopped short of telling Nigerians how much of the taxpayers resources would be spent in this fruitless voyage of entertaining the elites who would turn out during the event which will in no way improve the edification of the Nigeria’s cultural values and practices. May be the refusal of the Professor to tell Nigerians how much will go into this carnival is in tandem with the current oath of secrecy sworn by top Aides of the president Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua especially in an era whereby the members of the National Assembly have refused to pass the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL into a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to allow for openness, transparency and accountability. So the exact amounts to be spent to facilitate the forthcoming Abuja carnival would never be known and would for a long time remain a matter of conjecture and speculation unless the culture and tourism committees of the National Assembly are not carried along during the Abuja cultural carnival and they decide to spill the beans as they have already done regarding how the minister of Culture Adetokunbo Kayode, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who should know the constitutional implications, nevertheless allegedly presided over a ministry that overshot the budgetary allocations for this year even before the supplementary appropriations were passed.
Before returning to the issue of the Abuja carnival and how it would actually amount to profligacy at the highest level, let us take a look at the recent discovery at the Federal House of Representatives’ committee on Culture and tourism whereby the Minister of Culture and Tourism was ordered to return to the nation’s treasury, a whooping N1.4 Billion Naira which the ministry he heads had already spent without appropriations. House Committee on Culture and Tourism at its maiden meeting with the minister Adetokunbo Kayode said it was against financial discipline for the ministry to have spent the amount before the end of the financial year. The committee was also not pleased with the defense made by the minister since according to the members the federal ministry of culture has underperformed in the year under review. The Legislators accused the federal ministry of culture and tourism under Adetokunbo Kayode of over spending when that amended budget was yet to be passed and that when it was eventually passed, the ministry had already overshot its’ allocation with the scandalous sum of over a Billion Naira. The sum of N3.4 Billion Naira was voted for the culture and tourism ministry, but the amendment Bill scaled it down to N2 Billion Naira, whereas the ministry had exhausted the votes. Adetokunbo Kayode the minister of culture and tourism denied the allegation that his ministry overshot this year’s budget.
This allegation by the legislators against the key officials of the culture ministry is very disturbing and must be probed by the relevant anti-graft agencies of Government if the current administration still thinks some Nigerians will take it serious when it mouths the much chorused mantra of the rule of law, and anti-corruption crusade.
But come to think of it, why did the lower legislative house of the National Assembly through its committee on culture and tourism made this startling discovery? Is it because the members were not carried along in the planning and execution of the Abuja cultural Carnival which to a lot of right thinking Nigerians is not meant to promote African or Nigerian Culture but serves as another bonanza and bazaar for the members of the political class to share the filthy lucre which in the first place should have been spent in practically improving the standard of Nigeria’s cultural sector? Yes I was right because the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Oguakwa, during the meeting with the Minister of Culture also displayed disappointment that major stakeholders were not carried along in the planning of the forthcoming Abuja Carnival.
This Lawmaker who chairs the culture and tourism committee in the Federal House of Representatives that has become very notorious lately as a place where alleged financial scandals are brewed, actually told the minister of culture that the committee members are unhappy at the ways and manners that the funds appropriated for the Abuja Carnival bonanza are being dispensed without the active participation of the members of the Committee on Culture and tourism. His words "It is unacceptable the way the 2008 Abuja Cultural Carnival organizers are going about the planning, as if the National Assembly that voted money for the cultural SHOW was not part of the stakeholders that should be carried along".
This is a big shame. How can the Federal House of Representatives that should provide guidance through its oversight functions over the ministry now turn around to complain that the members are not been carried along in the spending of the appropriations?
It is a shame that since the immediate past administration introduced the Abuja Cultural Carnival, it has turned out a huge avenue whereby the civil servants that work in the culture sector and a few powerful politicians in the good books of the political administration are settled with contracts running into several millions to do the job of hiring some masquerades and entertainers and of course the hotels built and run by the few politicians in the nation’s capital would ordinarily smile to their banks after the cultural bonanza because some of the guests would be quartered in these hotels to be paid from the taxpayers money. Last year when the current minister of culture and tourism assumed office, the first official work he did was to dissolve the Abuja Cultural carnival committee set up by his predecessor and re-constituted his own committee. That singular action of the minister which saw the removal of the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism board, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Culture and his replacement with Professor Yerima was fiercely resisted because the one who lost out allegedly resorted to what seemed like a hidden media warfare which culminated in his suspension by the minister for alleged insubordination.
Nigerians are tired of these kinds of Cultural Carnivals of Profligacy which will do nothing to promote our indigenous culture because the events are so artificial that they are designed to only entertain the crowd and not to promote and preserve our revered African traditions and culture. Why has the Federal Ministry of culture not thought it wise to convince the current federal administration to also declare a day in the nation’s calendar as public holiday for adherents of African traditional religions even when Christians and Muslims enjoy similar favors? The refusal of the Federal ministry of culture to look at the possibility of redressing this longstanding unconstitutional discriminatory practice against adherents of African traditional religions in Nigeria, even when the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, wrote to the federal Government demanding that a day be set aside as public holiday for adherents of African traditional religion in Nigeria, shows that the current minister of culture is not interested in leaving any lasting legacy as a minister but is only interested in artificial ceremonies like the so-called Abuja cultural carnival. How many cultural festival facilities have being built around the six Geo-political zones by the federal Government as a way of encouraging real tourism? Has the federal ministry of culture published comprehensive directories of all the cultural events in the over three hundred ethnic nationalities? What effort has been made to ensure that our indigenous languages do not go extinct? What efforts are being made by the ministry of culture and tourism through the National Orientation Agency to revive our revered African/Nigerian family values? The ministry of culture under Adetokunbo Kayode has at best witnessed abysmal decline in the performance of virtually all agencies under it. The ministry of culture must wake up from slumber.
•Emmanuel Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria. He writes from Abuja.
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