Challenges Facing Planners

30 Oct Challenges Facing Planners

The journey to the glorious parade that you are witnessing today started with the dream that some patriotic Nigerians had many years ago to celebrate their culture and heritage in America, just as members of other ethnic groups—notably the West Indians, the Irish, the Italians, and the Puerto Ricans—were doing every year. And so, under the aegis of the Organization for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN), these resolute Nigerians marched on Madison Avenue in New York City in 1991, barely outnumbering the officers deployed by the New York Police Department to provide security along the parade route. The well-decorated floats filled to capacity by joyous people frantically waving the Nigerian flag, the marching bands, the stilt dancers, the cultural troupes, and the dignitaries that have become permanent features of the parade today were non-existent then, but that did not dampen the spirits of the pioneering parade planners and participants.

With no sponsors to fund any significant media campaign and Internet technology then in its infancy, attracting participants and spectators to the parade in the foundling years was especially arduous. The organizers had to rely heavily on handbills and word of mouth to attract more and more people to the parade year after year. There was a hiatus from 1993 to 1999, when the attention of parade planners shifted to resolving the intractable political crisis in Nigeria. A strategic decision was later made to move the parade to Second Avenue in New York City, with the reviewing stand located in front of the Nigeria House on 44th Street and the venue of the post parade cultural festival on Kudirat Corner.

The New York City Nigeria Independence Day parade has grown exponentially since then,with its route now thronged by thousands of revelers from within and outside the United States every year. It has also attracted many political leaders from New York City and dignitaries from Nigeria. Soon Kudirat Corner became too small for the post parade festival, necessitating the move to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th The most recent parades were watched by hundreds of thousands of people on television both in Nigeria and United Kingdom, and umpteen others have watched video clips of the festivities on the Internet.

The continued success of the New York City Nigerian Independence celebration cannot be divorced from the uncommon creativity, prodigious talents, and organizational acumen of Nigerian youth, who have been taking very active roles in planning not just the parade and festival but also the Welcome Party and Cultural Night every year. These energetic and patriotic youth turn out in their thousands every year and have become the undisputed heroes of the celebration.