I hope the Nigerian Tourist Board was paying close attention to the way France made sure the Eiffel Tower was at the centre of everything during the Paris Olympics

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We have all witnessed a brilliantly organised Olympics and one thing that struck me about the Paris games was how central the Eiffel Tower was to everything. I noticed that the organisers used the event to push France’s most famous landmark at every opportunity

[2] I for one will be looking out for figures next year but I am certain that the number of tourists the Eiffel Tower attracts in 2025 will be substantially up

[3] Every serious nation has at least one globally acclaimed landmark that serves as an international tourist attraction. Be it Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin, the Brandenburg Gate, the Pyramids of Giza, the Kaaba, the Great Wall of China, Robben Island or Niagara Falls

[4] The fact that Nigeria has no such landmark tells you how unserious we are as a nation. Even if we have no historic monuments, what stops us building something new like the Sydney Opera House?

[5] India is bidding to host the 2036 Olympics and Egypt is looking to organise the 2040 games. Can you just imagine how central the Taj Mahal and the Giza Pyramid will be to their bids?

[6] When as a nation you host major sporting events, the long term goal has got to be to generate the local economy, open up new markets, create new job and increase prosperity. From what I saw in Paris, the French understood this very well

[7] Nigeria last understood this in 1977 when we hosted Festac 77. At the time, we built what has now become our most iconic building in the National Theatre, we built Festac Town and a set of prefabricated buildings were built at Unilag, which are still standing today, used as halls of residence

[8] I like the fact that we have eventually got round to refurbishing the National Theatre as part of a plan that involves it being renamed the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts. However, there is no land for expansion next to it, so a new national edifice needs to be built to serve as the face of Nigeria

[9] Ideas that should be running through our collective heads at the moment should include building the world’s largest hospital in Lagos, building the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant in Lokoja, building the world’s largest solar farm in Zamfara State, building the world’s biggest Ferris wheel at Ore along the Sagamu-Benin Expressway, building the world’s largest cattle ranch in Sambisa Forest, opening the world’s largest wildlife park in Taraba State, building the world’s largest wind farm along Nigeria’a Atlantic coast, building that world’s biggest shipyard in the Niger Delta, opening the world’s largest electric car plant in Nnewi, etc. In all these instances, we should build tourist infrastructure around these monuments

[10] To kickstart this whole process, I think we need to host Festac 2027 on the 50th anniversary of arguably our greatest feat as a nation to date. We then need to back this up with plans to host other major sporting tournaments like the Commonwealth Games, World Athletics Championship, Olympics, Fifa World Cup, etc. This will force the pace of development and push us to upgrade our infrastructure to meet international standards.

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com