Former governor of Cross River State, Mr Donald Duke, commended the efforts of the governor of the State, Prince Bassey Edet Otu for preserving the cultural heritage of Cross Riverians and Nigeria at large. through his support for an exhibition, tagged Traces of Time.
Duke gave this commendation during his visit to the National Museum, Calabar for the inspection of the exhibition, which explores the artistic expression dating back from the 16th Century to the contemporary era.
The exhibition mounted by France based Art historian, Bose Fagbemi has been the Cynosure of attention by the young and the old. The exhibition is in the Old Residency, a historical Icon on its own.
Wife of the governor, Mrs Ohi, also built a Christmas Village for the children which drew a huge crowd of families to the museum.
The highlight of the visit by the icon of Tourism, Mr Donald Duke was his talk on the relationship between the Benins and the Efiks, dating back to when the Royal Oba Ovanrenwen of Benin was relocated to Calabar in the 19th Century by the British.
The former governor urged arts enthusiasts to take advantage of such season to visit the museum while calling on the artistes to stage an all-year round exhibition of this nature.
Within the period of the festival, the Traces of Time exhibition received lots of VIPs, including the governor, his wife and a Justice of the Appeal Court, Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang whose grandfather, Justice Inyang was the first Lawyer from South South of Nigeria.
At the museum, there is a section of the installations dedicated to Justice Inyang, which pictured the iconic time and moment of the late Pa Inyang. That section of the museum made a visiting female student’s hope of wanting to study law came to reality.
It was a moment of coincident during a visit to the museum by Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang, a grand-daughter of late Justice Inyang ran into a young student of University of Calabar who showed a lot of interest in the photographs of Pa Inyang.
However when the Justice of the Appeal Court, Justice Inyang spotted the student and ask her why she was so engrossed by the photos of her grandfather, she replied she wanted to study law but her institution gave her another course but would love to study law.
On hearing this, Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang promised to support and mentor the student on ways of achieving her heart desire.
Meanwhile, the Artistic Consellor, Bose Fagbemi thanked Mr Duke for his visit and the pledge to support future exhibitions. she also thanked the government of Cross River for making the 30 day exhibition a success.
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