Juliana Taiwo
30 November 2008
Abuja — The Federal Government has said that beginning from 2009, it will contribute little or nothing to the funding of Abuja carnival as it seeks to involve more international participation.
Minister of Culture and Toursim, Chief Olukayode Tokunbo, told State House Correspondents that the ministry was taking a holistic review of the carnival to make it more appealing.
Abuja Carnival is an annual celebration of the vast cultural, hospitality, and entertainment tradition and values of the country.
It ranges from the performing to visual art - theatre, music, dance, costume, cuisine, poetry and oral tradition to the most modern of art form.
The minister disclosed that already, a 50-50 public private partnership funding arrangement is being worked out by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism to make the next edition even bigger than that of this year which had Egypt as the only foreign country participating.
He also said Nigerians would be encouraged to go into merchandising of any item be it crafts, cloths, T-shirts, face-caps, mugs among others in order for visitors of have memorable item that would remind them of the hospitality of Nigerians.
Tokunbo said: "We want to create a carnival that everybody will be proud of. We need to go back to the drawing board. I have found out that all past editions we have repeated the same thing, we have to bring innovations into the 2009 edition that will make it memorable for Nigerians and visitors alike.
"We are looking at what other countries are doing. We need to continue to expand on it. We need to expand on the costume and the choreography".
"We can use our cultural activity to market Nigeria ," he said, but regretted that Nigerians were yet to go into merchandising to get the best out of such carnivals.
He lauded the Cross River State government for making the annual Calabar Carnival an international event attracting international visitors as well, urging other states to follow suit.
More foreign countries have signified interest in next year's edition making it more global in outlook.
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