Tourism minister at 60? No, I am too old for that —Wanle Akinboboye

Mr Wanle Akiboboye, president, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, who is the official consultant on Tourism to the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire in this interview with Wale Ojo-lanre highlights some problems confronting tourism sector in Nigeria and why he is too old to be a tourism minister.

Some believe that Nigeria tourism is not alive. What is your take on this?

I don’t know the parameters with which those with that kind of opinion measured or gauged the ‘not alive’ perception of tourism in Nigeria. The reason is not farfetched. Tourism is not only alive in Nigeria, but Nigeria is a paragon of tourism. Everything about the country called Nigeria is tourism-from the way we greet, talk, our different languages, dresses, our culture, our ethics, mores, and values to the geographical components of the country. All is touristic, exciting, spectacular and attracting.

Then, going by the beautiful picture you have painted, Nigeria is yet to reap from the tourism blessing.

That is different from the first point you raised. That tourism is not or has not been properly or adequately enhanced is different from the opinion that tourism is not alive. You can see my drift. That tourism is not enhanced or has not been enhanced as expected is a function of the understanding of the policy makers and drivers of the nation. Diamond is a rough and ugly object, very dirty; but it becomes a shining item when it has passed through the labyrinths of processing and polishing. But the first impediment is do our policy makers and executors understand the import of tourism?  Do our people understand what tourism is all about? Have we created the necessary awareness of the benefits of tourism to the very mass of the people? Are we not just limiting tourism to the concept of hotels and bars and restaurants or a mere leisure engagement rather than emphasising the economic and developmental ability of tourism? These and other variables of recognitions are the onions of challenges about the sector. It is not that tourism is not alive in Nigeria. Tourism is alive, only waiting for us to nurture, groom and plant the sustainable necessities of growth.

So, where do we start?

The first thing we should as a nation do is to stoke and initiate a national tourism consciousness fever as embraced by countries like Malaysia which made a 365-degree turn from an oil producer to a front role tourism country in the world. We can do also like Indonesia which has tapped its multi-cultural composition into a tourism asset. We can look at Kenya which explores its conservation and forests to bring revenue to the country. We can learn from the Gambia which sells it coastland to shore up the fortunes of the country. We scramble to Dubai now, and you know this today’s Eldorado was a mere desert where the camel was the major means of transportation three decades ago. But it takes Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum  to turn the fortunes of Dubai from a mere desert to where all eyes must see just because he sees what others do not see in tourism. Nigeria has it all: forests, rivers, coastland, monuments, spectacular geographical features, waterfalls, gorgeous mountains, historical sites, aquatic cocoons, fauna, and flora. Name it, we have it in abundance; even the desert dunes. Thus, our attention must be shifted to policy makers, policy executors and public understanding.

But we have been having several policies in relation to the sectors

Mark my words. I said there should be that agrarian consciousness and determination to polish and process our tourism asset like those countries who now reap from the intercontinental tourism economy. It is not a matter of brainwave or a sudden urge to do. It is not. Take an inventory of tourism policy making, policy building,  policy implementation and policy measurement of these tourism-buoyant and progressive countries. These goals were implemented with every tinge of sustainability coupled with research and development. It is not about policy summersault or political expediency like sacrificing the policy on the altar of political expediency or partisanship. You remember we had a full Ministry of Culture and Tourism before. What happened now?  The modicum of success achieved by the ministry has been truncated. The few miles covered or the goodwill it has cultivated has been subsumed within a department, and we talk of growing tourism.

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Going by your feats in the tourism sector, your performance in Cote Dívoire as a consultant, your continental building initiative via Motherland Beckons, MUSIAD and your tenure as secretary–general of the world’s Black Mayors, the nation will soon have you as the tourism minister one day?

What? I am too old to be a Minister. At 60 years? No, no. We should stop having old people as ministers in Nigeria where we have a pool of brilliant and energetic focused and goal-getting restless young crop of men and women. I cannot have the same energy as you.  The nation should look for 30 –  55 years old people that can become minister; young people that will have energy;  that can  be jumping from one town to the other; that will be focused,  that will tour the 774 local governments and create things and get aged people like us to advise them and make things work. Nigeria public sector will become qualitative by that time elders and those experienced take the back seat and guide the younger ones.

You clocked  60 recently. From all parameters, you are not a poor fellow. Why the silence on the 60th birthday? We expected an elaborate party; instead, you directed your friends to donate whatever they wished to offer you to orphanage homes?

Well, it depends on your definition of silence.  What you are used to is an owambe party. What makes you happy is what you do. The man who throws a big party, that is what makes him happy. The man that goes to Europe or Dubai to celebrate, that’s what makes him happy; and that’s why we work hard to do what makes us happy.  We don’t have the right to condemn what other people are doing to make them happy.  If a man decides that I am going to China to celebrate with 500 people and want to spend N5 billion  naira,  I don’t have the right to condemn it. That is his choice. That is what makes him happy. What I have done is what makes me happy.

At 60 sir, any regrets in life Regrets?

What’s the meaning of that world,  Regrets usually is associated with failure. If we don’t  understand the meaning of failures, then we will have regrets. Accumulation of failures transforms to success; the more failures, the more likelihood of you being a success. So, why should you regret?

Can you share with us the day you will never forget in your life?

I think the day I will never forget in my life was that day I realized my calling and the purpose of being created. That was the day I inaugurated my thought of planting the best cultural tourism Tropicana Resort located in the countryside; that day when my thought synchronized with my mission on the face of the firmament. No day could ever be happier in my life than the day of the Destiny.