THE annual and the biennial holding of cultural festivals by the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture must be critically re-appraised.

We need to find out whether these festivals have the potential to contribute positively to the development needs of the country.

If this is to the contrary, the earlier these festivals are abandoned, the better it will be in the interest of the country.

It must be noted that culture do direct the development aspirations of any civilised and progressive country in the world today. To this end, the holding of cultural festivals which form part of the promotion and development of the Ghanaian culture, must have an impact on the development aspirations of the country. If they do not meet this requirement but are just mere occasions of cultural pageantry and display, then they are not serving any purpose in the context of our development aspirations at all.

The rationale behind the holding of cultural festivals is to make them contributory factors to national development aspirations of the country. In other words, they are avenues of providing cultural ingredients for the development of the country.

It is unfortunate to observe that there are no follow-up programmes or post northern activities after NAFAC has been held by the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture or the annual schools cultural festivals held by the Ghana Education Service.

This situation does not make the cultural festivals have any meaning, let alone have any impact on the development needs of the country. Thus, the festivals become ends in themselves instead of being means to ends!

There is nothing to be gained from these colourful glamorous and pompous occasions of cultural display apart from entertainment!

As a matter of fact, if there has been a mechanism that will make it possible to monitor the cultural festivals and make positive use of what they present to relate to the development needs of the country, the cultural festivals will be considered valid and necessary.

The present modus operandi of the cultural festivals leaves much to be desired. As a result, I am compelled to conclude that they are invalid and a waste of the tax payer’s money!

In order to reverse this negative situation, the cultural festivals must be re-structured and re-organised with the view to making them more positive and contributory factors to the development needs of the country.

Besides restructuring and re-organising cultural festivals, there must be provision of adequate finance, equipment and facilities as well as a highly motivated and qualified staff to work with.

In the light of the foregoing points that I have advanced, I will suggest that special committees composed of various cultural experts should be set up by both the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture to develop a workable and efficient cultural festival programmes that will make strong impact on the development programme of the country.

This action will surely make our cultural festivals to become more productive and beneficial to the country.

In conclusion, I assert that contemporary Ghanaian cultural values, customs and practices must be meticulously scrutinised by our various cultural experts with the view to maintaining the progressive ones and discarding the negative and retrogressive ones.

This will make it possible for the country to move forward in development.

Our cultural festivals must contribute positively to our development aspirations; and if they are found wanting in this respect, then they must be considered as unnecessary exercise and stopped in the interest of the country.

The writer is a theatre critic.