2020 Lagos fiesta, still in focus, but not certain-- comm. Uzamat

 

Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, has said that the Lagos 2020 fiesta is in focus but it's realization has been surrounded by uncertainties.

"We are gradually coming to the end of the year and it has been so challenging for us, especially the effects of coronavirus pandemic and the EndSARS protests on government activities and programmes. However, despite these challenges, we cannot totally say that the Lagos end of the year concert is totally out of our focus. But the way and manner we are going to plan the event is not clear to us yet because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic staring us in the face. Yes, some people can be asymptomatic and still infect others at large gatherings. So, the combined effect of Covid-19 and EndSARS crisis is giving us concern about how to organise our annual end of the year concert.

I will be meeting with the authorities of the Ministry of Health to get their professional advice on how best we can actually plan our end of the year concert. We don’t want to have a concert that will correspondingly spike the number of Covid-19 infections in Lagos State. As you can see, there is no advanced country in the world where big concert had been staged since the beginning of the pandemic. Even the frenzy that usually precedes Christmas in Europe and America is not in sight as we speak. However, I am not saying that we won’t have the end of the year concert this time around. What we are only waiting for is the professional advice from the state’s ministry of health. The plan is ongoing and in about two weeks from now, we would engage the press on the modalities for the concert this year."