The hall was full to capacity as Mrs. Chioma Duru, Assistant Director/Coordinator, NICO South-East Zonal Office, alighted from the podium after making her speech on behalf of the 18 participating countries in the just concluded 2015 Seminar for Directors of Festivals from Developing Countries in China.

She made such a captivating and inspiring speech that compelled the Vice-President of the Central Academy of Cultural Administration (CACA), Beijing, China, Mr. Zhouwu Duan, to seek for the collaboration of NICO on cultural exchange programmes.

Mrs. Duru thanked the Chinese government, especially CACA, for the undiluted hospitality and sound lectures that were full of enlightenment, educative, and informative, which been able to expose the participants to Chinese geography, traditional and modern histories, culture, politics, economy, agriculture, and the natural resources.

“I believe that I am not being presumptive when I say that I speak for all of us by saying that our exposure so far has led us to the conclusion that the Chinese are a very contented, self-sustained people who can comfortably exist without the rest of the world;” just as she also described Chinese people as very smart, intelligent, industrious, hardworking, and disciplined, with no room for laziness or slothfulness.

She also appreciated the sensitiveness of the organizers towards gender equality for giving a woman the opportunity to represent the entire participating countries in an epoch day like this.

In his response, the VP of CACA, Mr. Zhouwu Duan confessed that he was moved, inspired and captivated by her speech and promised that the Academy will try and have a good relationship with NICO, as both institutions have common goals in training cultural administrators and called on the participating countries to take whatever they learnt and experienced back home and harness the diverse cultural festivals in their various countries for economic development.

Certificates of participation were presented to the participants, while participants from NICO presented some books to the Academy on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Professor Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma.

The ceremony, which had in attendance, Mrs. Chioma Duru, Assistant Director/ South East Coordinator NICO, Mrs. Jane Anigala, Assistant Director (Admin), NICO Abuja, Mr. Nnaemeka Nwajagu, State Coordinator, NICO Enugu, and Mrs. Susan Ogohi of NCAC, Abuja, came to an end with a visit to the Chinese National Arts Performance Theatre.

Nnaemeka Nwajagu

Reporting from Beijing, China