It was the other side of me, acting – which I most often see as the better side – that took me to the Reiz Continental Hotel in Abuja; venue of a one-day tourism communication workshop organized by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, NIHOTOUR where I acted in a drama sketch which as a matter of sincerity betrays my conscience because it smirks of propaganda.
After the sketch, titled Beautiful Underbelly which did not take the audience much pain to connect with as they all chant ‘the Squeeze’, ‘the Squeeze’ long after the play had finished, I decided to stay back to participate in the workshop which was meant for tourism journalist of which I am one. I listened with rapt attention as speaker after speaker do justice to their respective topic of discussion and receive applause from the audience. Though none is comparable to the applause received by the drama sketch but they nonetheless deserved the applause all the same for a job well done.
Without prejudice to any of the egg-heads that delivered those well researched papers; it was obvious that the message, unanimously passed across by all four speakers is that Nigerian writers/journalists should learn to always write about the beautiful aspect of Nigeria rather than concentrating on the negative aspect which is capable of scaring international tourists and investors away from our country.
The question is; do we have to pretend that we are good when we are not? How much of lies do we need to tell in order to make our country a tourist destination? Aren’t we rather supposed to be asking ourselves what we are suppose to do that we are not doing or rather what we are doing that we ought to atop doing.
One of the paper presenters argued passionately and I do concur with him that the development of our tourism depends a great deal on what impression we create of our country through our writings. Not to forget that for this same reason, the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, recently had a breakfast meeting with the Association of Nigerian Authors for this same reason – to appeal to them, as critical partners in the re-branding project to promote the better side of Nigeria with their craft and be a good ambassador of same – rather tan face their real issues.
The real issue, as I was able to sum up the courage to tell the gathering is for government to stop pretending and create the enabling environment for an improved standard of living for Nigerians and in Nigerian for the would be tourists and investors rather than calling a spade by a different name. To say nothing is working in our dear country may sound like overkill but it is the truth all the same. There are well known private tourism development initiatives that are not able to thrive because of the economic situation, epileptic nature of electricity supply, security issues and other factors too numerous to mention for fear of doing that which you are asked not to do – write Nigeria down.
No matter how we try. No matter what we do. Even if we commission some of the best among us to write about the Beautiful Underbellies of this country –which in the first place are yet to be full tapped into – it may never be enough to woo tourists and investor. What we need to do is to create the enabling environment rather than push the blame of not being able to live up to our biddings on the writers/journalists.
There is crime in South Africa. There is homicide in the US. Terrorism is the order of the day in India. Japan is prone to natural disaster. The list is inexhaustible. These problems are known to everyone the world over because they write about it but yet, it has not in anyway stop tourists from visiting those countries. So, why then should the fact that Nigerian writers/journalists write about the bad things happening in Nigeria be responsible for tourists’ failure to visit Nigeria.
Like the Yorubas will say Ohun to wa leyin ofa, o ju eje lo – which literally meant that ‘what is after six is beyond seven’. Our government should call a spade a spade and as a matter of urgency and with all sense of responsibility put their acts together and create the needed enabling environment and dividend of democracy. Without constant supply of electricity, adequate security and such other amenities, we cannot be talking about re-branding or tourism development.
JERRY ADESEWO
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