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By Frank Meke
This is the month of August. In most religious circles, it is known as a month of the new beginning, resurrection, new breakthroughs, hope, and rebuilding. It’s not associated with deception, misconduct, propaganda, and ghost shopping of the unknown.
In our sector, particularly on the tourism education sector, the National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism ( NIHOTOUR) comes into focus. It is a period when Institute’ s National leadership ecosystem is audited and evaluated. What are the scorecards? Has the leadership shown professionalism, competence, and consistency?
Nura Kangiwa has served this institute, which is strategic to enthroning new skills appropriate to growing the services orientated industry for four years and will vacate the office this August.
As a public servant employed by Nigerian citizens through the office of the President, the federal Republic of Nigeria, has Mr Kangiwa delivered? Has he been professional in the execution of his mandate ? Has he impressed and inspired high standards expected of the office of the chief trainer of the Nigerian hospitality and tourism trade? Is Mr Kangiwa consistent, approachable, and trustworthy?
Does he deserve our vote and validation for a second tenure, or is he ghost shopping for non-existent deliveries, and questionable amputated score cards that can not stand research and statistics ethos?.
After the just concluded annual General Meeting of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria ( ftan) , the Umbrella body of registered travel and tourism trade associations in Nigeria , which took place in Abuja and which ordinarily should be the right gathering to share his score cards at nihotour in four years, Mr Nura Kangiwa took to a section of the media to share his score cards, revealing that he has trained about eighty thousand Nigerians on industry skills acquisition and empowering new rural tourism economy, driven by the indigent poor.
In 2020, when he came, Mr Kangiwa revealed he met eight campuses of the geopolitically spread school, and at the expiration of his tenure this month, he has increased the number to twelve campuses.
In the execution of constituency projects, many of which have no direct material importance to NIHOTOUR, Mr Kangiwa collects five per cent of the total sum for supervising the projects. In a recent publication by African Herald TOURISM magazine, which quoted contents from Budget consideration to the vocational institute, as about thirty billion naira and which had allegedly passed through Mr Kangiwa’ s administration., there’s are nothing on ground in nihotour to celebrate such huge budgery support.
Like a lizard that fell off a wall in grandiose display of athletic prowess without expected plaudits from uninterested and uninspired bystanders, Mr Kangiwa praised himself to high heavens for turning an obscure institute to the greatest and best industry training centre in Nigeria and in West Africa. Na lie!
If we are not in this sector and / or potentially bewitched, we would have thought that the late German propagandist and Hitler’ s spokesperson, late Paul Joseph Goebbel, has resurrected back into life at nihotour.
About three months ago, we carefully evaluated the deliverables in nihotour under nura Kangiwa under the SDG parameters of education training schools or institutions and found kingwa wanting on the eight counts. If you didn’t read it, search for it on the net. It’s tilted ” SUPPLANTING TOURISM EDUCATION IN NIGERIA “
Indeed, boasting that he is the best that ever happened to nihotour since its existence is like saying white is better than black or equating him as nihotour messiah. He’s never, never, and never.!!! Kangiwa is just a rabble rouser, divisive, and a shopper of dead dreams.
His score card can’t measure up and goebbelised to sugar his inordinate ambition for an undeserved second tenure.
He is not a trained educationist, neither a trained professional who ordinarily would grow the institute’s curriculum, establish it as the true citadel of tourism education through workshops, seminars, and other engagements that would have influenced inspiration and impartation of tourism values in the country. To rank nihotour under his watch as the best in West Africa is not evident in the studentship attraction and admission ranking across West Africa and including Nigeria.
No doubt, his failure to implement the nihotour laws is a resultant manifestation of his unpopularity in the sector. His divisiveness is legendary, a pointer to fact he is not a student of public administration, and a public officer accountable to the stakeholders.
There are superior educational opportunities validation organisations and non, yesterday, today and tomorrow have ranked kingwa’ s tenure at nihotour as being innovative just based on providing just four additional training outlets in four years, most which are bereft of basic training equipment and desirable operational learning environment.
As a five per cent collection agent for supervising constituency projects across the country, it’s a figment of his imagination to think he would not face the accountable and auditable baselines for projects half executed or not seen to be executed under his fancy ride. It amounts to a mischievousness project ghost shopping to stand in a gap to supervise the building of a mosque and other unrelated projects not critical to impacting and growing the sector.
To shout” under funding” after nihotour budget releases and other interventionist efforts running into billions of naira in four years is tantamount to mocking the intelligence of the stakeholders and those who gave him the job!
Where are the indigent persons nihotour has changed their lives? Where are the eighty thousand Nigerians trained by nihotour, their names, gender, addresses, areas of study, and businesses that nihotour influenced or encouraged their placements? Where are they?
Today, the sectorial training intervention ecosystems that were budgeted for are shrouded in mysteries and confusion. Both Anjet and Natop were not too sure of those shopped to masquerade their statutory rights. It’s controversy all the way, indicative of the weakness of a leader who does not understand how to manage his stakes.
Our call for a change of guards in nihotour and the pulling off the red carpet from the feet of Nura Kangiwa as Director General of Nihotour, has not nothing to do with the desirability of nihotour as vocational training school which is well thought for the entire tourism industry.
The problem of our sector is the appointment of political magicians at the expense of core professionals, those who can prepare and present appropriate solutions to the problems of the industry.
Every fool can organise gastronomy or food festivals but will fail at inspiring a foodies economy that will impact positively on jobs creation and attract both local and international influence.
We need a competent, consistent, and trustworthy professional educationist , not a wishy, washy politician, as new nihotour Director General come September 2024.
