Right inside Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power, the carnival floats moved in a long procession that obstructed the flow of traffic.Yet there were neither complaints nor panic from residents.

The entire city stood still for hours as people- workers, traders, transporters, students, women and children- trooped out in thousands to receive state contingents that made the street show of the just concluded Abuja Carnival a huge success.

The road show, which featured a spectacular display of fashion, dance, music, drumming etc became a pleasant novelty to Abuja residents equally brought them close to their culture, with many of them savouring the the rich artistic and cultural products from different parts of the country.

This year’s Abuja Carnival, packaged by the Professor Ojo Rasaki Bakare-led management gave the country a refreshing showcase of culture. It also provided a people-oriented carnival which rallied professionals from various sectors of the economy, despite the denial of funds by the federal government. As a carnival of unity and spectacle, the yearly event once again brought 33 states of the federation to Abuja with thousands of artistes and professionals fully engaged in culture promotion. For the frst time since inception of the carnival, the 2009 edition also added two major events-polo tournament and cultural night-which made it more artistically engaging and economically attractive to investors and the business world.

From the long list of events-boat regatta, the durbar, children,s variety show, masquerades display, art, craft and food fair, musical shows and the command performance, the carnival this year provided a new platform for greater interaction among the states, in addition to facilitating cooperation between Nigeria and such countries as Ghana, Egypt and South Africa.The three countries were fully represented and were quite entertaining during the street show, cultural night and the command performance which held at Transcorp Hotel. While the Ghanaians thrilled elaborately with their local tunes, kente fabrics and costumes,

the South Africans somehow seduced the audience with their romantic Zulu dancesteps. For the Egyptians, the team of stick weilding men and beautiful dancers once again thrilled the mixed audience \with gesture, movement and well choreographed dances. It would be recollected that the Egyptians stormed last year’s Abuja Carnival with equal vigour and brotherly love, to which Nigerians responded so warmly.

While many of the state contingents made efforts to excel during the carnival, only a handful of them were actually outstanding in the diverse categories. States such as Nasarawa, Rivers, Oyo, Plateau, Osun and FCT Abuja were exhibited skill and colour with their floats, costumes and symbols. For example, the crowd could hardly forget the spectacular pottery factory by Nasarawa, the large talking drum with the animated drummer by Oyo, the Shark fish by Rivers, among many others. In the same way, participants would continue to share good memories of highly creative dancesteps by artistes drawn from the National Troupe as well as those

from Rivers, Nasarawa, Plateau, Katisina, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Cross River states. However, Kebbi state drew the ire of the organisers when the Director General disqualified Kebbi state contingent for presenting magic and circus instaed of a dance/musical show. Meanwhile, states like Ogun, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Abia were said to be absent due to non release of funds by their respective state governments.

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