State Commissioners for Arts and Culture in the 36 states on Monday in Abuja disagreed on the date of the 33rd edition of the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST).
Plateau State, which is hosting the event, had fixed December, but was asked yesterday to move it to November.
Daily Trust reports that the annual festival, organized by the National Council for Arts and Culture in collaboration with state, is usually held in October.
However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Plateau State Government has shifted the festival to December.
Plateau State Commissioner for Tourism, Culture and Hospitality, Tamwakat Weli, at the first online stakeholders’ technical meeting in preparation for the event yesterday, said: “We had earlier slated the month of October for this national fiesta. But in view of the present reality, we’re constrained to adjust the time to December. This is to enable us perfect all logistic arrangements while observing developments in respect to the fight for the eradication of the COVID-19 pandemic “.
But Zamfara State Commissioner for Culture Saidu Bawa urged that the event be shifted to November 2020 to enable all participate “since December date will be too cumbersome, especially for those states that have already lined up programmes.”
Cross River State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Eric Anderson and his Borno counterpart corroborated Bawa’s position.
Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, said all the issues raised would be looked into, particularly the date issue with a decision reached and communicated to all parties appropriately.
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