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Ukorebi Esien | 2nd Jan. 2024
30 years ago, members of ward 4 and 5 Calabar South decided to celebrate the new year by mobilising young men to the street with drums and dance steps.
30 years later the group which is now registered with the Corporate affairs commission of Nigeria now boast of a structure and member strength of over 5,000.
Rt. Hon. Orok Duke, leader and founder of the group informed journalist that after the 30 years of consistently celebrating the new year in a cultural carnival float, the state government has now included Tinkoriko as part of activities for the 32 days Christmas Holidays in Cross River.
“First and foremost we were included in the calendar for the carnival for the first time since 1999, and for the second time too we decided to come out and celebrate our victory in the last election because Tinkoriko was totally in support of “Back-To-South”. We are saying a big thank you for voting Senator Bassey Edet Otu as our governor. That’s the basic thing.
He added that the Tinkoriko platform is mainly used to canvass against social vices as it attracts young people from different social orientation, coloration and background.
“We are still using the platform to canvass against certain social ills and also using it to serve as a platform for the youths to ventilate their feelings.” he said..
Duke who represents Cross River state in the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, said, Tinkoriko provides a platform for people who fly different colours to ventilate. “The different colours here means whatever social standing you are. The simplicity of Tinkoriko is such that you don’t get initiated. You don’t wear costumes. It’s just your pair of canvass shoes, your jean trousers and then we give you t-shirts.” He added.
Duke informed that although the economy is biting, lamenting that 30 years ago, cost of T-shirts was N150 for each participant but as at today, each T-shirt cost N5,000 to produce. Which has also affected participation.
“Unfortunately t-shirts have been so expensive. This year each t-shirt costs N5,000. We printed 5,000 t-shirts, that’s N25million. So that’s how expensive it is.
Can you talk about celebrating Tinkoriko for 30 years?
“When we started we used to circulate around Egerton. It started as Tinkoriko Mission Hill, that’s ward 4 and 5. Then we expend through Mayne Avenue because Gershom Bassey was there and he was a leader of some sort. So when transiting we used to touch Fenton with Essien Ayi there, and then through Edgerly then Mayne Avenue, but the route became too long. Of course Tinkoriko gave birth to the carnival. When Donald Duke resumed in 1999 he called me and said we should make it a state affair, but I told him we will not leave Tinkoriko.
“I sponsored the bill for the creation of the Carnival Commission. I told him it could be expanded to include 1st of January. But over the years they used to stop on 31st of December. This is the first year that they have made the carnival run for 32 days to include Tinkoriko. Tinkoriko is now drawing the curtain of the 2023 carnival and it’s not going to stop.
“For now we are part of the Calabar Carnival calendar. We are thankful for that in our 30th year. Of course the governor has always been our grand patron for like 15 years now.”
Last year we had a lot of politicians involved, but this year we’ve not seen any of them
“It’s because they use us and dump us. But we still stay on and do what we do. That’s the essence of what we do – consistency. They come and go but we still remain the same, otherwise we would not have remained the same for this long.”
“It has. Let me tell you – I use this as an example. If a young man plays Tinkoriko and sees another young man it will be difficult for you to go on a hit and kill that man the next day. We need more platforms for us to be meeting ourselves. Haven’t you seen the reduction of crime rate during the 32 days carnival? The more these young people are occupied, which is one of those things we will talk about when we start articulating programmes of NDDC.
“Right now we are trying to register a minimum of 1,000 youths per state, because for the past 22 years we’ve been seeing the same set of people come for training. We empower them, give them the same set of kits. So we are trying to do a database that would have list of young people, 1,000 each in every state, so that we can fall back in case there’s a programme. We need to engage them because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
“It used to be January 1st and Easter Monday, but I got tired of the Easter Monday because plenty of t-shirts would be needed. If you observed, this year we have removed the year inscription on the t-shirts. That’s limit the t-shirts to the particular year. Now we’ve opened it to be a generic thing for them to wear it at all times. It’s very expensive. They love it as they are showing it.
“We are saying a big thank you to the state for having voted governor Otu. We are also saying we did it! That’s more or less.”
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