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NCAC to develop national calendar for cultural festivals

by Atqnews
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By Wale Olapade
THE Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Mrs Dayo Keshi, has promised to double the organisation’s efforts at rebranding the Nigerian cultural potentialities, to not only serve as attractions to tourists, but also revenue generation for the economy.

The NCAC boss, who was a guest at the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP’s) national conference, which was held in Calabar, Cross River State recently, spoke on the richness and benefits in identifying, building and developing the country’s cultural sector.

The DG’s passion to bring about change to the NCAC through different innovation was bare out at the conference, where she promised to develop a national calendar for festivals in order to pave the way for tourists patronising Nigerian arts and cultural destinations.
According to Keshi, “the truth of the matter is that festivals are not too many in any country that has strong cultural base like Nigeria. You do know very well that most of our small communities have cultural festivals, and when you go round the country, you will find out it is their way of life.

“Again, the truth of the matter is simple; we will continue to develop national festivals; we will focus our energy, publicity and everything on such festivals.

“We can easily run 200 festivals. We will give special consideration for NAFEST; we know this is a festival that brings the country together in arts.
“Therefore, what we are saying is that NAFEST is the mother of all festivals, but we are going to pick and highlight other festivals from different parts of the country.

“The calendar is, therefore, important because, for instance, when a tourist misses a festival in January, he/she will have something to come and see in the next couple of months.
On how to use the tourism content to generate revenue, Mrs Keshi explained that there is something unique about content, and tourism has always been a strong engine through which other allied industries develop.

“When I say structure, I mean we have to calendar our events; we have to identify the ingredients that will bring success to the sector. It’s not done because you think you want to have a festival, but for every festival, there should be a structural committee that has as its sole responsibility the assignment to ensure the success of the festival.

“Of course, when you talk of festival, you have to take it to its natural environment. I spoke on the national festival of Durbar, I will think the natural environment of the Durbar festival should be in the North, without mentioning any particular state because it would thrive better there, just like the boat regatta will thrive better in the riverine areas and for the masquerade, it would thrive better in the East because they have the biggest of these things there.”

Mrs Keshi added that “once there is a calendar, tourists will know when to visit a destination; now, the tourism ministry will be supported to sustain the calendar, which highlights that if you come on March 6, there will be Durbar.

“So for us, we are going to work hard to drive this vision so that we will be at the minds of tourists at all times and also keep our calendar prompt year after year.

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