BY IDONGESIT ESSIEN
This year, 2016 marks the 9th edition of the globally recognised Akwa Ibom Carols Festival. In about 400 days, the state can boast of being able to sustain a festival of that magnitude, uninterrupted for a record ten years.
Without attempting to minimise the abstraction of political gains recorded by the immediate past administration of Chief Godswill Akpabio, it also made sure that Akwa Ibom state as a government and its people got their names on the global record of remarkable achievers; by breaking an existing record of the largest group of people singing carols in one location.
The Guiness Book of World Records for December 13, 2014 event is a classic reference to this claim. The continuous hosting of the event, post-Akpabio further deepens the construct of continuity in governance as a vehicle to sustainable development.
By December 17, Mr Udom Emmanuel will host the Ninth Edition of Akwa Ibom Carols Festival, and the second since he assumed office in May 2015. I will stand to be corrected, the factor of Mr Udom Emmanuel in the equation of the #CarolsFestival marked the beginning of an extrinsically rewarding spiritual tourism event Akwa Ibom State has ever hosted. In his first year in office, the festival, for the first time recorded the #first set of #CorporateSponsorship.
Three Nigerian multinationals participated in sponsoring the event, signalling the dawn of an era of extrinsic economic benefits that are both quantifiable and measurable. To ask why it took so long for a Guiness record/Forbes adjudicated event to secure a corporate sponsorship is to work out the difference between Chief Godswill Akpabio and Mr Udom Emmanuel. Their values aren’t the same and their disposition towards investment and measure of return on those investments are totally different. Mr Emanuel brought business innovation into the festival, by reducing the variable cost per unit; he trimmed down the number of singers. Of course, this did not change the fact that Akwa Ibom still holds the record, but it affected the bottomline and profitability positively. This is a decision only an investment genius can make.
Corporate Sponsorship, and so what? It will do us a lot more good if the number of corporate sponsors for this year’s event increases by any percentage. That will depend on how the state’s apparatus markets the event, and what target they set to achieve. From the office of the citizen, a decline will be frowned at. An increase will receive accolades too.
The Advantage:..
The intrinsic benefits of the festival are too numerous to mention, but for the sake of a curious minded reader who may need this article for further academic research, I will try to elucidate a few. It provides an avenue for spiritual cleansing and oneness with God.
It promotes togetherness among the participating choristers, international artistes and participating countries. It provides a good avenue for the promoting of the vast talents abounding in Akwa Ibom state and beyond... It also gives government a platform to exercise their #braggingRight. So what is our advantage? There is no gainsaying what impact A-Rated events have on the tourism/economic potentials of a place. For a state like Akwa Ibom with lush vegetation, a long coastal front, deep sea, agricultural/mineral resources, plus a ready set of curious youth population who are fast awakening to the class consciousness of self-reliance through dignified labour; there is a lot to gain by investing in tourism endeavours...because tourism businesses always birth healthy ecosystems.
Hurdles to cross..
Statistics play a key role in planning and forecasting... My folks in digital marketing and data analytic should like this... The earlier the state begins to keep track of tourism arrivals for the event, seeking to know visitors’ travel routing, destination, demography, spending attitude and purchasing power, etc, the better she will become in planning for associated businesses, logistics and security about the festival.
The rising cost of aviation fuel and its attendant impact on airfare will have serious impact on domestic travel and international arrivals for the 2016 event. At the moment, I personally consider Akwa Ibom as a #Landlocked state; where all the roads leading to the state from neighbouring Cross River, Abia and River states are badly degraded. The convenient alternative left is the aviation sector which is now extremely exorbitant. The state government should work to attract federal government’s attention towards constructing new roads and repairing broken ones.
Akwa Ibom should seek collaboration with her Cross River state counterpart and work towards making the carol festival a distant attraction of Calabar Christmas Carnival. Of course, ‘after the reggae, we can play the blues’’. While some believe what they see in calabar at first blush are obscene, they can come to Uyo for spiritual cleansing through praise and worship, while seizing the moment to petition God for the goals of the coming new year. Whether or not you see obscenity in the last point, is dependent on the side of morality one belongs.
Need for Constitutional Backing...
The progenitors of the Akwa Ibom Christmas Carols Festival, having worked from the government house from inception should work towards sending an Executive Bill to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly seeking the establishment of a commission or funds of some sort solely for the purpose of planning and execution of the Carols Festival and for the development of the vast potentials of tourism and its allied activities. By having this in place, there will be increased investor confidence, there will open up improved, avenues for long term corporate endorsement with multinationals and most of all, the constitutional backing will ensure sustainability.
The state government should no longer, after 10 years of hosting a world record event, continue to fund the Akwa Ibom Christmas Carols Festival from taxpayer’s money. By now, the festival should be able to fund itself through sponsorship, corporate endorsement, VIP Ticket sales, rentals and souvenirs, etc.
As i conclude, I would like to leave you with a quote from Richard Elseworthday in his book, Filled with the Spirit.. “It would be of no surprise if a study of secret causes were undertaken..to find out that in every golden era of human history proceeds ultimately from the devotion and righteous dedication of one single individual. This does not set aside the sovereignty of God, it simply indicates the instrument through which God uniformly works. You can look at the time of Wesley, or Spurgeon or William Wilberforce or Billy Graham, and you will see at the center of the column at least one man who moves in a certain direction because he or she knows where God is moving and then a bonafide mass movement follows along”
I am not minimising the abstraction of mass movements or potency of God to make things happen. It is only a logical outworking to prove that ‘since the days of old, God places people in authority within an era to cause change and then lead His people in a certain direction. I am thoroughly convinced, that Mr Emmanuel ‘s emergence as the governor of Akwa Ibom State, against all odds is a demonstration of God’s will to place #ONE man at the center of the column in order to cause the bonafide mass movement. This can happen in our time..
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