It is time we started creating our own myths to cash in on the potential of tourism

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Ngwa, my people. Let us discuss tourism today because every serious nation has a thriving tourist industry. If you cannot attract tourists to your country, it is an indication that you are not really prepared to be an integral part of the global economy. Apart from the revenue it generates, exposing your populace to the outside world is vital for socio-economic development

(2) When you bear in mind that something like 70% of the Nigerian population have never set foot outside the country before, getting them to meet and mingle with tourists is one way to expose them to the realities of the outside world. Nigeria has never been the same since World War Two when our troops went to Burma and then Europe. They mingled with troops from elsewhere and it changed their outlook in life for ever. One immediate effect was that the transistor radio became a widely used consumer good across Nigeria

(3) Today is June 17. On this day in 1631, Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of the emperor of Moghul in India died during childbirth. Her husband, Emperor Shah Jahan I, spent the next 17 years building her mausoleum, now known as the Taj Mahal. Today the Taj Mahal attracts between 7m and 8m visitors a year and in 2007, it was declared a winner of the New7Wonders of the World initiative

(4) Do you know that India earned $27bn from foreign tourist arrivals in 2017, with the Taj Mahal being the major cash cow. Now, Nigeria’s total budget for 2019 is only $24bn, so as you can see, we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not expanding our economy into key sectors like tourism

(5) Some people will talk about the lack of security but I fail to buy that argument. India has always been more violent than Nigeria, there are more AK47s in the country and the Kashmiri crisis has claimed 10 times more lives than the Boko Haram insurgency. India’s Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs have carried out some of the most brutal pogroms against each other that man has ever witnessed. If we are waiting for perfection before doing anything, we will remain perpetually under-developed

(6) When I look at revenue generated by certain monuments globally, I keep asking myself why Nigeria does not have just one iconic building that serves as another wonder of the world. France’s Eiffel Tower has been declared the most valuable monument in Europe, worth £343bn, the Colloseum in Rome is valued at £72bn, while the Tower of London is worth £56bn

(7) What you find in any developing nation with a tourist attraction like the Taj Mahal is that you have good security, accommodation, transport, etc around these sites. With time, this spreads to the surrounding area and you get piecemeal development

(8) If you ask me, Nigeria is long due a major tourist attraction that should serve as a global magnet. Personally, I would build the world’s tallest structure near the Cameroon border in Taraba/Adamawa states and call it the Tower of Babel. Nigeria and Cameroon account for 2.6% of the world’s population but account for 10% of its languages. If there was ever a Tower of Babel, it must have existed along their border

(9) Were Nigeria a European and Middle East country, the Koma people recently discovered along the border would have been painted as the descendants of the original builders of the Tower of Babel, who were forbidden from leaving the site to defend its history. This is how many of the myths and legends surrounding Christianity and Islam were built. Today, Nigerians pay millions to pray at the Kaaba and Wailing Wall and I think it is time we got in on the act too

(10) That Taraba/Adamawa axis is home to the most beautiful part of Nigeria. In Taraba, we have the Gashaka Park, probably the last sanctuary of wildlife like elephants, giraffes, lions, leopards, etc in Nigeria, while in Adamawa we the table top Mambilla Plateau. Both in my opinion should be part of a Tower of Babel tourist site. It should be given a five year mandate to match crude oil revenue

Share