President of Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria, Femi Fadina, says Nigeria’s tourism can compete anywhere in the world, adding that youth should drive the production of tourism products in Nigeria, among other issues. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts
Can you tell us what you have done since you became ATPN President?
We are repositioning a wonderful association that has been there since 1993. We are trying to restructure it and we understand that this restructuring is a process and we can’t reform without compliance. We are putting restructuring in place and by the special grace of God things are going the planned.
Apart from restructuring you talked about, what other things are you looking at?
Well, one of the things is that you have to put your home in order before you can start doing onboarding. From onboarding, then you need to do what is membership drive. From membership drive, you also need to put a lot in place which is also part of trying to make sure that strategies and people understanding the visions and objectives of the association and from there, strategic partnership which are all these pushing towards tourism direction.
You talked about strategic partnership, who are the people you’re collaborating with?
Of course, you have to collaborate with the agencies that are doing the right thing at the moment. NIHOTOUR is one of them, NTDA, state governments and corporate entities. Just to make sure that things are going in the right direction and we have those who are standing by.
What’s your assessment of tourism in Nigeria?
Well, tourism is an inclusive work. It’s local. So you have to drive it from local. And to drive it from local, you need to carry the chairmen along, you need to carry quite a lot of structures along because culture development means you need to work with the traditional institutions. You need to work with the local governments. You need to drive it from the local before it can go global. I’m not saying they are no signing of MoUs and things like that. But one of the most important things is what are the boxes, things that are put together inside the MoUs that can favour the locals. Because it is only when the locals are driven. And for me, some of our festivals are more of a jamboree than a production. We need to make sure that some of our festivals are pushed towards production instead of pushing them towards jamboree.
There’s a school of thought that tourism democratised, make it participatory as you emphasised on need for locals to buy into it. What’s is your take?
You see, tourism comes in two ways especially when you come to locals. When you come to the traditional aspect of it, you need to define the tradition, customs, festivals, and promotions. Like what is going on in my town right now for the Egungun festival. Before the Egungun birth, there is something they call Agbo. No man can see Agbo. The moment you see it, you’re dead. Those traditional products must be separated from the cultural and festival products. So for me, there is quite a lot that we need to learn in the area of making sure that our products are well positioned in terms of promotions, and at the same time, in terms of understanding the process of implementations of some of these our MoUs.
In terms of promoting the locals, are there other things we can also do to make sure that we drive this process?
Let me take a case study on Awori Day in particular. Awori because it’s driven by locals, then it’s also moved by strategic partnership, which also creates the economy. Don’t forget that tourism has different products. It’s the products you assemble together, you have the tourism economy. So you need to tactically and strategically position the products, develop the products, so that the products becomes an opportunity for all locals to benefit, including the ones selling pure water, they must benefit. To the ones selling clothes, they must benefit. So it depends on how you have to position them.
As Chairman of Awori Tourism, what projects have carried out?
Idea Hub. It is a youth development initiative that I birthed in Ota. We have over 125 youths that have been part of it. It’s driven locally and it’s going global. It’s one thing that I see as a legacy project for me and the younger generation. And it’s been driven by youths.
What’s the vision behind it?
The vision is to make sure that our tourism products are locally, strategically pushed to the global space. And it’s driven by youths.
Apart from Awori tourism, ATPN for me, is for us to make sure that compliance is in place so that the practitioners are happy to be part of the process and they will see the benefits of their products. So for me, non-compliance, justice, equity and fair play, is all I believe an association should have. And that’s what I stand for.
Recently, the Obi of Onitsha emphasised on economic aspect of tourism and the need to get youths involved in tourism?
For you to have anything sustainable children must carry it. That is what I’m doing in Ota with the idea of driving the youth development initiative, making sure that the youths are actually running the hub because they are the tomorrow. The majority of us in the next few years will not be there. What are we leaving behind for the children to carry and run their future? And that is why you have to make sure that the youth is none negotiable. They must be part of the drive.
What is the way forward for tourism in Nigeria?
The way forward is driving an inclusive youth-driven initiatives. You must put all the elements to make sure that the youths catch the fire, run with the fire, bring the technology, bring their speed and energy into driving what we are doing. Because the majority of our youths right now are ignorant. For me, they’re looking at it from going outbound instead of going local and developing local products. So I look forward for them to develop our products locally, because we have products, but we need to develop our products, not into jamboree, but into production. I use the word production, it is when they do a production that you can really get foreign buyers and the brands identifying with it. It’s good to do a colourful programme. It’s good to do a lot of things, but you need to put the thing on the pedestal of production. It’s non-negotiable.
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