The tragedy that sullied the just concluded 2022 session of the annual Calabar Carnival has made a review of the modalities for organising the festival mandatory. At the end of the festival, which lasted from December 1 to 31, 2022, the ‘Passion 4 Carnival Band’ was declared the winning team. However, the outcome of the fiesta was sullied by a development that qualifies not only as a national embarrassment but also as an anticlimax to expectations from the exercise.
An automobile accident that occurred on the 27th day of the fiesta involved 29 victims, seven of whom died on the spot while various degrees of injuries were sustained by others comprising 21 men, three women, two young males and three young females. According to the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Maikano Hassan, whose team rushed the victims to the Naval Hospital Calabar and the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, one of the young ladies that survived the accident eventually died in the hospital raising the death toll to eight.
According to a witness account, the incident occurred during one of the highlights of the fiesta – when the bikers’ parade had reached the front of the Jumat Mosque, and a driver who was intent on watching the proceedings from his moving truck, lost control and rammed into the unsuspecting, cheering crowd. News reports indicated that several of the victims who lost their lives in the incident were among the worshipers at the mosque.
In a swift reaction through a press statement signed by his media adviser and Chief Press Secretary, Barrister Christian Ita, the governor of Cross River State Ben Ayade, ordered immediate stoppage of the bikers parade and investigation into the incident. In the statement, Ayade sympathised with the victims of the accident and their families, while he queried how ‘the motorist was able to get through security barricades to have access to the routes which were closed to the public.” Expectedly, the incident attracted scenes of street rage as members of the public rose up in anger – a development that forced Ayade to call for calm.
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Beyond Ayade, not a few observers were disappointed by the incident of the accident on the grounds that it was essentially avoidable if the organisers had placed a premium on the legal, and moral obligations they owe each and every spectator that attended the fiesta. This consideration enjoys bold relief when seen against the elaborate build-up to the fiesta, especially the direct involvement of the Cross River State Government. The least that was expected of the organisation was a premium on the safety and welfare of the spectators as no one came there to die but to partake of culture and tradition. It is on this ground that the query by the governor on how the motorist breached the security cordon around the carnival route enjoys credence, and calls for a comprehensive review of the fiesta in terms of organisation.
Started in 2004 by the administration of Donald Duke, the former governor of Cross River State, the Calabar Carnival which is also often referred to as the ‘Pride of Nigeria’, is an annual carnival held in Calabar. The carnival holds every December as an activity to mark the Christmas celebrations. From inception, it provided scope for participation for other states in Nigeria as well as interested parties from other countries.
Against the backdrop of the foregoing the future it is clear that the future hosting of the carnival needs to be guided by lessons from the tragedy of the 2022 version. The starting point of such a dispensation should be preceded by a commission of inquiry to unravel the remote and proximate factors that led to the ugly incident. We also advise that all further hosting of the carnival should be put on hold until the issue of safety of every participant and spectator, and especially of the communities within the vicinities of the event, is guaranteed and efforts made to address whatever infrastructural drawbacks around the exercise.
Daily Trust expresses its heartfelt sympathy to the families of the departed as we pray that the Almighty God will grant them the fortitude to bear the loss of their beloved ones. We particularly commend the leaders of the Hausa community, whose members were most affected in the tragedy, for working to forestall any escalation arising from the incident. The government should consider compensating all those affected by this tragedy. Nigeria must learn to uphold the sanctity of human life in all circumstances and avoid the needless deaths of citizens.
