From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
•Participants at the event
Nine years after it was discontinued and missing from the annual tourism offerings of the state, the famous Obudu mountain race will resume this year.
The tournament, a brainchild of former Governor Donald Duke, was conceived during his second term in office and kicked off in 2005.
The 11.25km tournament was designed, among others, to boost global awareness of the Obudu Cattle Ranch in the northern part of the state and also make the youths in the state to embrace athletics.
The mountain race gained global acclaim over the years and was an associate member race of the World Mountain Running Association and at a point was endorsed by the International Association of Athletics Federation.
The tournament which had about $250,000 dollars available for grabs by various categories of winners was, however, suspended by the government due to a number of factors, including lack of funds and benefit to locals in the area.
Things have, however, taken a turn for good as the state tourism commissioner, Abubakar Ewa, has announced a plan by the government to revive the mountain race.
The commissioner, who disclosed this in Calabar, the capital of the state, said it is part of a wider plan by the state government to bring in lots of innovations into the tourism sector of the state. He also announced a plan by the government to relaunch its ecotourism sector.
“We hope to bring lots of innovations into the tourism sector and plans are afoot to revive the mountain race this year and also relaunch ecotourism in the state.
“We must organize packages for the leisure of tourists, particularly as the state is very rich in eco-tourism. We are also developing our tour sites in the state like the Qua Falls, which are very fantastic, Boki Water Falls, Drill Ranch, monoliths and others,” he said.
He also announced that as part of plans to revive the mountain race, the government has been removing all the obstacles that have over the years impeded the smooth functioning of the Obudu Cattle Ranch and has paid over N200-million salary liabilities.
Also speaking, the executive secretary of the carnival commission, Austin Cobham, said creative innovations will be added to this year’s carnival even as they intend to put non- competing bands ahead so that they can create sensitization and awareness of the carnival.
He also announced that in addition to the Carnival Calabar in December, two other carnivals have been added to the calendar, which are the Ikom and Ogoja carnivals in October and November. He dded that the government is aggressively expanding infrastructure in the state for the carnivals and the benefit of the people.