29th December, 2022
Ehigimetor Igbaugba/NAN
Fun seekers who trooped out in their thousands to witness this year’s Calabar carnival have bemoaned the inability of Governor Ben-Ayade-led government to light up the city, especially the possession routes of the carnival.
Some of the fun seekers spoke in separate interviews in Calabar on Wednesday, day six of the annual carnival.
The respondents noted that the non-functional street lights on the routes robbed the carnival which started on a high note during the day of the shine it deserved.
They noted that the government should have done better by ensuring the functionality of the street lights long before the carnival period.
A respondent, Mr. Pascal Bajie, an entrepreneur based in Calabar regretted that the 2022 edition of the carnival which last took place in 2019 lacked the usual glamour.
He pointed out that before now the street lights that had only functioned occasionally for years should have been fixed for the purpose of the carnival.
According to him, I am actually disappointed in the government who are the organizers of the carnival, this amounts to a waste of time.
“There is no fun because we can’t even record the procession this night because of non-functional street lights.”
Similarly, Theresa Ogwu, who resides in Calabar said many of the fun-seekers who came from outside the state would be greatly disappointed with this outcome.
“The night activity was expected to be highly entertaining and fun to watch should there have been functional street lights.
“You can see how poor the illumination is on the carnival routes. It wasn’t like this in previous editions and the government ought to know better.
In previous editions, the streets’ lights are usually turned on even before 6 pm but it’s 7:30 pm now and the lights are not on,” she stated.
On his part, Mr. Andy Akin, a visitor to the town, who also bemoaned the absence of Street lights, said an international event like this that saw participants from no fewer than 14 countries should have better be organized.
It would be recalled that the annual carnival which started during the administration of Donald Duke, has not been held for the past two years.
The carnival was suspended in 2022 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic while no reason was given for the carnival not holding in 2021.
Efforts were still being made to put some facilities in place for the 2022 edition of the carnival which was hurriedly put up.
The 2022 edition of the carnival on Tuesday also suffered a tragic event when eight persons died and 29 were injured when a vehicle lost control and rammed into a crowd of onlookers.