Continued from last Monday
Talking Dakkada, one sees the can-do spirit all over the festival. One imagines again and again how Ibom Hall Arena became the permanent home of the annual event and just how what was hitherto discarded as too small a space now comfortably seats a 35,000-strong crowd, and one is left to internalise the fact that nothing is impossible. What about the 100% youth workforce and the synergy and maturity they evince year after year? You never hear any bickering over money, unlike when our politicians mismanage sharing formula for far fewer people.
There’s so much to glean from Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival. That is, beyond the spiritual and aesthetic benefits. One is that Mr. Mkpanang shows real leadership; the way he’s able to mobilise, motivate, guide, retain and sustain the massive number of all-young workers before, during and after the event -year in, year out. And, wait for it, most of these youngsters are volunteers!
In a society where youths are generally disrespected as lazy, half-baked and miserly, Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival ought to be studied as a model and adopted as the way to go in social mobilisation, integration and reward. Our young people have so much in them that they would willingly contribute once the leadership is right, sensitive, sensible, honest and accessible. You may reread those two sentences again. Just how is Mr. Aniekpeno Tom Mkpanang able to gather, lead and demobilise such a huge team year after year without any rancour and scandal?
Our politicians should be asking that question and borrowing a leaf from the answer -whatever it is. Our society shall perform better and faster with a people who are focused, united and hardworking. And, only honest, intentional and fair-minded leadership can make that happen. Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival has in 13 years proved that and above every reasonable and even unreasonable doubt.
Returning to the issue of what critics say was the humongous cost of edition 2021, the first reaction is an Akwa Ibom adage: when the soup is delicious, something else died. No need to guess: that dead something else is called cost. Or, can the best chef give you omelette sans first breaking eggs? There’s another angle.
In the tour interview alluded to earlier, we came to a point Mr. Mkpanang showed would hang three banners of sponsors. He mentioned the two banks (Zenith and Fidelity) that co-sponsored the event. When I asked why there would be three banners, he mentioned Dakkada, which, of course, forced me to demand how much naira and kobo the mental reengineering creed (propounded by Gov. Udom Emmanuel) had contributed in sponsorship. His response was typically iconic.
‘Look, Michael, let me say this. Imagine you bought me a shirt and later you wanted that shirt back, I could easily return it or the money. But, if you taught me, e.g. the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina, I would neither ever forget you nor be able to pay you for that knowledge. Dakkada’s sponsorship contribution is priceless; is unquantifiable!’
That’s it! While organisers should be more and more cost-conscious, going forward, people should know good things cost good money. Furthermore, the criticism -that the money spent on the event shall have better served another area of more urgent need- is tantamount to playing to the gallery. Was that the subhead of the budget provision plus what guarantees are there that diverting the festival cost would have solved that other need of 2021 as completely and beautifully and rewardingly as the event has?
In all though, Messrs Aniekpeno Tom Mkpanang (Project Coordinator), Raphael Edem, KSM (Head, Media & Main Anchor), Ebakabasi Etuk (Head, Technical), Edward Oduobuk (Accountant), Mrs. Daraeno Williams (Head of Administration), Yemi Adekolu (Location Architect, who supervised over 500 workers on the site) et al should never pander to the cost-saving defeatism of bringing down the global standard they have so effortlessly set. Rather, henceforth, they should do everything to make the state government minor sponsors. With its clout, Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival should attract sponsorship interests from the global nooks and crannies. A small, high-powered marketing team should be set up right away, charged with combing the world for we-all-know-what!
Also, DSTV should be targeted as a sponsor rather than a partner -whatever that means. More banks should be approached no matter whether we think them small, e.g. Globus and especially Titan that recently emerged from nowhere to swallow a whole union that we thought was so big, so strong, so reliable. Titan can today begin talks about sponsoring Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival 2022 to prove conclusively that it is truly bigger, stronger and more reliable -and accordingly, ready for any- and everything. Ditto, other corporate and high-end private citizens and even the masses: a hundred naira from a million prople or a thousand from half a million Akwaibomights could terminally end the discussion that the government spends too much on what is clearly the biggest festival on the face of the earth!
Similarly, people should henceforth pay to watch the event online. We should be selling television rights, not the other way round. A few people bad-mouth Akwa Ibom Christmas carols festival and ignore its cornucopia of gains because they think government spends too much on it. With 2022 as time to bury such insults eternally, the hypercreative organising team only need to start -today, now- planning differently and reaching out more widely not only for participants and guests but also most importantly for sponsorship!
That way, the organisers can go all out and give us the festival they have been restraining from. That way, the festival shall become a proud earner rather than a mere wasteful consumer that most critics dismiss it as. That way, our people can stop calculating non-existent figures and instead bask in the monumental, all-round value added by the festival to our state, nationally and internationally. God bless Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria!
(Concluded)
Thank you, 2021, but no thanks
When Year 2020 was at its goodbye threshold, this writer had said some things against it; wishing for it to hurry off the stage and make way for this, which was expected to be a whiff of fresh air. With the benefit of hindsight right now, we can only apologise to last year. Granted it was under the watch of 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the human race, but with just four days to go: is there any debate that 2021 has been much deadlier?
Do you know one family or person not dealt a sudden fatal blow by 2021? In 2020, we blamed the deaths on COVID19. Please, show me the scapething for all the unexpected deaths that 2021 brought on the world.
We are in haste to bid Year 2021 goodbye. Good riddance, the most tiresome, most tedious year. And, please, 2022: be different, be nice and be lively!