Newly appointed Artistic Director of the 2009 Abuja Carnival, Professor Ojo Rasaki Bakare has promised Nigerians that this year’s edition would shake the world.
Barely two weeks after receiving his letter from the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, the popular Theatre and Dance scholar told journalists in Lagos that he would ensure that the 2009 carnival live to its billing as a true people’s carnival.
Bakare who is reputed for his highly creative and entertaining theatrical productions hinted that he would package Abuja carnival as a brand.
He hinted that he would join his team-Denja Abdullahi, Grace Gekpe and others to provide a carnival with professional touch. “The carnival as we all know has its purposes so we shall package it as a brand to achieve those purposes for Nigeria” explained Bakare who listed wealth generation, tourism promotion, cultural revival and image laundering, as some of the objectives of the carnival slated for November 26-29.
The carnival director said his mission would be to make Abuja carnival assume the status and standard of such world acclaimed festivals as Rio carnival, Nottingham, among others. He is also prepared to showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage to the world in a most creative, yet modern style. His words “
This year, the carnival would not have mere trees and flowers as spectators. The entire city of Abuja would be involved as streets and avenues would be decorated, while people would be mobilized to be part of the carnival. We shall also have carnival routes in most residential areas. Above all, my team and I would ensure that we use content to drive the theme of the festival. We shall use creativity to drive the intellectual spine of the entire show as well as use traditional performing arts to express a contemporary theme”
On strategies being adopted to realize the people’s carnival, Bakare hinted that letters have since been dispatched to state governors and their directors of arts councils on the need to realize funds and package the troupes respectively. He added that already, experts are being recruited to train participants at the grassroots level, and that the carnival would not just be a government affair but that of the people.
Said Bakare “This is a people’s carnival and what we shall do is to use our traditional culture to generate and showcase quality entertainment for the public. In essence, we hope to meet the yearnings of our people, particularly the youth.
So the idea is to begin to make people to look forward to each edition of the carnival…people should begin to see it as a new cultural event that is energized and buoyed by the relics of our tradition. But we don’t want to look back when the whole world is looking forward”
While explaining that the 2009 carnival will set the tone and mood for the proposed 50th independence anniversary of Nigeria as a nation, Bakare said “ We shall ensure a total celebration of Nigeria during the carnival. Nigeria would be 50 in 2010, so we shall use this year’s carnival to prepare the minds of our people for a bigger golden jubilee celebrations in 2010 and our promoters (London- based ENP Project) is working seriously in this direction.
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