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Tourism, Beyond Adversity, Suffering from Anaemia
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By Frank Meke
Experience is usually agreed to be the best teacher and looking back to about three decades ago, when opportunities came my way to be part of the story of this industry, it had been a bitter, sweet and cold experience.
If you have been around, I mean within the space mentioned, you would possibly agree that the Nigerian tourism journey is hasted by the media, and I must, in particular, credit uncle Sam Amuka’s newspaper, the vanguard newspapers for this presence.
The pictures of travel media we see today were the creative content put together by irrepressible ogbeni Tope Awe. Like Apostle Paul, I drank from that wisdom and am ready and willing to lay my life down for it.
There were also other colleagues’ apostles, not necessarily of the vanguard family but who also joined in the crusade to write and speak well about our country. Unsung heroes!
Indeed, and like some latter day saints, many of them couldn’t see beyond the glitz and luxury usually associated with the business and disappointingly lost steam due to lack of encouragement and support from government and even the private sector.
Certainly, the Anaemic nature of the sector, despite our sense of knowledge and permutations, is so benubbing that only a few of us could weather the storm, so to speak.
There are no chest beating here, and usually, I refrain from joining the noise makers and buccaneers who come to our space to prat invisibility. It’s nauseating, emetic!
Except we shut their mouths and seek for a sense modesty, it is becoming apparent that they want to deliberately rewrit the history of tourism development and including the use of poisonous carrots to lure the innocent pedestrian bystanders to join their hellinist coven.
Like I will always say and may history bear me witness, the Nigerian travel media has contributed immensely to where we are today, and no individual or organisation can hold absolute claim to that intervention. There are many journalists today who individually have contributed to keep the aneamic sector alive, while some selected leaders, particularly government officials, milk the sector dry and tell us all is well.
Between 1991 and 93, vanguard tourism bore developmental pains, paid the price, and led courageously the tourism advocacy. Late Pa Ebaboji Da silva stood with us, and may his tourism soul rest in peace. Then came champion newspapers, and I still remember my good friend Ayo Arowojolu. Then followed Daily Times with Tijjani Adebisi, a polygot of immense knowledge, and even the present Olota of ota is part of the evolution.
I won’t waste my space to join issues with ‘Buharidists’ or ‘ Jagabandists’ and/or motor garage sycophants who want to score themselves with marks for whatever fanciful achievements. I really do not blame them, though, because some people come to the marketplace to shout to attract attention to their babalawo incantations and not to sell their all curing medicinal herbs.
It could be irritating when an ostrich with its long neck thinks it could occupy the animal kingdom space where lions reign. I should think it’s suicidal and a disease of hormonal inbalance for anyone to think he is far better than others. It is just crazy and no wonder, Judas represents treachery and betrayal spirit.
We are not out of the woods,in the aneamic hangover in the sector, because the industry has been betrayed by the merchants of divide and rule. To these characters, their game is to hogwash whoever comes to the system with transactional self-worth, belittling and running down others who refused to join their solo herodian team.
No one is good except them, and as custodians of blemish and strife trajectory, they fly around like witches and wizards, intentional to lie against the truth and stab others in the back.
We have said it in the open and secret places that our new madam in tourism will just mark time and leave like others before her because the confusionists had lured her with their bait.
The propellers of industry set backs prants her space, cleverly using her “newness” and disposition to learn the tourism ropes to market themselves. Not Nigeria, not her people.
Nigeria tourism is not at the centre stage of this mission, and you ask me who is beating the drum? Last week, the madam minister gathered commissioners of culture and tourism in Abuja. Behind the game is hypocrisy .
Hypocrisy beats the drums, and the new commissioners and possibly new permanent secretaries just wondered why they must believe the deliverers at the centre who in seven years plus four couldn’t lift a finger to donate blood to the aneamic sector.
In 2006, when Otunba Segun Runsewe came to our tourism space, he informed our numerous tourism baggage carriers that talk shows are over and birthed practical verifiable tourism deliveries.
He killed fly by night portfolio operators and flew all the tourism and culture commissioners to South Africa for a week to practically see the transformation gains of the sector. Is seeing not believing?
Runsewe gave the tourism media eyes to the global tourism reportage ecosystem and helped blossom the positive escalation of travel and tourism reporting in Nigeria, even birthed the industry reportage on radio and television.
That’s deliberate collaboration with the media and not the latest divisive press releases in vogue and focal to killing tourism reportage and interpretation by government tourism agencies. Of course they can’t give what they don’t have!
It is sad that the drummers of new dance drama in tourism today have surrounded themselves with Croynists whose only usefulness is to massage the ego of their masters.
It’s difficult to owe any tourism obligation to our nation and people when the government, in its wisdom, will force down our throat ministers and agency heads whose mission and vision are at variance to the good of our cultural tourism advantages.
A minister or agency head who deliberately roll out its hosted buyers ecosystem to the media with intent to mute their suggestions or observations can only breed zombie reporters.
There’s nothing new in terms of culture and tourism policy collaboration and interpretation that Otunba Segun Runsewe has not done. Before he left the culture sector, hurried out by misfit minister of culture, Runsewe brought all the culture and tourism commissioners to Abuja to deliberate on a new path for sector. Is our madam minister apping him? Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria president Nkereweum Onung has been on the same ecosystem, almost on his knees, to bring the government and private sectors together. Did the white lions in ntda and nihotour listen?
Why is the industry still playing adversity games, or supposedly so beats the imagination. Unfortunately, the attempt to tarnish the image of travel and tourism media will fail flat.
Tourism reportage is a spiritual thing. You can’t put it down, not even with the Internet playing a huge role. Even the traditional media has upped its games, and except there is a strategic agenda to put the media first in national tourism marketing and promotion, just as Runsewe has shown, then Nigeria can only breed of the reportage of the worst in its underbelly. The people are what they read!
I won’t end without mentioning the capacity and presence that the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies has brought to the Nigerian tourism space in recent times. It’s unprecedented, from intra Africa to Africa Tourism market agenda, to a twice solo run at the World Travel Market( for Nigeria) and a practical guide to gains to centric African cultural tourism development in South Africa in collaboration with Ghana Tour Operators Association supported with open hands by South Africa government and its creative vibrant tourism agency, nanta sure cannot be ignored.
Nanta’s first strategic foray in an exclusive Air transportation and Sundry industry suppliers expo during its avant-garde Annual General Meeting is certainly futuristic to what a well organised private sector organisation can do to advance tourism in Nigeria and to the world. It’s futile to pretend to celebrate World Tourism Day in Nigeria when we know where shoes pinches.
Na which government dey bid to host WTD in Nigeria if not to milk the governors of the little resources which can be used to buy rice for their hungry poor. Bid koo, bid nii!
The Edo State Special Criminal Court has sentenced four men to death for their involvement in the kidnapping of a woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road in Benin City.
Justice Aigbona Momodu handed down the sentences after finding the defendants guilty on multiple counts connected to the kidnapping case.
The convicts are Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael.
Isaac and Michael were sentenced to death on counts two through nine. They also received separate prison terms on other counts, including seven years on count one, while Isaac was sentenced to 10 years on count 10 and life imprisonment on count 11.
Rufus Emete Michael was sentenced to death on counts two, three, four, six and seven, in addition to a seven-year prison term on count one.
The fourth defendant, Gift Raphael, was sentenced to death on counts two, four, six and eight and received seven years imprisonment on count one.
Delivering the sentences, Justice Momodu ordered that the death sentences be carried out by hanging or lethal injection, in accordance with the court’s judgment.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of a JoJef pump-action firearm and ammunition tendered as exhibits during the trial.
The firearm, identified as Exhibit M, along with two unused cartridges and two spent cartridges listed as Exhibits E and E1, was ordered to be handed over to the Edo State Police Armourer at the State Criminal Investigation Department for destruction.
Justice Momodu directed that the exhibits be transferred to the police through the Deputy Director of the Criminal Division and destroyed within 30 days.
The convictions bring to an end the trial arising from the abduction of the woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road, an incident that added to concerns over kidnapping and armed crime in Benin City.
Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has hailed the state’s strong performance in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination, describing the result as a positive reflection of ongoing efforts to reposition education in the state.
Osun placed fifth nationally in the 2026 NECO ranking, with 74.31 per cent of candidates recording at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
While congratulating the students, teachers, parents, school administrators and other stakeholders, the governor noted that the state performance has been improving within a single digit rating for three consecutive years namely 2024, 2025 and 2026.
“Osun has moved from 33rd position in the 2022 NECO ranking to 5th in 2026, while improving its pass rate to 74.31 per cent. This is encouraging, and it shows that our sustained interventions in the education sector are yielding positive results,” the Governor said.
Governor Adeleke said the improved performance reflects his administration’s deliberate investment in the education sector, including the recruitment of additional teachers to strengthen the teaching workforce, while prioritising workers’ welfare and creating a more conducive environment for effective teaching and learning across public schools.
The Governor said the performance reinforces his administration’s determination to continue investing in education, noting that the objective is to build a system that gives every Osun child the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to succeed.
“This result is encouraging, but we see it as a reason to do more. We will continue to invest in our schools, improve the learning environment, support our teachers and provide our students with the necessary tools to excel.
“We are building an education system that prepares our young people not only for examinations but for life,” the Governor said.
He assured that ongoing interventions in the education sector would be sustained and expanded, while urging students to remain committed to their studies.
His Excellency also commended teachers across the state for their dedication and sacrifices, assuring them that the administration would continue to prioritise measures that strengthen the education system and improve workers’ welfare.
The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) marked the 2026 World Tourism Day with activities which capture capacity building, technology, destination promotion and domestic tourism, and celebration.
In the South West Zone, close to 200 tour operators gathered at Ziba Beach Resort, Lagos, for a special training focused on Artificial Intelligence and its application in tourism, equipping operators with digital tools to improve their businesses and destination marketing.
In Abuja, the FCT and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, staged a colourful Tourism Awareness Walk and Hike to the Centre of Nigeria.
The celebration also spread to the South-South Zone, where members marked the day with a destination tour, alongside activities to commemorate with the world tourism day celebrations.
In line with the theme for this year’s WTD celebration: ‘Digital agenda and artificial intelligence to redesign tourism’ the NATOP training on AI and application in tour operation at Ziba Beach Resort Lagos saw a large turnout of the members of the association.
The President of the association, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha explained that the idea for the location and training was to train members on how to do tour business, to know how to promote tourism digitally, using different AI tool and everything so that they will grow their businesses.
She said: “we follow the theme and, you know, blend with the old situation. Let’s do the training so that we attach it to the World Tourism Day with the theme that we have achieved something and also celebrate.”
She said the training will go a long way in helping the tour operators do greater content to digitally tell destination stories using AI, and also using the tool for expression.
Mustapha also explained why the association chose Ziba Beach Resort: “We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. And definitely, if you look at this whole area and this community, that’s why we see that Ziba is a tourism site. We want to explore and of course. The resort newly launched its third phase. So, we will use this opportunity to look at their rooms, look at how we can sell this destination, to showcase it that the resort is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stones.
Facility tour of Ziba Beach Resort
“As tour operators who are willing to tell the good story of our Nigeria, we need to bring ourselves up to the speed, align with the digital revolution. Let everybody go digital. Because we also see the content creators are taking our business, we want to align it with what they do. We are the ones that understand the business and we’ll be able to tell the story better, so that anybody coming to Nigeria will be able to discover Nigeria with the experts.”
Also commenting on the celebration, the NATOP Vice President South West and chairman of the WTD Organizing Committee for the zone, Mrs. Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi explained why NATOP South West’s usage of the 2026 WTD for training. She said many of the members still have a lot to learn about the tour business, and that some do not understand the foundation of the business, including how to create packages hence the need for the training.
Mrs. Olatunde-Lamidi spoke further: “Many don’t understand the foundation of what it is to create a tour package. And when you have people that are not well-trained in an industry, the industry will not grow. The kind of people that you also have will not have enough earning power to do many things. And because this is an industry that I have been in for 16 years, I run Diamonds and Pearls Travels with my husband. And I’ve seen Diamonds and Pearls Travels metamorphose into a company where people don’t just look at us as travel agents. We have become a Destination Management Company (DMC). We have become a trusted brand. We have become a company that when we talk about a destination, people want to go to that destination because of how we have portrayed the destination. And you may not realize that, as tour operators, you can actually decide where people go. You can make people go to a particular destination by marketing it, by letting them know the benefits of that destination.”
The tour operators had opportunity to tour the resort and unwind during the programme.
