BEFORE WE SHELVE THIS ‘‘BEST TOURISM STATE” AWARD
So about a week ago, Akwa Ibom State was awarded Best Tourism State in Nigeria. Well, there is also an award for best porn movie where the winner thanks God and family for winning.
Let’s be serious for once, who organized that award and by what parameter did they employ to arrive at the winner? Alright, Abuja Jabamah did, at their yearly tourism event tagged ‘Wonders of Nigeria Expo’. I get. If the headline is truly what it is, then I appreciate the objective. But, that Akwa Ibom was adjudged Best Tourism State by the organizers of the event is perplexing, if not suspicious — given that it has done nothing tourism-commendable in the last five years — and its social places a far cry from what they used to be in the not-too-distant past; clean, green and welcoming. I say this on authority, as one who has visited Akwa Ibom at least a dozen times in the last 14 months.
But on a second thought, it makes sense to think the other 35 states of the country are in a shittier state of environmental degradation; that Akwa Ibom should grab the award for Best Tourism State. In which case I suppose, TOURISM — as an expression for organized commercialization of leisure and social hospitality — had no business being mentioned at any awards category whatsoever in Nigeria, not by our standard, and by no means not by any standard. In fact, if there was a word, a phrase, an appropriate titling of any category of that notion — then it should have sounded like ‘AWARD FOR LEAST FILTHY STATE’. There!
It is amazing how, no, sad that seven or ten years ago, Akwa Ibom didn’t just make a strong statement in the area of social corporate infrastructure (adjudged the most aggressive in the country’s history), but had broken away from national anonymity and or confused-identity. It was a state on a mission of self-rediscovery and general social reconfiguration; a state beckoning on a future where it’s pitched at the highest level of industrial-social competition with states like Lagos, Kano, Rivers and the FCT. With the greatest food culture this side of the sub-Sahara, well-paved standard roads lined by exotic trees, a 5-star hotel, an international stadium, an airport — Akwa Ibom is bounded at the rear by the Atlantic — and boasting the longest sand beach in West Africa. It could have easily become one of the biggest tourism destinations in the world. Sadly, for whatever reason not unrelated to intrinsic peculiar factors informing the African man’s famed failings, Akwa Ibom had unwittingly failed to leverage on all that advantage — to essentially grow tourism as a means of reflating local economy, even while pursuing priority manifesto programs.
For lack of a visionary workable plan to grow tourism, big and long-term; laws (strict laws) — hitherto, were never enacted to protect public goods and socio-cultural/historical sites (as a first step in building any tourism business), and citizenship education bordering on attitude-change towards environment remained at zero. Consequently, historical sites that should potentially attract tourist traffic lay in ruins. Trees planted to give serenity to streets are destroyed or cut down irresponsibly. Gutters are blocked by all manner of rubbish; from non-biodegradable junk, to used tyres (people don’t just give a monkey’s left eye what goes in where) to all forms of plastics, tree trunks, you name it. Roads break away, beautiful roundabouts become dirty market places, lawns get stamped out by unrestricted pedestrian, and the underpasses of flyovers pervaded by all manner of social do-nots — ranging from public excretion, refuse dump, unlawful bill-posting, vandalism, and whatnot.
Maybe government is not to blame (for lacking a defining initiative to grow tourism beyond Christmas Village?), and maybe citizens are not also to blame (for being passive and mainly destructive?). But one thing is certain; we are dilly-dallying in a vicious circle, blind to opportunities. We are operating a culture lacking thrust and emphasis on definitive growth — and we just frittered away a decade exporting talk — staring at a large pot (capable of feeding plenty) sitting on an unlit stove, while its content shrivels. Akwa Ibom has the geographic, socio-cultural and infrastructural raw materials to become a global tourism hotspot, many times the advantage had by countries all over the world raking in serious revenue through tourism; countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, etcetera — whose economies rely on tourism — to a large extent. Yet we fail to set up the sector, we fail to build on what we have, to deploy our resources rightly and timely. Perhaps it is that we are unsure or just afraid, or lack ambition and the cojones to invest. Or we are just regular playing politics. But perhaps it is true, after all, that being successful at organization level is not the biological imperative of the African man. And these does not worry us, yet, even with the economy about to have us in a Peruvian necktie, and global industrial revolution signalling a world away from oil.
But I don’t believe we can’t triage this one; in fact — let me clue you in on some expert opinion. Tourism is an intentional, serious business. You start out by putting up strict laws to protect and respect what you build. Then you partner the people through attitude reorientation programmes on security, hospitality and accessibility. You got good paved roads with street lights? Maintain them and keep them neat. You got parks? Street lawns? Nature gardens? Keep them clean and green. Infrastructures? Keep those running and efficient. You do all these consistently, which is more or less like laying the groundwork, and you watch how much interest you begin to attract to the state. From here on out, it is easy to innovate, to work out a suitable model to grow tourism bigtime, and for the long haul. We have done it with Ibom Air. Cannot we also show the rest of Nigeria that this could be done? Too?
