• Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Education
  • Health
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
Sunday, July 27, 2025
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
Elanza News
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Education
  • Health
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Education
  • Health
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Elanza News
Home Opinion

Opinion: Southern Kaduna Festival: A Bastion For Unity And Development

Ojimaojo Abubakar by Ojimaojo Abubakar
January 12, 2024
in Opinion
0
Opinion: Southern Kaduna Festival: A Bastion For Unity And Development
0
SHARES
107
VIEWS
FacebookTwitterWhatsappEmailTelegram

The maiden edition of the Southern Kaduna Festival (SKFest) was held from the 28th to the 30th of December, 2023 at the Kafanchan Township Stadium. Kudos to the initiators, organizers, and participants.

The colorful event was multifaceted and multipurpose: football competition, marathon race, traditional wrestling, archery, beauty pageantry, fashion parade, musical concert, cultural display, paper presentations, award presentations, etc. It attracted the attendance of highly placed dignitaries across Nigeria.

When I was drafted by the Solomon Musa-led SOKAPU as a member of the Constitution Amendment Committee sometime in 2017, I ensured that most of what SKFest is doing now was captured as recommendations in the report of the Committee. I am glad that some of these recommendations are beginning to come to fruition.

RelatedPosts

Safeguarding Lives at Sea — Proactive Solutions to Boat Mishaps in Nigeria’s Waters

George Mason University Honors Doctoral Candidate with Award for Excellence in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Azerbaijan invites Nigeria’s defence minister Matawalle for official visit

Southern Kaduna people have a diverse but intertwined cultural heritage that has not yet been harnessed for the collective benefit of the zone. The zone is yet to appreciate and utilize its economic potential; it is divided along political lines with no clear-cut implementable political and socio-economic work plan; it has seasoned and consummate politicians but without political leadership; it has many chiefdoms without cultural and ethnic cohesion; proliferation of annual cultural days and festivals by the heterogeneous ethnic nationalities and groups in the zone has become boring; tribal and dialectical differences remain a bane despite sharing substantially the same ethnicity; intra-faith denominational differences and prejudices still hold sway; and worse, inter-faith intolerance has held the zone backward for years. As a result of all these, the zone is witnessing retrogressive development.

ALSO READ:  Deposition of 3 Monarchs: Bello's Acting Like An emperor, His Understanding Of Democracy is Reduced- Usman Okai Austin

Therefore, the whole idea of this SKFest is to ensure that the people of Southern Kaduna extraction are united on many fronts, something that has eluded the zone for a long time.

The Festival will allow the indigenes of the zone to come together every year not only to showcase and share their cultural heritage and participate in other events but to also discuss issues of common, collective, and communal interest geared towards the socio-economic, political and cultural development of the zone.

Given the rich natural and agricultural resources and tourist attractions of the zone, SKFest will afford local and foreign investors and other corporate business concerns to invest in the zone, thereby boosting its economic potential and creating jobs and employment for the youth.

The Festival should be upgraded and expanded to include the participation of people from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds and nationalities outside the zone as is being done with the annual Calabar Festival in Cross River State and Argungu Fishing Festival in Sokoto State. To achieve this, SKFest should be registered with the Federal Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and National Orientation as a Nigerian annual festival so that it can acquire both national and international status and recognition.

The presentation of awards to specially recognised and deserving sons, daughters, and other friends and well-wishers of the zone who have distinguishedly contributed to its development will encourage others to do more towards achieving that goal. The criteria for the awards should be based on realistic and stringent metrics so that the awardees will be seen to have justifiably earned them. The considerations for the awards should be merit-based and not political.

ALSO READ:  Taraba Governor Implements Major Restructuring, Reduces Ministries

The annual awards should be inclusively categorised to cover those who are outstanding in their contributions to the zone in the following areas: public service, academia, military, political representation, traditional institutions, religious institutions, youth, and women. Each area should have one awardee only to make it competitive. An award should be dedicated to one person who is not from the zone but has contributed immensely to its development.

This edition was held in Kafanchan, Jema’a LGA. It should be rotated annually within all the LGAs comprising the zone so that each ethnic nationality or group will have a direct feel of it and a sense of belonging. Therefore, the next edition should be held in another LGA within the zone.

This maiden edition might have witnessed some challenges in terms of funding and other logistics necessary for its smooth sail, but that should not discourage the initiators and organizers. Instead, they should be encouraged to put more effort and work harder towards improving on it next time. It can only get better. A bird does not change its feathers because the weather is bad. And, beating a gold makes it shine brighter.

It is my prayer that SKFest will become the platform for Southern Kaduna people to get it right.

JKanyip
12/01/2024.

Ojimaojo Abubakar

Ojimaojo Abubakar

Abubakar Ojimaojo is a graduate of Mass Communication, political and football analyst currently work at elanzanews.ng as Editor. He pride himself as skilled wordsmith with a passion for delving into contemporary political issues on both national and international scale.

Related Posts

Safeguarding Lives at Sea — Proactive Solutions to Boat Mishaps in Nigeria’s Waters

Safeguarding Lives at Sea — Proactive Solutions to Boat Mishaps in Nigeria’s Waters

by Nathaniel Irobi
July 27, 2025
0

By Capt. Caleb Danladi Bako (PhD) Each time tragedy strikes on Nigeria’s inland waterways or coastal waters, the human cost...

George Mason University Honors Doctoral Candidate with Award for Excellence in Social and Behavioral Sciences

George Mason University Honors Doctoral Candidate with Award for Excellence in Social and Behavioral Sciences

by Ojimaojo Abubakar
July 23, 2025
0

George Mason University has named Dr. Omolayo Joy Anjorin the recipient of its Doctoral Award for Overall Excellence in Social...

Azerbaijan invites Nigeria’s defence minister Matawalle for official visit

Azerbaijan invites Nigeria’s defence minister Matawalle for official visit

by Ojimaojo Abubakar
July 22, 2025
0

The Honourable Minister of State for Defence, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Bello Muhammad Matawalle, has been officially invited by...

Recommended

Matawalle visits Turkish defence giant MKE in Istanbul

Matawalle visits Turkish defence giant MKE in Istanbul

10 hours ago
Three Dead In Taraba Boat Mishap As Don Slams Government Negligence

Three Dead In Taraba Boat Mishap As Don Slams Government Negligence

1 hour ago

Popular News

  • Bwari Council Chairmanship Aspirant, Dara, Dumps Labour Party Over Suspected Foul Play In Primaries

    Bwari Council Chairmanship Aspirant, Dara, Dumps Labour Party Over Suspected Foul Play In Primaries

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • CDS’s Wife, Shehu Sani, Katung, Other’s To Storm Pastor Mutum’s Ordination, Book Launch

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Kaduna Baptist Church Donates N50,000 Each To 12 Muslims, 4 Retired Pastors

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Cross River State Triumphs at Prestigious All-women Interstate Debate

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Haske: The Rise Of A New Movement

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Connect with us

Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube
Elanza logo

Elanza News is your NO 1 online platform for all news update.
#SayNoToFakeNews
Contact Us

Category

  • Arts & Literature (25)
  • Business (749)
  • Education (219)
  • Entertainment (311)
  • Health (196)
  • National (2,228)
  • News (8,322)
  • Opinion (309)
  • Politics (1,644)
  • Science (15)
  • Security (406)
  • Sports (447)

Newsletter

© 2023 Elanza News - The No 1 online news platform

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Science
  • National
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Health

© 2023 Elanza News - The No 1 online news platform