From Joe Effiong, Uyo
Governor Umo Eno of Akwa-Ibom State has said that the annual Christmas Carol Festival, which is touted by many to be a money guzzler, would henceforth employ the services of indigenous entertainers. This, he said, would drastically reduce the cost of hosting the event as emphasis would no longer be on foreign artistes, as was the practice in the past.
The carol, which was the brainchild of former Governor Godswill Akpabio, and wholly adopted by his successor, former Governor Udom Emmanuel, was alleged to have gulped billions of naira since its inception, with a larger chunk of the money paid as appearance fees and fare to foreign gospel artistes and other musicians that were usually brought from all parts of the world to perform during the event.
It is instructive that while the foreign artistes and preachers, including those from other states of the federation, usually smiled home with millions of naira, the home-based artistes and choristers, who form the bulk of the choirs, were usually paid a pittance, sometimes as low as N5000, through some middlemen who also nibbled a part of it oftentimes.
The Christmas Carol was reported to have broken the Guinness World Record on Saturday, December 13, 2014, when it gathered 25,272 singers that formed a mass choir tagged “Akwa Ibom Unity Choir,” at Uyo Township Stadium.
After Christmas songs such as First Noel, O’ Christmas Tree, Joy to the World and Come All Ye Faithful, among others, the Guinness Book of World Record adjudicator, Liz Smith, openly congratulated the state and announced that the choir had amazingly broken the world record as the largest Christmas Carol singing group.
The then governor, Akpabio, had excitedly said: “We broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of carol singers ever in the world. This momentous feat was achieved when Akwa Ibom people, drawn from all the nooks and crannies of the state, came together in the spirit of love and brotherhood. I believe that, if we imbibe the virtue of love and stand together in brotherhood in the New Year, we would keep setting records and the walls of division, which have been erected by some selfish politicians, would tumble down.”
Considering the humongous amount of money that has so far gone into hosting of the festival, citizens are now asking for the benefits of the world record. They also want to know what the state has made from the angle of religious tourism, touted by promoters as the carol’s major attraction.
To douse citizens’ tension and agitation, Eno, who is also a pastor, has promised that, beginning from this year, the Christmas Carol Festival would prominently feature home-based gospel artistes. This, he said, would encourage creativity and give them international exposure.
Addressing the congregation at the All Nations Christian Ministry International, aka The Lord’s Kitchen, during a combined praise and worship/communion service held in the Eket Local Government Area worship centre, Eno hinted that a committee would be inaugurated to work towards the successful hosting of the 2023 Christmas Carol Festival. He pointed out that invitation would be extended mostly to the home-based churches to enable them to perform at the event.
He gave the assurance that the event would be unique because of its potential to provide a veritable ground for indigenous gospel music artistes to showcase their talents and launch themselves to the world on a bigger stage.
“This year’s Christmas Carol Festival will have a little tweak. I would like us to localise our Christmas carol this year and I will tell you how we are going to do it. We will use that platform to promote and raise our local talents. It’s a big platform that people all over the world will come to stay tuned to.
“I want to promote our local talents. So, in the 2023 Christmas Carol, we will look at churches. We will let all the churches get ready; the big and small churches, we will invite them, let all of us come out.
“We will invite the Apostolic, Qua Iboe, Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran and other churches. Let it be a stage to bring all churches together. Beyond the normal hymns, I will like to see creativity,” he said.
The governor had earlier delivered a homily on the topic: “The God of New Beginning,” drawn from Gen 1:1-5, where he noted that any beginning without God was bound to fail.
He, therefore, called on Christians to recognise the place of God in their lives, saying: “As a state, if we must begin well, then God must take the center stage. Any beginning that has no God is doomed.”
Eno reminded the people that consistency, dedication and hard work, should be a virtue, which everybody should desire, even as he stressed that the God of new beginning rewards patience in due course.
As a prelude to the exhortation, an American-based gospel preacher, Sister Rose Umoh, spoke on the topic “Your Kairos Time Has Come.” She picked her text from Eccl 9:11, assuring that Kairos time, which represents an appointed time and visitation of God, would meet all those, who are faithful in their life’s endeavours.
Gospel singers and other artistes in the state have expressed joy over the new development, even as they expressed fear that even the new arrangement could be hijacked by those who had been manipulating the system for years.
A gospel artiste and senior pastor of a Pentecostal church in Uyo, the Citadel, Abraham Isong, described the arrangement as a good development, provided a fresh and neutral committee would be set up to midwife the event.
“This is because members of the standing committee already in place have their friends and contacts, who they would readily invite to perform at the event, thereby defeating the aim of promoting local contents.
“The new committee should go round the federal constituencies and the senatorial districts to do some auditioning in order to select artistes from across the entire state in a fair representative manner, instead of sitting down and inviting those they already know.
“Similarly, the aim would be defeated if the remuneration is scaled down, simply because the artiste is from the state. Let’s take, for example, they would invite Don Moen and pay him the equivalent of about N50 million, and he will perform one or two songs. The indigenous artiste would perform even at a longer period but they would grudgingly give him or her about N50,000, simply because he is a local musician. It shows that we don’t want our people to grow. I believe that that attitude would change. Let’s begin to pay our artistes equally well,” Isong said.
An upcoming female artiste, Abasiofiok Emah, while describing the governor’s proposal as awesome, however, reasoned that only the local artistes who are humble and ready to learn should be engaged.
“God bless His Excellency. That has been a burden in my heart. We have good talents here, so why ignore us and bring complete strangers to do the same thing we are good at? It’s an awesome development. At least, people will be given opportunities to make mistakes, get corrected and do better; that is, the humble ones; not the I-know-it-all that cannot be corrected,” Emah said.
A popular musician in the state, Sir Wilker Jackson, praised the governor for the new direction, even as he lamented that he has not been invited to such an event since he is not a gospel artiste. He appealed that the local artistes should equally be treated fairly.
Poor treatment of local artistes and comedians appears to be legendary in Akwa Ibom by the government event’s organisers. It once reached a point in the days of Obong Victor Attah in where one musician, the late Lucky Ben, had to wax a song to lament the fate and ill-treatment of the local musicians in the state.
It is only in December that the real impact of the Eno’s fresh approach to the Akwa Ibom Christmas Carol Festival would be seen; whether the local artistes and church choirs would be able to make the event worth the while or whether it would readily result in strident calls for a return to status quo ante.
Uyo, the state capital, now has two stadia – the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium and the newly remodeled Uyo Township Stadium, plus the Ibom Hall Ground, all of which had been used to host the carol in the past.
But, a day before signing out, the then governor, Emmanuel, led the clergy and the entire Christian community in the state to inaugurate and dedicate a gigantic international worship centre built by the state government. The final cost of the building was not disclosed, but more than N1 Billion was budgeted initially for the project that took about six years to be partially put together, at least for inauguration.
It is not known whether the Akwa Ibom Christmas Carol Festival would still be hosted at its former venues or it would be moved to the international worship centre called Noah’s Ark, at least to put the expensive project to regular use. Whatever happens lies in the belly of time.