BY FRANK MEKE.
I didn’t plan to be in the ilorin, capital of kwara State, so soon after just existing the state in less than thirty-six hours. I was here last week at the invitation of my sister, sarat Braimah, to celebrate the wedding of the one Belgore offspring. There’s, however, something about destiny that one could not comprehend.
Our lives, no matter how much we plan or are intentional about our it, seem amazingly determined by the creative fixer, the owner of our lives , the king of kings, our maker, our God.
I believe in God and His son, Jesus Christ, and wholly let Him guide me. Who you follow matters, so I do watch and pray, particularly about my call, which is to tell stories about people and tourism .
I know, ilorin! It’s like home, yes home and in our world of tourism, destinations are home. I love the world, but I am excited about Nigeria and her people. I love Nigeria!
My world is filled with stories of encounters with beautiful people, our cultural tourism resources, our capacity to help each other, and welcome strangers and families and accommodate the silent beings .
Kwara is thick, undiscovered, and unpromoted. I love the people, their vibrancy, their food, hospitality, and industrious temperance.
The new kwara, the younger generations won’t allow lagos to swallow them. They trade and think home. Ilorin is becoming the new lagos. The food economy, the weekend parties, the cultural mix, and the unseen yet potent revolution to carve itself out of the ” north.”, the political equation of Nigeria.
Kwara’ s religious history is a mixed bag of opium, fueled by Christian, Islamic, and traditional beliefs influences, with adherents contributing to its peace and tranquillity, though sometimes in relative disagreement.
Now, enough of kwara’ complexities, but I won’t end without asking the government to wake up and make a tourism sense out of
kwara. The state can do something good in cultural tourism, guide its youths with vocational skills in hospitality and tourism, and build a new economy.
I was a witness to the new making of the new president of the organised tour operators in Nigeria in kwara on Thursday. Nigeria Association of Tour Operators ( Natop) has come some distance, yes, heading to the tapes!
I remember its founding father, late Pa Matthew Ebaboje Dasilva. His acerbic column in the vanguard newspapers, the ” Tourism Voice,” in the early 90s still nudges my head. Pa Matthew Ebaboje Dasilva was everywhere and fearless. He spoke to power and wanted a tourism Republic of Nigeria, a country so rich yet poor and struggling.
Da silva was our tourism evangelist and prophet . He died heartbroken because we played ostrich with our tourism advantages and ate our morning breakfast with the wrong crowds, politicians, and their cronies, pranting around as messiahs.
Ok, enough! Old things had passed away, but great leaders are usually students of history. Bolaji Mustapha is the new president of natop.
She is the iya alaje( the prosperous merchant) and unassuming driver of her family’s empire. She represents the typical enterprinual spirit of the kwara young female persons. She is reserved, unpretentiously cultural, humble, and selfless. Let me add and warn that Bolaji Mustapha is happily married!
That’s the much I know about her until destiny positioned me to have a close watch about her after her emergence as the first unopposed leader of Nigeria Association Tour Operators . There was an election!
A post event tour of kwara was the icing on the cake. I had wanted to go have a finger lick
at my popular amala joint in ilorin and retire to a deserved rest, but the pressure to see uloma egbuna, my long lost and found sister, kept me awake. Uloma egbuna story is for another day.
We had sat to breakfast, my colleagues and I when the immediate past president of natop, Ime udo sent me an urgent WhatsApp message to come and meet with the Honourable Minister of Tourism, lola Ade John at her hotel.
I just wondered, and the early morning rain didn’t help matter. Lola Ade John? I can’t place and certainly not in the mood to interrogate it. I respect ime udo and I love our women in tourism.
My journalism life has been shaped by these amazing people in our tourism space. Maybe one day, I will put together a book of encounter about them. Dem plenty for my hand, beautiful, hardworking game changers in our tourism, hardly celebrated, deployed as mere ornaments to beautify and deodorise our ignored sector.
At the breakfast table of the minister was all the tour operators’ amazons. I dodged the bullets and eased out of the restaurant to the reception of the Signature Hotel, ilorin, which possibly has not seen such a gathering of industry shakers and movers in recent times in kwara.
I sat out my uncomfortable waiting at Signature, taking pictures with Nneka and Isaac Moses of Goji Africa fame. This couple tickles me, their humility and commitment. I dey watch dem with my love eyes 😻.
I don’t like the kliegh lights. The hurricane is usually not seen but felt, and I study the wind, its various forms , shapes, impacts, and appearances. Honestly, I think I like the wind, the mild wind, not the hurricane! Don’t dare to the hurricane!.
I eventually met the minister. QED. Do you want to know what transpired? Bolaji Mustapha made it happen, so we set out after the encounter, and at some point, the natop girls, plenty of them, gave me more leads to what they expect from the minister.
We had set out on tour, the president of the tourism Federation, Nkereweum onung, issac, and nneka moses and myself. We shared a vehicle.
After the visit to the sugar film factory, Bolaji Mustapha joined us after we lost Isaac and Nneka to the surging crowd of their admirers. Scene two, click and throughout the day, God arranged a close watch about Bolaji Mustapha, the” man” in skirt, an untiring embodiment of humility and hard work.
She took charge, certainly not excited and anxious about the pressure of caring for over a hundred guests, most who were in this part of the country for the first time. Her phone rang endlessly, and the ring tone messages of congratulations on her phone interrupted my thoughts.
I whispered my takes to Nkereweum Onung and spoke out when she stepped out of the car to either attend to the needs of her guests or instruct the drivers about the itinerary.
I was expecting some discomforting irritations, but it counted for nothing with BolajiMustapha.. The pressures were octane, and I was waiting for the lamentations, the type our minister flung out at me as mothers do to troublesome children, Bolaji Mustapha disappointed me as she jumped out and in to the car at the numerous stops without strains. She is very athletic and fit!
At a point, I was hungry and louded my crave for Amala, especially from the Amala place. Iya Yusuf, another amala joint in ilorin, has lost my top ranking, and Yakoyo had packed up. Ilorin has outpaced ibadan as the Amala delicacy capital of Nigeria.
Bolaji Mustapha, at this point, was excited. And for the first time, she spoke to me and as if primed to have all the answers to unspoken needs, she had instructed her team, her staff dotting and following her around to get the food ready before we get to the next stop over.
Nkereweum Onung, tourism federation president and Natop BOT chairman, joined the crave. The many calls to his phone didn’t allow any gist , so I left him in peace to his world. I do pity our leaders. They live so that others will breathe. I don’t mean our thieving politicians, though. Those who shouted and begged for appointment and later became our pharaohs, the type that don’t know Joseph!.
There was no Amala, Bolaji told me but consoled me with pepperish rice, so delicious that I kept extra for dinner. Trust Nkereweum Onung. He had three plates! No, he is no glutton , just making provision for hunger pangs that come after the pumps and shakes of driving through pot holes as roads.
I was grateful for the food, and again, our car got replenished with zobo, kunu, and all kinds of beverages, enough to last a week of desert expedition.
Bolaji Mustapha’s other side also came fore. Apart from being naturally hospitable, she is a peace maker. She spoke to me about the minister, about many others and issues in the sector. She knew and appreciated my dedication and commitment but pleads for a cessation of’ fire’.
We talked about many things ooo and I got into the television of her heart. Bolaji Mustapha is not patronising with her presence and commitment to the sector. I just hope natop and the industry in general won’t corrupt her with our ingratitude and deception. She is the leader whose time has come! I will be praying for her but won’t promise not to fire disequilibriums in the sector. On the minister, i am praying for her. , But honestly, Bolaji Mustapha will make a difference. Yes, I believe that with her team, natop should be good news worth celebrating.