Cross River State governor Ben Ayade yesterday flagged off the first dry run for the 2022 Carnival Calabar, marking the return of the biggest African street party (Carnival Calabar) since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 which caused the state government to stop the carnival.
At the ceremony, the state chief executive stated that the theme of the 2022 carnival “Agro Industrialisation”, was carefully chosen to send a message to the global community that Africans can be self-reliant when it comes to feeding themselves.
While lamenting the over dependence on other continents of the world for food, the state governor stated that the continent of Africa didn’t need to depend on any western nation for survival particularly in the area of food to eat, given the vast arable land and abundant human and material resources that the continent has been endowed with by God.
He stressed that with,”Agro-Industrialisation” Africa can remain self-sustaining without any need to depend on any western nation to survive.
In his words, “Today, we have great reasons to celebrate because Cross River is gathered yet again, to invent the charm that characterizes creativity.
“The theme for this year is agro-industrialization and indeed, agro-industrialization is the way to go.
“For any nation that is committed and serious, that is the way to go. The greatest insecurity is hunger. There is no insecurity more threatening to man than the insecurity of hunger.
“The war between Ukraine and Russia led to scarcity of grains, this means that by the onset of 2023, the nation will be in big trouble.
“Therefore, I see a harbinger of scarcity, hunger and pain, grinding people to their zenith in terms of criminality and animalism”.
Ayade urged the people of the state to work towards choosing an indigene of Cross River South senatorial district of the state to succeed him in 2023 stressing that it’s the only way to go.
In his earlier remarks, the executive secretary of Calabar Carnival Commission, Mr Austin Cobham, stated that this year’s dry run is the mother of all dry runs due to the additional bands added to boost the carnival.
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