Christian groups protest over Calabar carnival

A Christian youth group under the aegis of Christian Youth Group in Cross River State has protested at the Government House in Calabar, over the conduct of carnival activities on Sundays, alleging that the state Government was apparently scheming to suppress Christianity and relegate the religion to the background in the state.
The leader of one of the protesters, Reverend Theodore Effiong who is the National Adviser and Patron of the group, also regretted that the Carnival Calabar has caused the state social and moral setback, as there was alarming increase in teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and child abandonment.

Expressing their concerns, they lamented that the last carnival to Christmas which took place on Sunday, allegedly hindered many Christians from attending Sunday worship as most of the major roads were closed to traffic.

The protests which took place for two consecutive days, started with the Cross River State Christian Women who appeared in sack cloths at the Government House gate, urging the state Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke not to allow the Carnival or Carnival Dry Runs to hold on Sundays again. They lamented that the last Carnival dry run hindered scores of worshipers, and prevented them from going to church due to the blocking of roads by the Carnival train.

The placard carrying women who went through Calabar main market, Watt and the Millennium Park and finally barricaded the Governor’s Office gate, said “no dry run or Carnival on Sunday, it is the Lord’s day”.

The youths wing known as Christian Youths in Cross River, protested the second day and filed out to the Governor’s office in black attire, chanting songs as they appealed to the governor to stop promoting carnival, sexual immorality, ungodly activities and the street dance with its associated ills.

In a letter which was delivered to the governor through his Security Adviser, Mr. Rekpene Bassey, the aggrieved youths recalled that Christianity started in Calabar, as the two Efik Kings, King Eyo Honesty 11 and King Eyamba V were the first monarch in Africa in 1841 to write Queen Victoria of England, requesting for Missionaries to fill the gap created with the abolition of slave trade.

Besides, they stated, that the Holy Bible was first translated in Efik language in the entire Africa, before any other native language in the continent.