Tales... from Fascinating Nigeria

By Atim Nkese Nkpubre

Nigeria is a fascinating country by all standards. This “giant of Africa” is not only the most populous country in Africa but is also ranked the 7th most populous in the world. Nigerians would readily testify to our varied landscape, biodiversity and rich natural endowment as common evidence of our collective appeal.
Any foreigner who has visited our country, and I’m not even talking about our numerous tourist attractions, would agree there is something distinctly unique about us. What’s more, Nigerians are resourceful, hardworking and also quite resilient and are rated the happiest people in the world! See what I mean?
Tapping into this realism, the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation recently unveiled a new tourism brand identity for Nigeria tagged “Fascinating Nigeria.” To deepen awareness and, perhaps, demonstrate the seriousness of the project, a magazine as well as the brand’s theme, logo, and tourism website, which encompasses the details and information about Nigeria were launched alongside the new campaign. Undoubtedly, the Fascinating Nigeria project is meant to improve the tourism sector and reposition the country  as one of the tourism capitals of the world.
The Honourable Minister for Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, is no doubt happy to have birthed the dream. At an event in Lagos to sell the new brand identity project, the Minister clarified that “Our brand identity is Fascinating Nigeria because there is nowhere else in the world that this appellation best suits, whether it is in business, nature’s endowment, investment climate, agriculture, whatever, but tourism is the first letter of recommendation and our culture is a major collateral for this to activate”.
He said the brand identity expresses Nigerians’ creative industry and indicates that Nigeria is the most fascinating country in the world in terms of weather, beautiful landscape, literature, music, dance, festivals, resilient and fun-loving people.
The idea, Duke stated, is in the mode of countries such as India that has Incredible India, South Africa’s It Is Possible and Malaysia’s Truly Asia. For him, Nigeria’s lack of brand identity had been a missing link in the nation’s tourism development drive.
There is no doubt about the Minister’s seriousness in prosecuting a refreshing brand identity for Tourism. I watched the Minister’s visit to the Zambian National Park on NTA Newsline of September 1, where he spoke quite passionately his ministry’s determination to ensure that Nigeria joins the rest of the civilised world making tourism a revenue generating sector that at least complements the petro dollar.
To help boost the brand, Duke informed that about 100 heritage sites have been pencilled down to be developed across the country.
However, we all know that the task of transforming Nigeria into a true tourism destination is a collective effort that involves the totality of our country and its people. It takes more than a fascinating campaign slogan to attract visitors to this country. We need to give more serious thoughts to some aspects of our national life that could work against the tourism campaign and I’ll look at a few.
Armed Insurgency: We, most certainly, need to revisit the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country if we are truly serious apart joining hands with the government to ensure the success of this laudable initiative. This is because safety is at the very heart of the tourism enterprise.  No tourist would want to visit a country, no matter how fascinating, when his/her safety is not guaranteed. This hydra-headed menace of armed insurgency needs to be tackled in its totality, and let the sponsors and the perpetrators alike, for the sake of our dear country, which they profess to love so dearly, sheathe their sword and give peace a chance.
Our Aviation Woes: Nigeria’s aviation industry has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. This is in spite of the efforts of the Honourable Minister for Aviation, Stella Oduah, to resuscitate the sector and the billions of naira spent on upgrading the facilities to international standard. It’s quite embarrassing though that our airports are without the necessary perimeter fencing and have in the recent past played host to strayed cows and wild animals. It took the “ingenuity” of a 13 year-old Ajala the traveller, Daniel Ohikena, who flew to Lagos in the main wheel of an Arik aircraft, for the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to announce new security measures. As I write, no one has given a satisfactory answer about how a gutsy stowaway flew in a tyre hole from the Benin airport to the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos undetected. We’ve been told that henceforth,” a security vehicle would be deployed to a point within full view of the aircraft as it taxies out to take off at the airport aimed at maintaining visual scrutiny until every departing aircraft was safely airborne”. Is this the type of news that a serious tourist would want to hear?
The Ranking of Lagos: I read in last Friday’s papers that our dear Lagos was recently ranked the 4th worst city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, an independent forecasting and advisory business within the Economist group. It is instructive to note that the top worst cities of the Economist are mainly in Africa and Asia. One would have thought that those were in the A league, since their names start and end with the letter A. Funny.
The recent ranking of Lagos must be a very distressing piece of news for Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, the governor of Lagos state, especially with all the effort he’s making to transform Lagos into a mega city. It’s like putting a pin into his bubble, seriously. Well, I’ve lived in Lagos for the past two decades and it is one city with its own unique flavour. I absolutely love this Lagos! The city literally never sleeps. The hustle and bustle, the chaos,  the notorious traffic snarl, and of course, the happy-go-lucky Lagosians, and even the menace of the area boys all serve to balance out the equation for the mega city, so much so that I miss Lagos, whenever I travel out of the city. Lagos is in a class of its own.
It is therefore unpardonable that anyone could think of our Lagos, the melting pot and Nigeria’s economic capital as one of the worst cities in the world. But, not to worry, our dear governor Fashola, we are solidly behind you. This is our own mega City whether the team at the Economist Group likes it or not. Wetin concern dem, sef? Yes we like as Lagos wo wo reach. Monkey e no fine, but im mama like am. A beg make dem mind dem business o jare! 
Nigeria is truly a theatre of the absurd, our Petroleum Minister, the delectable Mrs Deziani Allison-Madueke has been accused of spending a staggering N2billion on private jet rentals in two years! Such obscene amount of money According to a non- governmental organisation, the Crusader For Good Governance. The NGO blew the whistle in a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).
Meanwhile, the country’s leadership has been criss-crossing the globe in the search of elusive investors, whilst we fritter money, needlessly. I hope it is not true, sha. How do we expect to be taken seriously by right-thinking investors when we are not seen to be managing well what we already have? 
When you add all of the above to the scenario playing out in Taraba and Rivers states, to name just a few, you’d agree that our brand identity is truly fascinating, indeed. We, sure have a long way to go. This fascinating Nigeria, sef!