Plans for Havana Carnival 2010 Gain Momentum

Evelyn Akpor

The historic and popular Havana Carnival of Sigma Club, University of Ibadan, is gathering momentum across the country amongst youth and students, if the numbers of hits on the Havana carnival website is anything to go by. Moreover, different brands have been showing tremendous interest to support and leverage on the mileage the oldest carnival on any Nigerian campus has to offer. The event which was initially scheduled to take place last year will now take place from March 22 to March 27, 2010.
Students from different campuses and youth are eagerly yearning for the return of the carnival. According to the organizers, the event was postponed last year due to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike which lasted for months, thereby making the academic calendar uncertain.
Havana Carnival is the oldest musical carnival in the history of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. It has been in existence since 1955 and has over the years become the biggest musical and beauty pageant contest on any Nigerian campus.  The carnival has a record of bringing together over 30,000 participants consisting of Nigerian students from various tertiary institutions, working class citizens, fun-loving Nigerians etc..  In past editions, the carnival has seen the best of the Nigeria’s musical acts like the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Lagbaja, K1 de Ultimate, KSA, Alhaji Ayinde Barrister, Obesere, Saheed Osupa, Seun Kuti etc perform at the University of Ibadan . At every carnival, a queen emerges and is crowned Miss Havana (the queen of all Nigerian campuses).
The Havana Carnival has been repackaged and will now consist of a week-long pot-pouri of activities. According to the programme of activities released by the organizers and consultants for the carnival, the activities will include a Logo Unveiling ceremony, the Havana Football Tournament tagged “Football 4 Hope”, Medics, Career, Guidance & Counseling sessions, Sponsor’s Exhibition , Walk/Work for Hope (Advocacy/Painting of old buildings in Ibadan city and cleaning of drainage by students), the Havana Lecture, the Havana musical concert where selected A-rate artistes will perform, as well as the Miss Havana + Mr. Macho competitions.
What is more? The Havana Carnival will be featuring and parading over 15 popular artistes from West-Africa, two stages and sets, long hours of live broadcast, 120,000 watts of sound, spectacular fireworks and effects and unprecedented glamour and ambience.
Old Sigmites [old members of Sigma Club] spread all over the world have shown enormous interest and support for the resuscitation of the Havana Carnival after almost a decade of lull and inability to stage it due to logistic reasons.
Many of them agreed to be part of this initiative to revive Havana Carnival simply because they want to plough back into the system that benefitted and trained them in their youthful days. Some of them, who are high profile individuals in society, have indicated interest to attend the Logo Unveiling ceremony and the main event in March, 2010.
Meanwhile, students from different campuses are already eager and excited about the news of the great Havana Carnival come back, as many of them have started making enquiries on participation details, especially for the Miss Havana Beauty Pageant and the Mr. Macho competition.
Havana Carnival 2010 promises to bring back the glorious memories that the age-long carnival evokes. Against the initial plan to have the main concert hold outside the University of Ibadan, the University Authorities prefer that the carnival takes place inside the campus, so that it can have control over the situation and maintain the age-long tradition of holding the carnival on campus.
The carnival is the content of the Sigma Club, University of Ibadan, while it has ZMC, G’Ennie Entertainment and Zmirage Multi-Media as partners on the project. Sigma club will be 60 years old this year.