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Police, LASTMA, Others Commended As Lagos Carnival Planning Committee Submits Report

May 31, 2010 - The Planning Committee of the first Lagos Carnival Monday submitted its report to the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), with the State's Tourism and Inter-Governmental Affairs Commissioner, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, describing the event as a huge success for Lagos.

Some of the highlights of the colourful Lagos Carnival which took place on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, included a Boat Regatta, a Beauty Pageant and a Children's Carnival all of which drew hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators both from within and outside the State.

Senator Afikuyomi, who spoke to newsmen after the submission of the report which took place at Lagos House, Marina, said the Carnival, considering that it was the first of its kind in the State, recorded a resounding success, especially, "in terms of domestic tourism" for the State.

"The report submitted today clearly shows that Lagos has been very successful in terms of commencing and establishing the growing of domestic tourism. Part of what came out of it is a clear evidence that during the period of the Easter holidays, which has now been designated on a yearly basis as Carnival Week, which includes Boat Regatta, Beauty Pageant and the rest of them, will compel everybody to go out there and get involved and entertained", the Commissioner said adding, "I will say that in terms of domestic tourism, the Carnival is extremely good news for Lagos".

Noting that there could be various lapses here and there in the execution of the event, the Commissioner declared, "This is normal and standard with every event, particularly when it is the first time", adding "Even those who do it every year, there is always room for improvement".

"The challenges were there and people were able to rise to those challenges. Our services were strained, but they succeeded largely; the services in terms of LASTMA, the services in terms of LASWA, the Water Infrastructure, the Emergency Response Service, the Police and everybody that was involved; it was a huge success and on the part of Lagosians, it was an extremely successful event and I think the Lagos State Government has been able to achieve beyond expectation the objective and desire of the event", he said.

He said one of the recommendations of the Committee was to begin early to prepare for next year's event adding that the Governor has, accordingly, reconstituted the Committees to begin now to make preparations for the 2011 Lagos Carnival.

"The good thing about it is that all of us now know the date for next year's event, there is no more waiting as we now know when these things are going to be; so preparations have begun. This is important because the one for this year, we had little time to plan it, but there is a whole year to plan for the next one and prepare for it", he said.

The Commissioner said there is also a recommendation to establish a permanent infrastructure for the event - the Lagos Carnival, the Regatta and the Black Heritage events - as well as the conservation and continuous use of the facilities and infrastructure such as the cloths, the effigies and the rest of them as well as the trained manpower in terms of artisans, costume designers and producers.

Earlier, while also fielding questions from newsmen after submitting the report, the Chairman of the Lagos Festival Committee, Mr. Disun Holloway, said in terms of the objectives of the Carnival, which, according to him, were twofold – the economic effect on the people of Lagos State and for Lagosians to have fun – the event was a success.

"In terms of fun, you will agree with me that Lagosians had fun from the events and in terms of the economic aspect of it, so many people were employed, the people that fabricated the effigies and designed the cloths that we used, let me say here that nothing was imported, everything was produced here. We didn't bring in any supervisors, everything was done by students of the Skill Acquisition Centres in Lagos State", the Chairman said.

He said another success recorded in the event was in terms of security adding that although a lot of people vilify the Police, that event brought out the best in the Police. "If you noticed, there was a brief period of blackout, the Police were there, and they switch on their vehicle headlights and ensured that everybody was out of the arena. The Police did very well on that day and they should be commended for it", he said.

The Chairman also commended the Medical team saying there were ambulances for every of the more than 36 Carnival Troupe that day as well as good doctors, adding that though there wasn't any major accidents that day, the little ones that happened were taken care of immediately.

Also commending LAGBUS, LASTMA as well as well as the other agencies for a job well done the Chairman said although there were lapses, such lapses were not totally unexpected being the first time, but assured that they would be rectified in subsequent outings.

"Essentially, without speaking for His Excellency, I think he was fairly satisfied with the report", he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairman of the Boat Regatta Committee, Engineer Olusegun Jawando, a member of the Committee, Mrs. Folasade Odebiyi, also described the event as a big success pointing out that the Committee took charge and made sure that there was no major accident.

She said apart from providing all that equipment to ensure an accident-free Regatta, the event provided an opportunity for the people of Lagos to see the benefits that the waterways can provide for them, especially in terms of business opportunities.

For subsequent Boat Regattas, she said the Committee recommended the participation of more people, especially from the riverine areas of the State. "We plan to use the Local Government to bring out the rural people, especially from the riverine areas; we will make all of them to come out to see what Lagos State really has got to offer".

Chairman of the Beauty Pageant Committee, Mr. Olatunde Fashina, in his remarks, said being the first of its kind in the State, the event achieved all its set objectives adding that although there were some lapses, the event formed a foundation on which future events would be built.

Also speaking on the Children's Carnival, the Committee Chairperson, Mrs. Aduke Gomez, said the event provided a lot of fun for the children adding that the Committee recommended the participation of more school in next year's event.

According to her, the two and half hours walk provided "fantastic experience for the children", adding, "Next year, more children will participate because many schools are already asking to be invited and we are going to make more fantastic costumes for the event".