By Frank Meke..
Recently, President of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria ( ftan) Mr. Nkereweum Onung cried out for sanity in the sector, detailing out the consequences of having every Tom, Dick and Harry carrying brief cases around pretenting to be the angels sent to deliver us from ourselves, from cultural tourism inertia.
No doubt, the unbridled confusion due to the systematic absence of a critical regulatory ecosystem for the practice and membership of the various windows and enablers of the business should be blamed, supposedly.
Years ago and during my days with the vanguard newspapers, we had ran a deliberate exposition on who actually is a tourism practitioner, a development that attracted bitter retribution and rage from powerful industry deceptive and disruptive agents with plenty questionable portfolios.
These guys were all over the place, well connected with their corrupt cashew nuts in Ghana Must Go bags, influencing cultural tourism decisions and prating questionable networth contacts with foreign ” experts” in tourism, particularly the theorists on anything tourism.
That vanguard report, which I anchored with military supervision by my boss, Ogbeni Tope Awe, opened my very ” innocent” and unassuming eyes to the rot in the system and various gaps caused by absence of critical measuring rods on how to run and power enduring engagements in the business.
We were left bare , not totally though, by the then Ministry officials who are more concerned with ” Commerce ” than tourism. The ministers then were military men whose only understanding of cultural tourism values ends at the pepper soup joint or good culture dance show at the officers mess.
The ministry officials kept no verifiable records, gave out tourism endorsement letters to everyone without running a thorough check on the recipients , and their large delegation of organised fraudsters.
We suffered from the hands of organised fly by night witches and wizards of tourism baggers without any visible sustainable foundation, most without known addresses except their well ironed starched babarigas with caps to match.
It’s not easy to forget the professionally minded, well trained, and exposed ntdc staff who fought tooth and nail at the risk of being sacked for “insubordination”by their compromised bosses at the then Ministry of Commerce and Tourism.
Ntdc ( NTB) was a solid bridge. We made their then lagos Trade Fair complex in Ojo and later in Ikeja, our meeting point. I remember late Mrs igbene, Bade Aderelegbe and when Abuja took shape, ntdc( NTB) has to move , John Adzer and my good friend, Christopher Idu stood out.
How you may ask? They ensured that practitioners were clinically processed and that everyone stayed within established focal patterns of operations and deliveries. No frog jumping allowed over official protocol engagements and also ensured the need for an enduring united front and vision for the growth of the industry.
Without being too remorseful, looking back, it’s obvious to me that more were achieved in the industry than we have now. When trouble broke out in Nata ( National Association of Travel Agents in the70′ s ( now nanta) , it was ( NTB , then Nigeria Tourism Board) ntdc that brokered a way forward and automatically made the association a board member of NTB.
Same Ntdc gave ATPN a peaceful life when the Amachiri led executive laid a winner takes all hold in the affairs of the association, forcing the hands of ntdc in partnership with the ministry of Commerce and Tourism to set up the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria to accommodate various enabling industry trade groups and associations who wish to own Atpn by all means.
Those were the days of cohesive and acceptable ways of doing business. It brought unity, respect, and direction to the industry. The industry press was also operationally part of a cohesive ecosystem, championing and at the head of the strategic advocacy to properly fund and empower the industry.
President Obasanjo was game and gave us a tourism masterplan, searched, and gave us administrators after his perception of what we should do with tourism and where it ought to be.
Obasanjo, without being dictatorial, would tongue, lash openly any official tourism misdemeanours, and everyone took note and stayed on their lane.
In recent times, I am beginning to see certain official shenanigans on official tourism policy issues. I do shiver at the minister’ s frontal neglect of the official structure of government tourism public engagement rules, outrightly neglecting her technical staff and ntda.
The frosty relationship between ntda and nihotour today was a very pedestrian avoidable mistake, and maybe madam lola Ade John was misled. Nihotour, for instance, has no business promoting and marketing Nigerian food festival without ntda being in the forefront.
It is a deliberate act to stoke bitterness between the two agencies, and the earlier we go back to the rules of engagement, the better for our peace, progress, and unity.
It is also a constitutional aberration for the minister to rubber stamp, any private sector event, or programme , particularly in endorsing such efforts without the input and support of ntda, which is the official government tourism implementation agency, with powers to conduct critical DNA checks on the promoters/ practitioners and also publicly making available the findings of socioeconomic and political gains of such proposed projects.
The minister business is to drive industry policy( ies) and even at that, with close operational working relationship with ntda. This is a non-negotiable expectation and should be elevated beyond personal irritations or misgivings. When the minister does not accord or deliberately ignore all the important rules of engagement, the marketing and promotion gains of having the seal of the president, Federal Republic of Nigeria, would be abused by the clever self seeking members of the public and or private sector players.
The Minister of Tourism holds that office in the name of the president and not herself, ditto our president holding the reigns of office on behalf of Nigerians who voted into office and not for his personal gain in whatever disguise. To endorse any tourism project(s) without the input of the implementation agency, ntda, would enthrone indiscipline in the sector and expose the name of the president and to a large extent, the federal Republic of Nigeria to ridicule, particularly when we have questionable operators who are looking for ways to use the seal and goodwill of government to enrich themselves.
I would advise the Honourable Minister of Tourism to take a cue from Hannatu Musa Musawa, the Culture minister who has some measure of a free hand for agencies heads under her failed Ministry to prove themselves in office. Even though I am not a fan of Musawa but I have watched her over time, deliberately staying back to parrot her CULTURE RENAISSANCE ” confusion and “CLAP” monkey pox cultural disease without putting clogs on the wheels of her agencies.
Though there are also noticeable shopping of projects across the culture agencies but I should think that is endemic because some of the agency heads selected by Hannatu came to office without taking time to study their areas of operation and where necessary, the limitations to their engagement due to official lapses.
For instance, NCAC official road maps are humongous, but there’s a limit to driving certain related concerns found critically frontal on the official developmental milestones of other sister agencies. So, going forward and to avoid brickings, it takes collaboration, understanding , unity of purpose, and togetherness to deliver on the gains of the sector.
Sadly, the inordinate ambition, over bloated self-worth, and nonsensical unpatriotic office politics help to speedly erode love and support for each other amongst agencies’ heads and Nigeria the worst it.
Honestly, I can’t understand why our minister would join hands with her cultural counterpart to market Nigeria outside our shores without carrying ntda along. It’s equally benubbing that the minister can not cry to the president to give her financial support to market Nigeria at global tourism events, such as forth coming world Travel Market in London with ntda at the driver seat but will go to wherever, with same government funding to lobby for the hosting unwto meeting in Nigeria next year.
I am worried that the Minister has unknowingly played into the hands of certain entrenched interests who has taken advantage of her inexperience and openness to trade with the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is a huge mistake, particularly with the Ogun state and Chinese firm issues still raging.
The minister needs to go back to the drawing table, follow the rules of engagement, call a meeting with her agencies heads, and preach peace. Whether we accept it or not, ntda is the industry tourism lead agency and so must be accorded the respect to do the job expected of it.
On the private sector rules of engagement, it is cheering to see the efforts made recently by Nkereweum Onung led Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria to define the parameters of a well organised sector and its gains for cultural tourism tomorrow. As much as the minister should carry ntda along, she will be failing in impacting on the private sector without carrying ftan along. Doing the right things and deliberately sticking official rules of engagement will enthrone peace , collaboration, and cohesiveness in the sector.
Let me ask the two ministers of cultureandtourismrespectively, Hannatu Musa Musawa and lola Ade John why jumped the scale of official ropes to request a so-called Nigeria Economic Summit Group to either review or pen new culture and tourism policies without deep checks on the faces hiding under this group attempt to frog push relevance?
These are some of the mistakes of the two ministers, which have pitched them against key industry players and bodies who felt NESG as constituted within the ecosystem does not have the practical and theoretical pedigree to do a job they lobbied inorder to divide the cohesivenes of the two sister sectors. Sadly, the poor results of their work plan have been postponed to give them the opportunity to correct their mistakes. I pray that the works were not lifted from the artificial intelligence brainwave. Bye !