If all goes according to plan, the Cross River State Government and a few sponsors will collaborate in the planning and delivery of what the Ben Ayade administration says is the maiden “African Love Festival”, taking place on February 14, 2016, www.calitown.com can reveal.
The event which will hold on St. Valentine’s Day hopes to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records with the planned hosting of more than 3, 000 couples to dinner at the same time. While the U. J. Esuene stadium has been tipped to host the event, sources within government however maintain that modalities for the programme are still being worked on.
Another government source maintains that the event is part of the Ayade administration’s attempt to develop and harness the tourism potentials of the state. The governor himself has been quoted widely as saying that the “African Love Festival… is definitely a project that every investor will want to sponsor; it is a project that is bringing a class of people who have deep pockets, who have the capacity to spend. Cross River State must be reconstructed within the ambits of development and focus on changing the kinetics and the functions of the black man.”
Additionally, Ayade maybe toying with plans to make the February 14 date a public holiday in the state and institutionalize the festival after complaints that beyond Carnival Calabar, government and stakeholders in the tourism industry have been unable to harvest the rich tourism potentials in Cross River State.
