I love tourism. At every opportunity to travel both within and outside Nigeria, I always squeeze time to engage in sight-seeing around the precinct of where I stay. When I was in Geneva for the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in 2005, I went on a boat ride on Lake Geneva, visited the Water Jet and saw the Flower Clock. In 2008 and 2009 when I was in Ghana for election observation and BRIDGE training, I used the opportunity to visit the Kakum National Park, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. My visit to the United States in 2010 enabled me to see The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, US Capitol, Voice of America and host of other tourist sites within the Washington DC area.
When I went on election observation to Egypt in 2014, I squeezed out time to visit a number of tourist sites in that country. These sites are the Nile view of Beheira, Alexandria Castle built over 500 years ago and the Mediterranean Sea Beach, both of them in Alexandria; as well as the vintage Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza.
In 2016 when I travelled to Uganda on another election observation mission, despite my tight schedules, I was able to visit the foremost East African university, Makerere University and the Nabugabo Sand Beach, as well as the Equator Point, which is halfway between the North Pole and South Pole.
Within Nigeria, I have visited many tourist sites. These include the Agodi Gardens, Mapo Hall, First Television in Africa, NTA Ibadan, Bower’s Tower and Ibadan Zoological Garden in Oyo State; Gurara Falls in Niger State; Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi; Tinapa Resort, the Old Residency Museum in Calabar, Obudu Cattle Ranchall in Cross Rivers State; the National Arts Theatre, Lagos Bar Beach, First Story Building in Nigeria and Badagry Slave Site in Lagos State.
Also, I was at the Ikogosi Warm Spring in Ekiti State in 2014, Shere Hills in Jos, Plateau State; Igun Street Bronze Carving Centre, Oba’s Palace and Benin Museum in Edo State; and Olumo Rock in Ogun State. I have also been to the Confluence Point where River Niger and River Benue met in Lokoja, Kogi State, as well as the War Museum in Umuahia, capital of Abia State. This is just to mention a few.
My visits to these tourist sites still evoke mixed feelings in me. I feel excited because the visits to the sites were an opportunity to see what I had read about them. However, I am sometimes shocked to see the decrepit nature of some of the tourist sites. There are over 100 tourist sites and international festivals that are meant to be money spinners for government at all levels. There are several Egungun (masquerade) festivals. There is the Argungu Fishing Festival in Kebbi State; the Osun-Osogbo Festival; the Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife; the Calabar Carnival and the Rivers State Carnival, popularly known as CARNIRIV. There is also the Abuja Carnival.
Unfortunately, criminal neglect has been the lot of many of Nigeria’s monuments and tourist sites. I shed tears during my last visit to Tinapa Resort. The Confluence Beach Hotel, from where I went on a boat ride to the point where the River Niger and River Benue flow together in Lokoja many years ago, has become decrepit and taken over by weeds, reptiles and miscreants.
Many of these tourist sites lack a maintenance culture and the pilfering of the little income they generate has been a common phenomenon.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration had a Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Unfortunately, the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government scrapped this important ministry. Although I am not unaware of the existence of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments; the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation and the National Council of Arts and Culture, these institutions have remained paper tigers due to poor funding.
Tourism is under the concurrent legislative list, unlike solid minerals and natural resources, which are under the exclusive legislative list. This means that both the Federal Government and the states can take on and develop the tourism sector. I know this for a fact because it was the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi that revived the Ikogosi Warm Spring, while the Gbenga Daniel administration in Ogun State rehabilitated the Olumo Rock site. Similarly, the Abiola Ajimobi administration in Oyo State revamped the Agodi Gardens in Ibadan, while the Federal Government handed over the management of the Yankari Game Reserve to the Bauchi State Government on request.
I have been wondering why many state governments who rely largely on monthly allocations from the Federal Government has never thought of diversifying their Internally Generated Revenue by reviving their tourist sites.
Aside from boosting the state economy through revenue generation, revamping the country’s tourism sector will also help preserve Nigeria’s history and culture. It will give future generations of Nigerians and visitors from within and outside the country the opportunity to understand our cultural heritage.
Nigeria, like Saudi Arabia and Israel, stands to reap bountifully from religious tourism, if only the government can think out of the box to harness the potential of that sub-sector. Imagine millions of foreigners visiting this country annually for religious activities organised by some of the Pentecostal churches in the country, such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Living Faith Church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles and Synagogue Church of All Nations, to mention a few.
As a new set of newly elected Nigerian leaders take the oath of office soon, I wish they could come up with blueprints on how to develop the tourism potentials of their respective states. I suggest that they should adopt the Public-Private-Partnership model. By engaging in a symbiotic partnership with the private sector, the funding for revival and maintenance of these sites can be provided by the technical partners from the organised private sector. This will also enhance better accountability.
Government on its part will have to provide access roads, street lights and security, not only around the tourist sites, but also across the state and the country. Indeed, one veritable factor that has been militating against the development of Nigeria’s tourism sector is the general insecurity plaguing the country.
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