DYDA Holds 13th Cultural Food Carnival In Plateau

NoBy Daniel Agada, Jos

Youth under the aegis of Doemak Youth Development Association (DYDA) in Qua’an-Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State, Jos Chapter held its 13th cultural food carnival edition.

The epoch making event, 2022 annual food carnival which held Saturday in Plateau Hotels’ Rock Garden, Jos, saw the convergence of Doemak sons and daughters both at home and diaspora under one umbrella to shed opinions about their rich cultural heritage amidst food delicacies.

Speaking on the significance of the food carnival, the chairman of Doemak Youth Movement, Jos Branch, Mr. Amos Dakwaan, said the Doemak Nation like any other nations has a culture, tradition and norms. And culture has to do with the way of life, the cultural values and the norms of the people.

According to him, “The essence of the programme is that we discovered that the youths living in urban areas and those who migrated from rural areas to urban centers have lost touch with some of our cultural values and norms like various food delicacies. That is why we said we cannot seat down and watch our culture erode.

“Another thing, is to foster unity among ourselves by coming together and equip the younger generation with the knowledge and understanding of our rich cultural values, food delicacies that we eat and showcasing the kind of traditional dance that we do in the Doemak Nation so that they can be familiar with it”, he stated.

The keynote speaker, Mr. Bomkam Ali Wuyep, Director General of Plateau State Small medium enterprises development agency (PLASMEDA), while sharing his thoughts on the theme:”Youths Engagement In Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship: The panacea for Job Creation”, noted that there is a soaring unemployment in Nigeria and the only way to address it is through entrepreneurship.

PLASMEDA DG who was represented by Mr. Jackse Le’an said statistics have shown that about 23 million Nigerians are willing to work but without a requisite skills to enable them work effectively.

“Instead of unemployment to reduce but is soaring up.Every State of the Federation supposed to provide 250 thousand jobs annually to bridge unemployment gap.

He challenge Plateau people to take advantage of various skills acquisition programmes running by PLASMEDA to reduce the menace of unemployment and create more jobs.

Also harps on the importance of the food carnival, former director of news and current affairs department, Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTVC) Mr. Peter Dashen acknowledged that the event will go a long way in strengthening the bond of unity not only in Doemak but Pan nation in general.

He described the occasion as an agenda setting for the youths to be familiarize themselves about their cultural heritage, cautioned them to disassociate from drugs abuse, cultism, and other social vices which is capable of destroying their future.

His Royal Highness, Long Doemak, Da Cosmos Ndelong thanked Doemak Nation as well as Plateau people for gracing his coronation ceremony.

The monarch expressed optimism with the youths for the successful hosting of the 2022 edition of food carnival which is a long age tradition, said “it would continued for the betterment of present and future generations.”