“St. Cyprian’s Catholic youths
are blessed with many hidden
talents that can excel in the en-
tertainment industry; if you don’t dig the
ground you can’t get the gold and so, it
is the role of CAEAN to search and dis-
cover hidden talents, expose them to the
entertainment industry and make them
better citizens.”
That statement by the Coordinator
of Catholic Artistes and Entertainers
Association of Nigeria (CAEAN),
St. Cyprian’s Catholic Church, Oko-
Oba, Agege, Lagos, John Ehidiamen
formed part of his welcome address
delivered at the maiden edition of the
Association’s parade of talents to mark
Nigeria’s 59th Independence anniver-
sary held at the Parish Canaan hall on
Tuesday, October 1, 2019.
It was simply glamour, fun and
laughter as many who attended the
event, including the Parish priest and
his Associate, Very Rev. Fr. Augus-
tine Nnaemeka and Rev. Fr. Emma-
nuel Anyanwu had a fill of the rare
but young budding talents paraded,
groomed and nurtured by the local
CAEAN. It was awesome from start
to finish, as one of the invited guests
observed, especially when the like of
Miss Amarachi Godwin and Miss Be-
nita Abel, among other revelations of
the day mounted the podium to go
solo and entertain in group. Amarachi
Godwin vividly captured in concrete
terms what she believed is the trou-
ble with Nigeria at 59 in her poetry
cataloguing the country’s woes which
ranges from bad roads, polluted water
and environment, poverty and hunger,
youth unemployment yet the leaders
are not bothered even as they corrupt-
ly enriched themselves, she lamented.
Drama sketches were also staged
denouncing corruption in the coun-
try using the instrumentality of the
national cake sharing formula to pro-
mote injustice, ethnicity, intolerance,
discrimination and other biases that
holds down the country and prevents
it from moving forward. The seamy
side of the nation at 59 notwithstand-
ing, the mock television presenter
however gave the audience a ray of
hope when she announced that de-
spite all these the country is not yet
finished and asked youths in the coun-
try to come together and reject the
old order, a call also contained in the
concluding address of the Coordina-
tor, “This country is ours and no one
will build it for us, just like the Church
let us cultivate the habit and tendency
that we must live together as one fam-
ily in Christ…”
The Parish priest and Dean of Agege
Deanery, Fr. Augustine Nnaemeka im-
pressed by their act said he will con-
tinue to throw his weight behind the
Association at the Parish level to en-
sure their dream comes to fruition and
encouraged other parishioners includ-
ing the statutory organizations to help
project the body by sponsoring their
activities. Cutting the cake of unity in
diversity with others, the Parish priest
said though in tribes and tongues we
may differ in brotherhood we stand.
Dr. Uche Okereke who chaired the
occasion ably supported by the Agege
Deanery CMO Coordinator, Engr.
Chuks Nzei and other leaders of or-
ganizations and societies, led the as-
sembly made up of youths, parents
and friends to sing the national an-
them to open the event shortly after
prayer. He asked for generous support
to enable the Association discover
more talents for the entertainment in-
dustry. The programme anchored by
MC’s ‘Ambassador’ Chriswill and John
Bosco to the delight of the crowd also
featured music, cultural dance, film
shows-comedy (produced by CAE-
AN), light refreshment and lunch, while
Victor Ebong and David Omozokpia
were the creative director and chairman,
planning committee in that order.
