17/05/2023
THE GOLDENISATION OF TOURISM: AKWA IBOM GOLDEN ERA, BECKONS. (PART 3)
By Chris AbasiEyo
WHERE IS NIGERIA NAY AKWA IBOM STATE IN THE TOURISM EQUATION?:
It is unbelievably true that the World Bank, in its study of 2013, tagged, “Tourism in Africa: Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods,” has not included Nigeria among serious tourism destinations in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). This is despite the estimated tourism potential of the country to support the economy overwhelmingly. In contradistinction to the low tourism profile of Nigeria, with its multiethnic cultural heritage, coupled with humongous human resources amidst its attendant viable middle class, the country possesses in abundance, the potential to drive tourism anchored on culture, heritage, religion, etc.
While experts posits that “Nigeria stands a great chance of surviving the current economic meltdown facing the entire globe if it could focus more on cultural tourism,” by forging a solid partnership with symbiotic foreign countries for culture and tourism in developing and marketing their potentials to boost patronage of local and foreign tourists, others aver that “resource curse” (a phrase scholars began to apply recently to situations where third world countries, whose economies are based on natural resources, tend to run the wealth of their nations in manners which depict such natural endowments as if they were curses on the people), has become a cog in the wheel of fortunes of such nations. Particularly, ‘a statistical comparison between oil-dependent states and tourism- dependent states, bears out that the common root to the 'resource curse' problem is an over- reliance on the one resource.’
For example, an examination of the World Bank’s database on a nation’s oil rents versus its GDP for 2011, shows that many of the nations that are identified as suffering from the 'resource curse' have an extreme over-reliance on the oil trade. This indeed has been the bane militating against Nigeria's determined diversification into other sectors of the economy especially the speedily growing tourism industry, and this is true of Akwa Ibom State because of its dependence on the petrodollar-allocations from Abuja. These are indicators that Nigeria does not appear prepared to leverage on this opportunity to bail her people out of poverty. Unbelievably, this lacklustre approach is in a sector where the ‘good’ or ‘service’ is consumed at the site of production and where the certainty of returns on every investment is as sure as the breaking of the next morning. With its multi-tribal composition, Nigeria has the potentials to become the flagship in cultural tourism at least in Sub-Sahara Africa, if not in the developing world.
In Sub-Sahara Africa, according to the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC), the first three most visited sites and cities are all in South Africa. These are Johannesburg which witnessed an estimated 3.6 million visitors in 2016. The tourists spent $1.73 billion during the visits. Cape Town is second on the list where 1.4 million tourists spent a total of $1 billion in same year. Durban is the third South African city on this list, where she had 831,051 visitors in 2016. Accra, Ghana, is the first West African city and fourth in the top 10 most visited cities in SSA. Also in 2016, 761,872 visitors went to Accra which situates on the Atlantic coast of West Africa which, among others, is blessed with Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. Fifth on the list is Lagos, Nigeria with its rich beach resorts amidst a sprawling nightlife. In same year, this Africa’s most populous city hosted 711, 209 visitors who spent U.S$ 163 million.
AKWA IBOM - THE PREFERRED TOURIST DESTINATION IN A LIMBO:
While tourism started in man’s original Edenic home, there is no doubt that it emptied into Akwa Ibom when ‘Ibom,’a descendant of the Biblical Gibbom (The Mightiest of The Mighty), founded Ibom village,’ the ancestral home of most of the Okop-Usem people of Nigeria. This is expatiated by E.O. Akak in his book, “Efiks of Old Calabar: Culture and Superstitions. Vol. III.” This same story is equally corroborated in the books “Culture, Customs and Traditions of Akwa Ibom People of Nigeria” written by Joseph Esema, and “The Cradle of Ibibio Nation” authored by the trio of David Ukpong, Martin Akpan and Nnamso Akang.
It was here in Ibom village that Inyang-Ibom (The Sea of Gibbom), otherwise called “Akwa Akpa (The Great Sea), toured the earth to visit the sun from where the sun escaped to hang where it is today in the sky. This tourism by the seas simply captures the account of the Biblical Flood of Noah and how Ibom people tell it in their own way; through folklores, arts, music and dance. Thus, in this way, the cultural heritage of the people is theatrically preserved for the succeeding generation.
Through such preservation, the cumulative effects of this heritage, the hospitable mien of the people, their delectable cuisines have blended to make Akwa Ibom the richest, yet untapped of all lands in touristry and tourism within the Gulf of Guinea maritime corridors. A land splendid in fauna and flora where whales, dolphins, seals, sharks, etc. leave the sea to welcome tourists to the beaches, where the warm easterly-running Guinea current crisscrosses the chilly northerly-flowing Benguela Current which experts are consensual that the meeting of these two oceanic currents is responsible for the endowment of Akwa Akpa Inyang-Ibom (former Bight of Biafra now Bight of Bonny) as the richest fishing habitat in Africa and third in the world. Equally, Ibom waters are reputed as the harbinger of a tenth of the world's oil and gas reserves. Indeed, the estuarial corridor of Akwa Ibom State, is richly blessed in tourism potentials, and “...can develop tourist industry.”
Therefore, informed by such salivating statistics amidst the revelations that coastal tourism remains the most patronised of tourism niches , this article went on a tour to primarily identify tourism opportunities and potentials along Akwa Ibom coastline adorned with intimidating tourism prospects, spanning a distance of over 129 kilometers, covering Ibiono on the north east of the state, through Itu, Uruan, Okobo, Oron, Udung Uko, Mbo, Ibeno, Eastern Obolo, Ikot Abasi on the south west and connecting Ukanafun on the north west of Akwa Ibom State.
However, while Akwa Ibom land awaits tourists to come and get the best tourism can offer, it is pertinent to set forth that, with its strategic location on the Gulf of Guinea as a major gateway on the maritime corridor between West and Central Africa, Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, appears a major hub for the promotion of niche markets such as Nautical tourism, Ecotourism, Cultural tourism, Heritage tourism, Wildlife tourism, etc. From its rich and longest coastline in Nigeria, beginning from Ibiono where the first European female missionary to Africa, Mary Slessor, lived and fought to stop the killing of twins and their mothers for which she has been honoured by her home country, Scotland, where Scottish Ten Pounds note (£10.00) carries her image with the reverse side carrying the map of her missionary journey in Ibibio country which can serve as a compass, directing tourists to Akwa Ibom shores.
Contiguous to Ibiono, is Itu, named after manatee which are found in abundance in the area, where some European sparrows migrate to during winter. There is a Queen’s beach where Queen Elizabeth II, landed during her 1956 maiden tour of Nigeria. The tourism loop spreads to Uruan, with her many beaches and ports at Ikpa, Nwaniba, etc., which played crucial roles and served as transit routes for the shipment of slaves during the era of slave trade; to Okobo which hosts the oldest ancestral shrine (Obio-Ufreh) of the Oro people and a regal Wooden Stool, scientifically determined to have been carved over 800 years ago. Okobo also hosts the largest crayfish beach market in Africa in addition to her twinning communities in Bakassi Peninsula, now ceded to Cameroun.
And from Okobo to Oron, hosting a heritage museum established by the British in the 1950s with its collections of some of the oldest wooden carved works in Africa, and where is situated Parrot Island which was discovered in 600 BC during the first attempt to go round the world. Directly opposite this historic island is the pioneer maritime institution in Nigeria, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, hugging the fence of one of the oldest secondary schools in Nigeria, The Methodist Boys’ High School, Oron; to Udung Uko, where her titular King, Osung Atanang, was forced to suffer the first political martyrdom in the Old Calabar Kingdom in 1897; to Mbo, where the popular hymn “Amazing Grace” was first composed and sang by John Newton during a shipwreck on the 10th of March, 1748 and where Primitive Methodism first landed in what is now called Nigeria, in 1894, the home to High Priest Okpo Obribong Okpo, the first non-Jewish legend to be given a sky burial.
Next in line along this littoral corridor is Ibeno, the original home to the gospel of Christ based on Qua Iboe Mission through the missionary instrumentality of Reverend Alexander Samuel Bill in 1887. Its long sandbars, adorned with beautiful beaches, is rich in sharks, barracudas, dolphins, whales, etc. A dead whale was recently found washed on to the sandbar here by a turbulent tidal current; to Eastern Obolo where a certain sea animal comes visiting once in every 20 years amidst the annual displays of Ugele Mkpa Cultural Dance of Iko Town and the Nwatam war dance of Obolo people; to Ikot Abasi, which situates the Bridge of No Return (built in 1795), where slaves known as “mokos” were shipped overseas. Lord Lugard House stands here, too, from where he signed the Amalgamation Treaty in 1914. The theatre and the Museum of the 1929 women uprising in Nigeria are here, and, to Ukanafun with its bluish river which mixes not with other water bodies crisscrossing it.
Akwa Ibom is therefore naturally pregnant and willing to bring to birth tourism cynosure of all time in Sub-Sahara Africa, capable of transforming the coastal rural areas to amazing tourism destinations and resorts for leisure seeking travelers. This is because the bulge of the Caribbean tourism industry is anchored on its beautiful beaches whose GDPs are largely enriched therefrom. Statistics from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reveals the following tourism based GDPs in year 2012, for some Caribbean States: Jamaica (27.4 percent of GDP), St Lucia (39 percent of GDP), Barbados (39.4 percent of GDP), The Bahamas (48.4 percent of GDP) and Antigua & Barbuda (77.4 percent of GDP). Such trend buttresses tourism development as an economic desideratum for developing nations. In some cases, some investors disguise initially as tourists.
Link to part 2:
https://www.facebook.com/100001174405013/posts/5965355890180165/
PART 4, LOADING....
