In what was a total shutdown of the city of Calabar, over a million revellers thronged the 12-kilometre route to watch an endless stretch of carnival bands that were on hand to interpret this year’s theme of “Migration Through Drama and Dance.”
Apart from the crowds that greeted the biggest street party in Africa, there was also an addition of four non-competing bands, bringing the total number of bands to nine.
Significantly, the 2017 carnival also played host to a 1,500-man contingent from Imo State that came to understudy the annual event.
Flagging off the event at the Millennium Park, Calabar, Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, said that Africa was blessed and rich; he wondered why young men and women had reasons to leave its shores.
Ayade, who, after the launch of the annual event, led the bands through the carnival routes amid cheers, declared that that, “Africa is so blessed and rich. Sometimes, we begin to wonder why young Africans go through the Mediterranean sea, Sahara desert through Morocco and other difficult routes finding themselves in Libya, used as slaves and reduced to sub-humans. We must put an end to that.”
Stressing that Africa is the future and the only continent that has everything, the governor enjoined young men and women to “put an end to migration, and rather come to Calabar, as we have provisions for jobs and have created opportunities, as politicians and people in government, for you to have good jobs so that you can stay back here.”
To African leaders at all levels, Ayade maintained that “we have a responsibility to reverse the trend associated with migration for that is what the theme of this year is telling us.
“As we watch the bands dance and tell their story in a dramatic form, we want to see the interpretation, which is the ultimate aim.
“This year’s carnival is not just about dancing and celebrating, but telling a very painful and sorrowful story as it relates to migration. In due time, Africa will rule the world.”
Advocating the return of migrant Africans to their respective countries instead of taking risks through perilous roads in the quest for greener pastures, Ayade said, “governments of Africa will continue to make efforts at ensuring that they return, we shall, we will and will do so.”

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