For
years, Nigeria as a nation has under-utilized – if not outrightly ignored
– her tourism potential by doing little to preserve and promote its
rich cultural heritage, alongside all the God-given natural gifts that
abound in Africa’s most populous nation. The Fascinating Nigeria
initiative aims to check and correct this past negligence with an aim
to improve, sustain and amplify the country’s tourism culture. To shed
some light on the initiative, Chief Edem Duke, the Honorable
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Natural Orientation, graciously granted
this quick but thorough interview from the departure lounge of the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
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| HIGH CHIEF EDEM DUKE |
What is the Fascinating Nigeria project really all about?
Fascinating Nigeria
is the new way of communicating the tourism brand that Nigeria is
offering to the world. It is an aggregation of all the cultural assets,
all the tourism assets and all the definitive elements of our rich,
cultural endowment. [It] is an expression of the creativity of every
individual Nigerian; it is about the investment climate of Nigeria,
which is the most profitable on the continent of Africa. [It] speaks to
the very essence of the DNA of every Nigerian; the fact that we are a
resilient people, we are very creative, we have dynamic enthusiasm, we
are very forward looking, able to survive in all kinds of environments
and we always take pride in our Nigerianness.
It is our belief that before now, Nigeria has been seen through a keyhole but in utilizing Fascinating Nigeria as
a platform to tell the new and interesting stories of Nigeria, we open a
big and wide door into, perhaps, one of the greatest countries on the
face of the earth.
It
all sounds very interesting but surely, you can understand the
skepticism of Nigerians, as several initiatives are launched with no
follow through. How is this different and what do we really have to
offer from a tourist standpoint – Kenya has the Safari, for example – as
business is the main reason foreigners visit Nigeria?
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