The Northern Cross River State Festival (NORTHFEST), has been identified as catalyst to boost the agricultural potentials and tourism of the state.
The festival, which maiden edition, will take place in Ogoja, from the 28 September,2017, is expected to bring to the fore the agricultural strength of the state.
Disclosing this in a meeting in Calabar to fine tune final preparations for the festival which is expected to take from Thursday, 28th September in Ogoja, the headquarters of the northern senatorial district of the state, the Chairman of the central planning committee, and Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters, Ntufam Peter Ojie, said the northern part of Cross River is the hub of agricultural tourism.
According to him NorthFEST will bring to the fore the agricultural strength of the state and promote our agricultural potentials to boost agricultural tourism.
To this end, he noted that the event is created to promote the rich cultural, agricultural and tourism potentials which the state, and particularly the northern part of Cross River is endowed with, by showcasing such to the rest of the country and the world.
Ntufam Ojie listed the activities lined up for celebration to include;Best Farmer Competition, Traditional Dance competition, Festival Float, Parade of Age Grades, Best Cuisine competition, Palm wine competition, Novelty match and Mr. and Mrs. NORTHFEST Beauty Pageant competition.
The Chairman noted further that the festival has been planned to meet International standard and also to enable the state government key in the agricultural revolution of Governor Ben Ayade and the Federal government.
He further disclosed as one of the major highlight of the festival to include cultural Dance float in the 5 component local government areas of the northern part of Cross River.
He said, “the cultural Dance float will be a display of the rich traditional dances indigenous to the different ethnic nationalities.
“It is a cultural Dance carnival that shall be staged simultaneously on the 28th of September 2017,in Bekwarra, Ogoja, Yala,Obudu and Obanliku. It’s an activity that depicts cultural renaissance in these LGAs,” Ojie added.
The festival is expected to be held every last Saturday of September each year.
NORTHFEST is an initiative of Governor Ben Ayade’s administration aimed at creating closer bonding, spirit of collectivity and motivation as well as unification of the good people of Northern Cross River in particular and Cross Riverians in general.
