NTDA DG visits Onisabe, pledges support for gelede festival
The tourism sector is one huge sector that can turn around the fortune of Nigeria, especially if the relevant stakeholders connected to the value chain are well synergised for a
The tourism sector is one huge sector that can turn around the fortune of Nigeria, especially if the relevant stakeholders connected to the value chain are well synergised for a coordinated outcome.
This was the submission of the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority, NTDA, Dr. Ola Awakan, when he paid a courtesy visit to the palace of the Oba of Igbobi-Sabe, Oba Owolabi Adeshina Adeniyi in Yaba Area of Lagos.
Awakan, who stated that the mandate of the NTDA is to market Nigeria, her hospitality, iconic sites and so on, also informed his host, the Kabiesi and the noble audience and journalists that part of the ways he wished to carry out this mandate is through story-telling.
In his words, the former award-winning broadcast journalist with Television Continental (TVC), said “Story-telling is another way of developing tourism. I know the potency of storytelling. Nigeria is a microcosm of storytelling. We can use it to attract the world. What we have is enough to rule Africa. Oil will not continue to sustain us, but what we have is enough to sustain us.”
He cited Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries that are already employing this model to their advantage.
To this end, Awakan said he created Nitourey, a digital streaming platform to tell the Nigerian story, and promote the Nigerian tourism sector globally through film, multimedia storytelling and digital technology.
”People hunger for our jollof, amala, even clothes and dances, but first, we have to showcase them to the world,” he said, adding that the platform, will also help change the misconception that Nigeria is a war zone and a no-go area.
He said the platform has been conceived in a way that viewers have the option button to click if they would like to visit.
While noting that tourism in Nigeria is community-based and private sector-driven Awakan said only true partnership and cooperation with the communities will help the sector go far and attain its full potentials.
To this end, he pledged that the NTDA would work with Oba Adeniyi and the Igbobi-Sabe community in their quest to propagate the Gelede masquerade culture to the global Stage.
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Earlier, the widely traveled monarch had welcomed the NTDA DG and his team to his palace, regaling them with the story of the gelede masquerade, which he said is the only masquerade indigenous and celebrated in the community while inviting the body to be part of future celebrations.
He also told the visitors that the kingdom is home to two historic iroko tree sites in Abule-Ijesha and Igbobi, with the Baale of Abule-Ijesha disclosing that the one in his domain is over 180years old.
Oba Adeniyi stated that part of his wishes for the sites was to have them gain the UNESCO recognition, but first, he sought the NTDA's support in giving them facelifts and opportunities to make them tourists attraction and showcase them to the world.
In appreciation, Oba Adeniyi presented Dr. Awakan with a complete set of aso-oke and pledged to honour him a with a chieftaincy title in appreciation of his contribution to culture.
The visit ended with a visit to the iroko site in Abule-Ijesha, where the NTDA DG made a commitment to help in giving it a facelift.
