Foreign investors or tourists? - 2

Our debasement shows everywhere. There is no direction or guidance for our people and it is heartbreaking. Our hunters kill anything they see in the forests. That is why, in the whole of Nigeria, we have nothing like the Entebbe games reserve where the animals are well kept and robust, in their natural environments. The professionalism of the tour guides is second to none, and must be partly as a result of frequent interaction with foreigners who have very high standards. For those who have more time, there is the Gorilla Trail, where you go with these tour guides into the jungle and see live gorillas, like they do with the safari in Kenya and tours of the Serengeti or Kruger National Park in South Africa. In Nigeria, despite what we have in the Cross-River area and many parts, we are just not organized to do anything like that… and if we did, I’m afraid we are too accident-prone. Stray hunters will shoot the tourists!

All this is to tell us we seem to be looking in the wrong direction for salvation. I still repeat the experience I had in Ethiopia a couple of weeks back. This country - full of rocks and bad for planting in the most parts - is waking up in a big way, and its focus is its aviation sector. Ethiopia is controlling most of Africa with that sector today, and Nigerians can only queue up as its shameless ‘big brother’ where they have resources and population but know not what to do with them. Ethiopian Airlines has even colonized West African aviation business with its takeover of A-Sky Airlines. When you visit their Bole Airport which is being expanded, you will cry for Nigeria. Nobody comes into Nigeria. Everybody courses through Ethiopia, and Ethiopia has a product with which they collect money from the pockets of most African citizens.

What makes a country successful is the ability to create products that reach into people’s pockets, not necessarily government-to-government or G2G as development people like to call it. G2G is too controlled and crazy people are in charge. A country like Nigeria can never get anything substantial and sustainable through G2G. Instead we should thing I2I. Individual to Individual. What is a Nigerian selling (like those tour guides of Uganda, or the hotels of Ethiopia who host overnight travellers aplenty), that other citizens of this world would want to buy. The answer for now, is little, or nothing.

And that is why people did not see the irony in sharing a recent article in Bloomberg, written by a professor, Tyler Cowen, which he titled “I’m a Tourist in Lagos, You Have a Problem With That?” The title alone shows what an anathema it is to come to Lagos as a tourist, or indeed to any other part of Nigeria. The title tells of the kind of question a person may be asked abroad if he says he is off to Nigeria for tourism. It will be something like; ‘are you crazy? Are you on a suicide mission?’ It is the equivalent of a Nigerian claiming he is off to Iraq or Afghanistan, What makes a country successful is the ability to create products that reach into people’s pockets, not necessarily government-togovernment or G2G as development people like to call it. G2G is too controlled and crazy people are in charge or Aleppo, Syria for our regular shopping sprees. Someone please consult his pastor or jujuman.

It tells of just how bad our image is and the number of barriers we have to overcome. And until we overcome these barriers, the country is not going anywhere. We have to overcome negative image. We have to overcome innate inefficiencies. We have to overcome corruption. We have to overcome the likelihood of people coming down with diseases when they come here, and so that speaks to public health and the environment. We have to overcome insecurity in the land. We have to overcome our broken infrastructure. We have to overcome disunity, by which the country is dragged in different directions and we are not pulling in the same direction, and the citizens of the country are the same ones undermining the country. In short, we have to urgently set out to create a new country. Those running it now don’t seem to know the enormity of the task, or they probably know and cannot do anything about it. If we continue like this, this country is heading to Hell.

And so the other day, I was searching online for comments about Abuja Sheraton Hotel, which I know is in a bad shape. But the Google search took me elsewhere. I came up with a result “The Most Expensive Hotel in the World?” which I interrogated. It couldn’t be Sheraton Abuja, I thought. But it ended up being the Hilton Abuja. I interrogated further and saw a number of customer complaints, especially about how much they were charged per night at that hotel. The complainants were mostly Europeans who never have such free money to spend unlike Nigerians. The Management of the Hilton Abuja sweated on that ‘Trip Advisor’ site to explain their charges and their staff ’s alleged tardiness. The thread I read happened in 2011. But that is not the gist, even though a major disincentive to tourism in Nigeria is the high rates charged by the few brand hotels we have. I once stayed at Hilton Metropole for as low as $150 per night but here, they would probably charge about $400 at the minimum. For what?

The gist is that flashing somewhere on top of the screen was a ‘travel alert’. I clicked on it and it was the US Government warning their citizens - and basically the rest of the world not to go anywhere near Nigeria in short. They listed the states. They listed the whole of northern Nigeria. They listed the south too. Oh my. There is no need trying to cherry-pick. Which normal tourist will be gingerly sidestepping one state from another in Nigeria? When there are other places to go for tourism? The damage that this type of advert does to Nigeria is irreparable. Maybe the alert was issued in 2011 at the peak of Boko Haram bombings. But till date, it hasn’t been taken down. No matter how we advertise the rolling hills of Lokoja, or Obudu and co, no one will come there. The foreigners we see here are hardened foreign service people, many of whom are basically serving punishment by being posted here. Some of them will tell you they like Nigeria, and indeed Nigeria is likeable. But it is only because they were forced to live with us.

Which takes me to Obudu. Again, my neighbour who is from there had been on my case for several years that we should go. But recently when we met at a party, I asked how about a trip up there - since the new era has locked us down in Nigeria. He shook his head in pity… Obudu is now mismanaged; a ghost of itself. Nothing works anymore. Something about the foreign partners not being paid until they left in anger. Hmm. Without foreigners we can’t even run tourist centres. A friend also went to Ikogosi recently and subtly complained. I was there earlier in the year for a friend’s 50th. Can’t say I was impressed. They said it’s Fayose that neglected the place. I say it’s deeper than that. We are just a people who don’t realize what their real strengths are. But I beg government; don’t take us a-borrowing! And stop this worship of ‘foreign investors’. There is no hope in the route you have chosen.