Residents of Port Harcourt express concern about carnival’s cancellation

Some residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State say the cancellation of the annual carnival by the State Government has affected recreational and tourist activities in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that a carnival, Carniriv, used to hold every December in Port Harcourt under the immediate past administration in the state.
The residents observed that the event, described as biggest after Carnival Calabar, was cancelled by the present administration of Governor Nyesom Wike.
The residents, who spoke with NAN on Monday, said the importance of the carnival in the life of the people should have been considered before the cancellation.
They said the carnival attracted many local and foreign tourists and investors to the city, which increased economic activities.
According to them, the event does not only showcase the state and the people’s cultures to would-be investors.
A hotel owner, Chris Tamuno, said he upgraded his hotel in anticipation of accommodating many tourists that would have visited the city, but was disappointed by the cancellation.
Tamuno said: “I never had the slightest premonition that the annual event would be cancelled, especially as the state government is doing all it could to impress the people.
“Instead of outright cancellation, government ought to have reduced the budget by trimming down the size of the events.”
Nath Uwaifo, a commercial bus driver, said with the influx of visitors in December during the period of Carniriv, his daily income always tripled, saying that the story had changed negatively this season.
Uwaifo said the authorities ought to have considered the economic benefits the festival impacted on both residents and government.
“Rather than featuring street parade and freestyle parade among others, government would have paid for only cultural and musical shows for people to have fun and relax,” he said.
Esther Ebite, who sells recharge cards, said she had purchased enough cards in anticipation that the festival would hold.
Ebite said she usually made more sales as a result of high influx of people and commercial activities in the city during the festival.
Ebite, a student of the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, explained that she habitually used the money she made during the carnival to pay her tuition fees in the new semester but regretted that the cancellation had caused her hardship.
Dr. Fyneface Briggs, a civil servant, said government decision to cancel the festival was a right one, especially as the economy could no longer accommodate “frivolous spending”.
According to Briggs, such funds should be used to pay salaries and in sustainable ventures that would have direct and long term impact on the people.
NAN.