Connect with us

Tourism and Hospitality

World Tourism Day: NIHOTOUR Celebrates 2021 With Vocational Skill Tranning for Youth, Women In Kebbi State

Published

on

Police, stakeholders reach agreements to check herdsmen/farmers’ clashes in Abia Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/04/police-stakeholders-reach-agreements-check-herdsmenfarmers-clashes-abia/
Share this Story

The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) has concluded arrangements to impact knowledge-based Tour Guiding skills for youths and women in Kebbi State during the occasion marking the 2021 World Tourism Day celebration to be hosted in Kebbi State. adsbygoogle || []).push({}); adsbygoogle || []).push({}); This is in continuation of its vocational skill acquisition training of youths and women across the six geo-political zones of the country

According to a statement signed by Director Media and Public Relations Ahmed Mohammed Sule on Sunday in Abuja and available to Informavores!, the Director General of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, Alhaji Nura Sani Kangiwa noted that in line with the theme of the 2021 World Tourism Day: Tourism for Inclusive Growth, NIHOTOUR is poised to make the celebration a grand cultural event that will impart positively on the socio-economic lives of the people of the state, 

ALSO READ  Esie Museum and My Disappointment With Lai Muhammed - By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

 

He expressed that, the events slated for the annual program are meant to highlight Nigeria’s rich cultural and sport tourism endowments.

Argungu Emirate is known as the flagship of Nigeria’s cultural and sport destination because of its prestigious International Argungu Fishing and Cultural Festival, the training of the youths of the state in tour guiding will empower them to partake in the promotional activities of tourism in the state, thus providing them with skills for gainful self-employment.

ALSO READ  Hajj Operation: NIHOTOUR Parners NAHCON Capacity Building

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) had stated that the choice of this year’s theme, Tourism for Inclusive Growth, was informed by the need to focus attention on people-centred tourism engagements and to ensure that in celebrating the World Tourism Day 2021, no person is left behind as the world begins to open up for robust tourism activities that were abruptly interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to available information from the Travel Tourism Department of NIHOTOUR, the Tour Guiding exercise tagged Tour Guiding Operations for Women and Youths in Kebbi State, is billed to commence from Saturday 25th to Tuesday 28th September 2021 and will put participants through the rudiments of tour guiding in view of the large number of tourists that troop into the tourism endowed state for the various sports and socio-cultural events annually. 

ALSO READ  Hajj Operation: NIHOTOUR Parners NAHCON Capacity Building

Article

Esie Museum and My Disappointment With Lai Muhammed – By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

Published

on

Share this Story

A few days ago, I took a trip to Oro town in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, the home town of Alhaji Lai Muhammed, the Honorable Minister of Information and Culture.

The trip was a courtesy visit to meet with political associates of our group, Kwara Must Change, some of whom had traveled down to Kwara from Lagos. adsbygoogle || []).push({}); adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Within my short stay in Oro, what I heard, from people, whom I had assumed to be Alh. Lai’s supporter is, to say the least, disappointing.

With bitterness written all over their faces, they narrated different tales of Alh. Lai’s misdeeds and misdoing, which cannot be regarded as a rant by foes. However, what they said or did not say is not the reason why I feel disappointed in the minister, but what I saw in Esie museum, the first museum in Nigeria with the largest soapstones in the world. To put it mildly, I encountered what broke my heart in the minister’s home town.

In 2015, when Alhaji Lai Muhammed was nominated as minister of the federal republic, his major opposition came from Kwara South. At the time, many accused him of not being a Kwara based politician, a claim I found to be very unreasonable.

However, as ridiculous as that argument seem, the agitation against Alhaji Lai was so much that I had to become more like his unofficial spokesman.

Even though I do not know him personally, nor try to even get to know him, I saw myself always defending him and in the process, stepping on many toes. Maybe, just maybe this is why the outgoing state government always insisted that Kwara Must Change is being sponsored by Alh Lai, a claim far away from the truth.

ALSO READ  Esie Museum and My Disappointment With Lai Muhammed - By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat

After Alhaji Lai became minister of Information and Culture, the attacks against him didn’t subside. A lot of people from Kwara, particularly Kwara South continue to describe him with demeaning adjectives.

In 2016 specifically, we had what can be described as heated exchange with a lot of people on the social media about Alhaji Lai Muhammed which pitched me against the outgoing Kwara South Senator, Distinguish Senator Rafiu Ibrahim.

I recall vividly that within the heated exchange and in an attempt to defend Alhaji Lai Muhammed, I made a particular reference to the daughter of Senator Rafiu, a reference he found very offensive. To express his annoyance with my reference to his daughter, the senator had to send me a private message, urging me to desist from bringing his daughter into a political discussion on the internet. We disagreed fiercely and later agreed mildly with no love lost.

So, it saddens and humbled me, to realize that Alh Lai may actually be guilty of some of the allegations made against him by many of our comrades in Kwara South.

While in Oro and still finding it hard to believe many of the things said about Alhaji Lai, we decided to take a walk to Esie, where we have the Esie Museum, the first museum in Nigeria and the one with highest Soapstones in the world.

Esie is the center of culture, not only in Kwara State and Nigeria but also in the whole of Africa. Esie became famous for the existence of the Esie Human Stone Images whose existence has attracted the attention of tourists and scholars around the globe.

ALSO READ  Hajj Operation: NIHOTOUR Parners NAHCON Capacity Building

As a result of the unique discovery of the Ere Esie, the first national museum in Nigeria, in which the colonial government placed great premium, was erected in 1945.

For years now, different groups have been advocating for improvement and investment in our tourist industry and with the appointment of Lai Muhammed as minister of information and culture, one would expect that the man who came from a cultural area like this would find it appropriate to give this historical center the deserved attention.

This museum is one that requires just a little bit of attention by government and investment and it would become self-sustaining, but unfortunately, nothing absolutely have been done.

What this basically means is that the first national museum in the whole of Nigeria, with the highest soapstones in the world, is located in the home town of the Honorable Minister of Information and Culture and yet, the place got no attention whatsoever.

It was also reliably gathered that since becoming minister, Alhaji Lai had never visited the Museum, not to talk of giving it the required attention. I must then ask, how would Alh. Lai, minister culture, if Nigeria’s cultural centers are deserted like plague?

As I walk away from the historic museum, what continues to bother me was that, if the first museum in Nigeria, located in the home town of the Minister in charge of it could not get the required attention, not even an ordinary visit, what hope do other museums across the country have?

If Alh Lai cannot help his home town shape its historic asset in the interest of the nation and the benefits of his own people, what else can he do? This is really saddening.

ALSO READ  Hajj Operation: NIHOTOUR Parners NAHCON Capacity Building

I later learned that despite the total neglect of the museum, the management of the historic center is doing its best to keep the place alive and functioning.

For example, it was said that every children’s day, 27th May of every year, the center organizes children’s day celebration, where it promotes Nigeria’s cultural values among children as well as create forum for children from different background to meet, interact and learn. Over 1000 children from various parts of Kwara often participate in the programme and this year’s children day celebration will come up next month.

Let me conclude by saying that, should Alhaji Lai Muhammed finish his tenure as minister of information and culture without seeing to the proper development of Esie national museum and make it an attractive historic center with sustainable public and private funding mechanism, he would really have been a very huge disappointment.

Continue Reading

Recent Posts

Copyright © 2021 Informavores Nigeria Communication Enterprises | Powered by ObajeSoft Inc