In keeping with the outcome of the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Committee on Tourism held in Jos, Plateau State, in December 2003, where it was decided that the country needed a positive cultural event attractive to tourists and give a new image to the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under Frank Ogbuewu came up with the ideal of Abuja carnival.

The government's efforts to organise an Abuja Carnival was to sensitise our communities to begin to look inwards with a view to identifying what they have in the area of cultural resources and using it to promote culture and tourism in their communities.

The dream of the carnival as a cultural initiative to attracting foreign investment in Nigeria is also to showcase the host city, Abuja, as a well structured, carefully planned and expanding heart of Africa.

Four years down the lane, the carnival could not be said to have successfully catch up with the Nigerian people as well as international tourists, this was evident last weekend in Abuja as the city hosted yet another carnival that saw the participation in the first two days very scanty as evident at the Eagle square.

By Thursday last week, when the carnival started, one expected the venue of the carnival to be agog in readiness for the entertainment beginning that day when what was supposed to be the greatest festival of the country, but that was not supposed to be as the event started about two hours behind schedule.

But when it finally started, it was the best of Nigerian culture on display. The opening ceremony which had in attendance the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan featured cultural display and parade by the participating states and troupes.

All of Nigeria was on display. From the well-organised displays of costumes, dance, drumming, music to general performances. The participating states tried to out do the other, but of significant were the different motives behind the various floats from the larger than life Eyo Masquerade from Lagos, to the Elephant from Niger, the Ekpo masquerade from Akwa Ibom to the Pyramid from Egypt. The list was endless.

The Float of the Federal Capital Territory was colourful just as the Islammiyyat group from Egypt caught the attention of the Nigerians present during the opening ceremony.

The other countries expected at the event failed to turn up and the Director General of the Carnival, Prof. Yerima Ahmed has this to say "when it comes to trips and travel you will have problems here and there.

We were expecting quite a lot of them and they too had their own problem. I think the economic crunch might have affected them, the budget issues also affected some of them. Up till the night before carnival we were still expecting South Africa, India has a lot of economic problem now. I think everybody is beginning to prioritize. One or two countries have their own festival coming and they feel if they release their own people they will have problems.

"So we accept the disappointment and we hope that next year we will be able to plan more and we are happy that Egypt was able to make it. Trinidad and Tobago had flight problem."

The street procession of the motorized floats, each representing a particular state of the country, though the select routes to the Eagle square was a delight to behold. Against the background of the three Arms complex foregrounding the National Assembly building, the Aso villa and the supreme court building, the peak of carnival procession at the Eagle square all at once brought together the people.

The real action was to unfold the day at the same Eagle square when the Masquerade fiesta took place. The masquerade fiesta offered spectacular forms, sizes, designs and shapes of one of Nigeria's rich cultural heritage that has survived western influence.

Masquerades came from the East, North and the South, from the big to the small and from the beautiful ones to the ugliest and from the lovely ones to the dreadful ones. They were there in different shapes and sizes.

In Nigeria, masquerades are seen as a link between the living and the dead and are thus employed as agents of peace keeping, law enforcement, dispute resolution, communal stability as well as compliance with traditional norms and values.

From Enugu State came the Izaga, Agbeji, Odegelu and Ijele masquerades. While the Nasarawa State contingent came with Edeku, Ashum Agbye and Ashim masquerades among others. Each of the different masquerades on parade was followed by drummers and dancers. The traditional music and dance was one of the greatest spectacles of the carnival as it featured plethora of intricate, vigorous, delicate and acrobatic steps.

The boat regatta which offered breath taking display of the wealth, artistic slendor, war fare and sea faring heritage of the riverine parts of the country was marred an unfortunate accident of the sinking of the Bayelsa State boat at the Jabi Dam. Bayelsa State contingents were involved in a boat accident as their boat sank close to shore, though no life was lost.

But commendation must be given to the organiser of the Durbar event at the Royal Equestrian club. The event attracted the largest attendance as Abuja residents and foreigners turned out on Saturday to see the assemblage of beautifully adorned horses and horsemen in artistic formations. participants were drawn from traditional emirates in northern Nigeria.

Before the event, the Management of the Abuja Carnival had promised that this year's was going to witness the largest turn out of horses and horse riders, but this was not to be as one major state Kano was absent. This did not in any way affected the quality of the display. For the District Head of Bauchi, Nuru Adamu, who led a team from Bauchi that stormed the carnival with over 200 horses, he said participation in the Durbar is not a child's play "if you want to come here with a full regalia, one horse will cost you at least N100,000 for the horse, the saddle, the rider, costumes and so on.

"It is not a child's play to bring an horse here for display, it takes a lot of money to get an horse out with its rider for an impressive show."

Prof.. Yerima attributed the low turn out of horses to funding "When you look at the facilities and places for the horses, the feeding of the horses, if you look at those things you will discover that if we had more funds we would have invited more states. This applied to the boat regatta, if we had more funds, maybe when the canoe of Bayelsa State sank, we would have been able to have one extra on ground and what happened yesterday where one canoe sank and one major state was cancelled off would not have happened."

Apart from the major events, there were side attractions like Youth & Children programme; Food fair; crafts expo and fashion as well as poetry reading.

This year's poetry reading was dedicated to the late Cyprian Ekwensi who wrote hundreds of short stories, radio and television scripts, and several dozen novels, including children's books. His 1954 People of the City was the first book by a Nigerian to garner international attention. His most successful novel was Jagua Nana (1961), about a Pidgin_speaking Nigerian woman who leaves her husband to work as a prostitute in a city and falls in love with a teacher. He also wrote a sequel to this, Jagua Nana's Daughter.

In all, the Abuja carnival is an art form through which culture is projected in entertainment and this year's edition was not an exemption as those who found their ways to Abuja were entertained to the best Nigeria could offer.For participants, it was different stroke for different person, this is evident from their comments.

"Well I think the carnival this year for me is ...., I don't like using the word better, but i think what it did for me was that the states are beginning to take carnival seriously. Unfortunately, the issue of releases of funds to states, the releases of funds to FCT to prepare that kind of affected it.

But, I think the carnival has come to stay, I can gladly say that in my mind. People are beginning to know that this season that there is going to be carnival and they come. You see most of the events we have done, all of them have been well attended, which means that the audience is there, the foreign audience is there. They are coming and we need to encourage them. I am quite happy with this year's carnival, the level maturity in it.

"I think the Abuja people are well aware that there is carnival. The problem we have is for individual interest, for individual to decide to leave his place and come for he carnival. I don't think it is something one can do in one day, I think the people are beginning to say there is an occasion here I need to know how it touches me and it begins to touch them, they begin to react to the carnival.

" I think the carnival tradition needs time to break even into the minds and consciousness of the Abuja people who ons the carnival.

They first have to know that in 3days of every November they are the host of the world. Once they build that culture, then it becomes easier for other people t come.,

Right now, it's like it is government thing, it is their thing. Maybe, we the organizers have to look at how to bring them in, closer, maybe take the event to them.

Assessment of the carnival four years the line. I think every carnival is unique on its own, that is why I screamed when I met the head of carnival in Sa Palo who said they been doing it for 40years and I told him your carnival must be perfect. He said no we still make mistakes, you understand i think once any program involves human being it is difficult to say his is better than this.

In 4years, I I have leant that every carnival is unique in its own way and we learn from mistakes."

Chuks Ugwoke, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism Enugu state

"The carnival is an expression of the rich cultural heritage of Nigeria that has continued to attract international audience and it is a testimony to the fact that when it comes to culture, there is no country in the world that can rival Nigeria.

Because of the large multitude that will always be here, it looks a little bit difficult, but I praise the organizers as it has been hitch free, we have not had any case of an accident and they made a lot preparation to be able to take care of the people and even to accommodate the contingent, so on my part I will say it has been a beautiful work on the part of the organizing committee.

There is no amount of money that can quantify the display of culture here, sometimes, success is not counted in terms of fund. But I praise all the states that participated because it takes a lot for states to sponsor their contingents here. We should not talk in terms of money, we should talk in terms of what we have been able to showcase to the outside world.

Kawa Hajia, a cultural officer from from Balanga local government of Gombe state "To be sincere, the organization this year is not bad, the organizers are trying and there is a need for re-organization because in the past, we used to have guilds to take us to where ever we wanted to go and also security who takes care of our movement but since last year, we have not enjoyed these services, so we don't know what has happened. So there is need to re-think this aspect.

"The carnival is bringing the people nearer to others and it encourages our young ones to know more about their culture .

"I think there is no major challenge for this year's carnival, because the states that came here were already prepared where they were going to stay and each participant has been given money for feeding as accommodation was provided by carnival committee . And the accommodation at government technical college is not bad. We have enough water, mattress but we would have been given toiletries.

Alim Yahya, head of education and social development, Bauchi local governmentThis year's is a bit good, but last year was more organized than this year, because there was more horses last year, this year, it is been curtailed to reduce congestion, but i am sure you saw wonders today.

Last year, we came with 200 horses, but we are here with more than 200 horses. In terms of accommodation, there is no problem, we have everything in place.

Mubo Eniola, Kogi State "The attendance is quite impressive in terms of number of states that came, but the quality of what is in it is not what I expected and I known that the original people who founded the carnival is not what they expected it to be.

By now, it should have gone beyond this level. I would have loved to see the private sector more involved, that is, government divulge itself from getting fully involved like we have seen in the last four years.They must have a target now on the number of years they want to be involved and divest for the private sector to fully take over.

Apart from that, carnival all over the world is a street party and it is not supposed to be passive events, but what we have here is a situation where we are seated passively. It is supposed to be an active spectator participation event. it is supposed to be a situation where people come together and dance together. It is like we are constraint within an environment.