Motherland beckons unveils Anglophone–Francophone destination Ouidah

Motherland Beckons once again in its avowed commitment to build the continent of Africa through tourism and creative arts is engaging in trans border tourism partnership with the government of Republic of Benin by creating DESTINATION OUIDAH.

The President of Motherland Beckons, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, who led a five-man team of his organisation on a three-day working visit to Cotonou last week to meet with the top echelon of the Benin government once again reiterated that since, it took a concerted effort for the colonial masters to balkanize and divide Africa with language barriers and also made deliberate attempts to denigrate their culture by supplanting it with theirs, it will also take a concerted effort to bring Africans together through tourism and creative arts for the much desired growth and development.

He told the Benin Minister of Tourism Mr Houannou Edmond that the lemon of slavery must be garnished with water and sugar to be transformed to lemonade, to the delight of all and sundry.

Akinboboye in his characteristic manner reeled out vital statistics on why Africa, the second largest continent and the most blessed should not be the poorest. Africans, he said must travel within and patronize Africa both for leisure and business purposes.

He further posited that the Republic of Benin, the closest neighbour of Nigeria and a “junior brother country” just like Ghana should also benefit from her big brother in the twin areas of tourism and creative arts, just like Ghana does.

Ghana, he affirmed owes her tourism and creative arts development to Nigeria, which accounts for a whopping 69.8% of it. Republic of Benin too would now start to benefit with the creation of Destination Ouidah.

Destination Ouidah, which will be a fusion of dance, music, movies, poetry, culture, cuisines, fashion,  etc, between both countries that have so much in common, except the language dissimilarities, which in his words, should not be a barrier to unity, peace and the creation of wealth as a prerequisite for growth and development in Africa.

The Minister in his response thanked Otunba Akinboboye for his ingenuity and promised to inform the foremost tier of governance and convey a meeting of fellow ministers and relevant governmental agencies to work out modalities for actualisation and ease of operations for this monumental activation.

Otunba Akinboboye also utilised the opportunity of the working visit to do a tourism recce of The Republic of Benin by visiting virtually all the tourism sites, like the Python Village in Ouidah, slave trade point of no return, Casa Del Papa Beach Resort. Leading hotels and hospitality concerns like the Benin Royal Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Marriot etc were not left out. Cinema complexes like the Cinema Le Benin, Concorde Cinema and Canal Olympia also played host to the Motherland Beckons’ presidential delegation.

However, at an enlarged meeting of the Motherland Beckons’ team and major stakeholders of the government of Benin, like the Tourism Minister, Finance Minister, Interior Minister, Defense Minister, police, customs, immigration and the Ambassador of Republic of Benin to Nigeria, Her Excellency Mrs Paulette Adjovi Yekpe and several other governmental agencies, DESTINATION OUIDAH was given the breath of life and a high level committee was immediately set up for its immediate kick off and implementation, with an action plan with timelines.

With the creation of Destination Ouidah, Motherland Beckons has again expanded its frontiers of continent building, and once again will be uniting Africa when DESTINATION OUIDAH will be launched on 11, 12, and 13 of January 2018, with the ultimate aim of the replication of its world headquarters, the five star La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort all over Republic of Benin as mountain resort, lake resort, river and beach resort, with its resultant economic and social benefits.