From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Cross River State government says plans are afoot to expand cultural activities in the state with various new yam festivals by communities in the state.
The state commissioner for Tourism Abubakar Robert Ewa disclosed this in his office when he played host to the Central Committee of the 2024 Ukelle New Yam Festival.
Abubakar Ewa said the visit by the committee is timely because the Ministry is drawing up its calendar for the year.
“Our governor, Senator Prince Bassey Otu is passionate about the culture, customs and heritage of our people and we as a ministry are working in tandem in that direction to expand our cultural activities.
“The state”s Tourism calendar is ever ready to take in more worthwhile festivals”, he said.
He added that the Mbube new yam festival and Bakassi festival were added to the calendar last year after a visit to those festivals and and promised to grace the Ukelle New Yam festival to see things for himself.
Earlier, Miss Beatrice Akpala, the alternate Chairman of the 2024 Ukelle New Yam Festival said the purpose of the visit is to acquaint the commissioner with events of the Ukelle New Yam Festival which is elaborately celebrated every year on the 16th of September with fanfare and elegance by the Ukelle communities.
She added that the festival is marked with a variety of cultural activities and would want to centralise it for inclusion in the state’s tourism calendar.
“All communities in Ukelle are agrarian and each year our farmers cultivate large farms and harvest fat yams.
“The new yam festival popularly called the “Ukelle Day” is a colourful cultural festival that holds across the Ukelle communities on the 16th of September every year”, she said.
She specifically invited the Tourism Commissioner as the Special Guest of Honour for the 2024 festival to observe and appraise the content of the festival with the hope of adding it to the state’s tourism calendar.