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From Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has formally flagged off this year’s Carnival Calabar amid mourning of people who lost their lives yesterday at the Bikers’ Carnival.
The flag off ceremony took place at the Eleven-Eleven Round-about in Calabar and the governor was accompanied by the daughter of the President, Zahra Buhari Indimi.
The Governor, who justified the theme of this year’s Carnival, which is Agro-Industralization, said time has come for Africa to put an end to the primitive way of processing agricultural products.
In his words: “Why do you grow cassava, take a tuber of it and process it into garri and make one thousand naira and somebody else takes it, processed it into pharmaceutical starch and makes one thousand dollars.
“So what Ayade is saying is time has come when Africans should put an end to this primitive way of processing their products.
“The true value of any agro produce is to take it to it’s end product”, the governor said.
The flag off ceremony was preceded by a one minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives during the Calabar Bikers tragedy.
Seven bands are competing for this year’s Calabar fiester including Diamond, Calasvegas, Freedom, Passion 4, Master Blaster, Base Side and Seagul.
