By Frank Meke.
Last week in lagos, Chief Samuel Alabi was his vintage self, fearless, courageous, but temperate. What exactly troubles the immediate past board chairman of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria ?
The attitude of government officials when confronted with contrary views and opinions. These guys simply forgot that they are appointed to serve and not bully people. Many of them think they can probate and reprobate at the same time. They are completely lost to sense of history and transient nature of power.
Government tourism officials at both state and federal levels are not normal. Their blood pressures are over board, very abnormal, hovering between between sudden heart attack and stroke.
Indeed, they are capable of making a normal person abnormal. They talk down on practitioners, some of them simply tell you to go jump into the lagoon and where they notice that you are also abnormal and suicidal, they simply give you a name and organise a blackmail party for you, attended by abnormal industry players who largely have not gone for medical check up to ascertain if the industry is normal at all.
So what did Chief Alabi say? He can not understand why certain hospitality related policies are driven without a measure of human face against hotel owners and managers in lagos. As we speak and because no body want to listen to him and his group, three industry disputes are waiting for adjudication at the Court of Appeal and one at the Supreme Court.
As the moderator at the recent lagos public and private sector engagement to process an alignment of policies and procedures, I had asked Chief Alabi if it’s possible to have an out of court arbitration.
I won’t tell you why it is a thought that can’t happen. You must know that the attitude of our oga’s at the top selected or appointed to guide and create the best possible enabling environment for the tourism industry to thrive are not normal people.
Don’t get me wrong. Everywhere in Nigeria, things are not normal, and yes, very abnormal. Go to our markets, fighting easily broke out between traders and customers because the prices of wares or goods are abnormal, provoking abnormal reactions, some turning very bloody.
In public buses, it’s an open drama with the driver and conductor on one side, very abnormal people, pitched against against frustrated passengers. The game of opposite of people as fela kuti sang years ago.
I don’t think it is necessary to advise you to go to the hospital and check your blood pressure. The least I can do is to alert you that the spirit of untimely death is largely occasioned by barefaced corruption by our leaders, which is the underlying factor to high blood pressure that won’t spare you. If you like, go do a check-up and also avoid the camp of abnormal people.
The other day, I was in a hospital and saw a doctor in a hurry to attend to one of his patients . The guy was about to greet the doctor when he was handed a prescription note by the doctor before he could even hello. The abnormal patient went to see the abnormal doctor in a noisy abnormal hospital, so what do you get?
Centuries ago, the Bible recorded that the children of Israel were hedged in the city of Jericho. Nobody was allowed to go in or out. There was a bedlam for those living in that besieged Jericho. It took God’s divine intervention and a six day walk around the city and the shouting army led by Joshua to liberate the city.
So when you see some people of shouting, even though our shouting has been for a long time, please forebear because it’s only abnormal people that shout out so as awken our leaders who have lost their sense of humanity and accountability to the led.
And now that i am normal because of our tourism sector’s abnormal situation, let those who report me to Satan for telling them to set us free or throw in the towel , hold their peace
However, I must report that ftan president, Nkereweum onung, is the only normal person in our abnormal industry. Since he took over the Federation, he has bent backwards to accommodate various abnormal shades of opinions. He even visited abnormal trouble markers in their den ,all for the sake of having a normal, well regulated industry.
If you agree with me, our ministry people are abnormal and don’t care if the sector crashes. They don’t even care if efcc is after them after all, there are rooms for plea bargain, and that’s if you can truly trace their abnormal loots.
There are also abnormal people at ntda and nihotour. These people “worked hard” and obtained various regulatory instruments without the input of abnormal industry players, and because the industry belongs to no particular individual, the abnormal thing is retire the documents to the archives.
Maybe in another ten years, an abnormal minister will select abnormal people to come review and submit updated abnormal documents. And the abnormal beat goes on!
About a month ago, Nkereweum Onung gathered us together in Abuja, I mean the abnormal troublers of the Israel of tourism in Nigeria. It was a secret open meeting, and how
ftan president did that magic is still a mystery till today. It is shocking and surprising that a leader betrayed by his friend and even the industry leadership will still be normal under such circumstances..
I know that Nkereweum onung is prayer warrior, but whenever i remember the many battles of prophet Elijah with abnormal worshippers of Baal, i had no doubt that he won those battles because he was a mad prophet, abnormal in every sense of the word and because he used abnormal strategies to overcome abnormal enemies.
So Nkereweum onung style of being normal among abnormal people is strange, a show of strength in face of life threatening adversity or wisdom beyond stooping so low to win souls, abnormal people in the industry!
We all promised to keep the details of that meeting out of public space, but one thing I found intriguing is that the abnormal government officials at the meeting were unapologetically combative, and It was there and then that i knew that power truely intoxicates.
By August ending, that’s two months from now, Nura Kangiwa will throw in the towel as Director General, National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies ( NIHOTOUR). The countdown has started, and we are watching and waiting .
My paddy man “before , before,” Folarin Coker, has till now and march next year to go back to lagos. He has barely nine months to redeem his image. The problem of Coker is that he is stingy and in an industry where every player is abnormal, Coker can be normal if he says something else we have not seen or heard.
The reality check now is that Coker is being allegedly presented by his new boss minister as being irredeemable and Coker can’t allow that to stick, not when there clear opportunities to remain within the corridors of power even away from the madding tourism industry.
Don’t ask me where Nura Kangiwa will be heading back to . I am not sure kebbi holds any prospects and to go back to kaduna into the waiting hands of industry operators whom he once led as Vice president, North West, ftan but abandoned during his four years stint at Nihotour, it will be humiliating to nestle in kaduna.
So it is an abnormal situation for both Coker and Nura. But we hear of heavy nocturnal lobbying by two of them. While Coker may deploy his long tested political connections , particularly if he can beg his benefactors who felt let down by his performance in office to forgive him, Nura Kangiwa may need more than his national assembly connection to either retain his office for the second tenure or even dare move up.
Nura Kangiwa is a farmer before his appointment, so it will not be abnormal if he too want to farm the tourism ministerial post against his madam minister whom he has provided life support opportunities since she returned to her beat.
Some people may consider that prospect an act betrayal but in truth the politics of abnormal people is all about betraying each other and even the collective. Now you can see that between the two months remaining for Nura Kangiwa in Nihotour and nine months for Folarin Coker in ntda, noting good will happen to the industry other than abnormal survival politics.
Please don’t ask me where madam minister is in all of this equation. The truth is that she is not a politician and is working with abnormal people in an abnormal environment. All I know is that Coker may bounce back like the Red Devil, Manchester United against a Manchester City that thought it has got all it takes to be the king. Like tourism in Nigeria, football or soccer can also be abnormal and unpredictable. Congratulations, madam minister tourism, as the latest recipient of Nihotour Fellowship. It is certainly deserving for a failed minister in an abnormal sector.