Plans For the 3rd Offot Ukwa Culture and Arts Festival Underway
...Paramount Ruler Urges Villages, Stakeholders To Ensure Success
The clan head of Offot Ukwa and Paramount Ruler of Uyo Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, His Royal Majesty, Edidem Sylvanus Effiong Okon, JP has called on the 22 villages in the clan, stakeholders and all indigenes to team up to ensure the success of the upcoming clan’s festival.
Edidem Okon, who spoke when he received the preliminary reports for the third Offot Ukwa Clan Festival of Arts and Culture with the motto, Celebrating Unity & Cultural Legacy, emphasised that the cultural festival offers the clan a unique opportunity for a renaissance in all facets of life.
The royal father commended the central planning committee (CPC) for the plans marshalled out for the festival and urged all the 22 village heads, chairmen of village councils, village youth presidents, and leaders of women to mobilise their people to participate effectively in the upcoming fiesta.
Also speaking at the meeting held at the Palace of the Paramount ruler, the chairman of the Offot Ukwa Clan Council of Chiefs, Eteidung (Rev) Aniedi Edet Okon, assured the central planning committee of the solidarity of the clan council towards ensuring the success of the programme.
Eteidung Okon said he was also happy to note that the CPC has listed names of prominent sons and daughters of Offot Ukwa in all walks of life to be invited for a stakeholder meeting to further galvanise and mobilize indigenes towards the success of the event.
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Briefing the paramount ruler and clan council, the chairman of the central planning committee (CPC), Elder Patrick Albert, outlined the framework and key objectives of the arts and culture festival, explaining that the Offot Ukwa Festival will be multi-disciplinary in content.
Albert, a senior journalist and former chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council, said the festival will cover arts and culture.
“Accordingly, we intend to feature, music, dance, theatre, arts and recreational games covering traditional and modern sports. Participation will be opened to our villages, individuals and groups.
“The scope of organisation will conform to local and international festivals. Festivals as we are set to organise, offer effective ways for communities to exhibit their cultural potential as well as promote their uniqueness and identity. Festivals also enhance unity and promote the identity of the people.
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“Festivals are of economic value to the communities in which they are organized. It constitutes avenues for commercial activities thereby boosting the socio-economic growth of host communities. As socio-economic ventures, festivals through their inherent value chains create employment and business opportunities as well as bring host communities into the local and global spotlight,” he said.
The chairman, therefore, said that the CPC plans to drive the 2022 Offot Ukwa Festival of Arts & Culture towards promoting and creating socio-economic opportunities for participating villages, individuals and groups.
With him at the briefing session with the clan council was the secretary of the CPC, Mrs Nkereuwem Bassey, and a staff of the Akwa Ibom State Council for Arts and Culture as well as other members of the committee.
