Time to test our tourism faith in court

Many years ago, a certain powerful government appointee took me to court. The offence? My consistent and very stubborn reportage of the misapplication of funds for Nigeria Tourism Master plan. To recap, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had shown through actions and very clear policy direction that his administration is tourism friendly and did the right things to get this globally acknowledged poverty buster on track.

To Obasanjo’s credit, he first gave the country its first ever fully fledged tourism ministry, instituted the Abuja carnival as a road map to cultural revival and sustenance, and pushed forward an exemplary and united front for national tourism rebirth through the Presidential Council for Tourism (PCT) where all the state governors irrespective of political affiliation and camp would meet to share ideas on how to domesticate tourism and culture development and promotion at state and local government level.

Indeed and up till date, the sociology of that august body has not yet been fully studied neither has its general benefit(s) exploited. It is interesting to note that the PCT also had in its bowels Nigeria’s top businessmen and women and also captains of industry in hotels, aviation, ground transportation and so forth. As usual, the tourism media was left out but we kept faith with Nigeria and our leaders “interest” in tourism. There was no bitter contest and content in the reporting and presentation of these developments to Nigerians and to the world watching our every steps.

Specifically, I considered it my duty and a strong faith in our nation to go beyond the television appearances and press briefings at every cross – roads where these frontal tourism issues were discussed to dig up facts behind the tourism development expectations. President Obasanjo most sincerely was not“fake news” on this tourism rebirth but those in the corridors of tourism powers were majorly a letdown. These enemies pretending to be friends of tourism misdirected and misapplied the seeming good intention of Obasanjo government and tourism reporters like me rose up in defence of our people.

The most telling, very basterdised abused and rubbished was the very simple tourism barometer document known as the Master Plan. To the founding team saddled with the responsibility, it’s funding rather than its benefit(s) then and now became a major focus. Like hawks, the committee members first of all fought each other to a standstill and I reported the red signal.

I had some very good and patriotic Nigerians as friends in the corridors of the fledging Tourism Ministry and we met regularly to find ways to stop these rampaging gang. My reports then in the now defunct The Week magazine got the attention of President Obasanjo who called a stakeholders meeting at the villa and I was invited. Obasanjo’s verdict; the master plan as presented by that committee cannot serve Nigeria’s tourism dream and must be reworked.

It was a day of victory for investigative journalism and to a listening leadership that meant well for Nigeria’s tourism and the hawks raged. Hell was let loose and for the first time in my life and journalism career, I became a victim of an angry but boastful Nigerian politician who approached a Lagos High Court and “obtained” judgement behind me for exposing the rot at the root of the Master plan.

I was never in court and was never given a fair hearing but again thank God for well meaning Nigerians, fellow journalists and those who knew the truth behind the racket in TMP, the matter died a natural death. It was a waste of time, a strategy to cage, silence and discourage me from reporting the affairs of a very important public document that would help fast track tourism in Nigeria.

To my vindication and tenacity, that document is still not ready and had become a swan song that every government and tourism minister had always found politically and financially attractive after Obasanjo had left office. I want to believe that our courts and lawyers should help us cleanse the rots in this industry which has suddenly become a conduit pipe to fret away national resources during the later days of former President Jonathan administration.

I vividly recall the open rape of the Sure-P tourism fund which ran into billions of naira. My regular and inside reports caught the attention of two very patriotic Abuja based civil society lawyers who sought though the courts a waiver under the freedom of information act to investigate the scam. The days in court were frustrating as the ministry of tourism deliberately kept away from court and forced several adjournments. I took to the roads, from Kogi (Mount Parti) to Nassarawa, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and sites where Sure-P tourism found were claimed as beneficiaries. Nothing was found. It was the biggest scandal ever seen our tourism sector and despite the exposure in a two page documentation with damming pictures in the SUN Newspapers, our EFCC and the courts kept quite.

Interestingly, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism was the first person to be indicted based on those reports by broom wielding and cleansing President Muhammadu Buhari. Though the President recently removed the cancer in Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), it was my candid opinion that the President allowed the offensive tourism terminal sickness to linger.

There was a strong collaboration between the leadership of that ministry headed by Mr. Edem Duke and the NTDC to shut down the gate of Nigerian tourism good will. I have a detailed dossier gathered through intelligence visitation and contacts to prove a case of malicious misapplication of funds and deliberate act to deceive Nigerians and the global tourism community that tourism funds were well utilized and spent as budgeted.

From the notorious “embellishment” of our airports, embassies in South Africa, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago to our museums and other places of significant but very regrettable dump sites of open corruption and misapplication of tourism funds, time has come for us as a people and nation to test our tourism faith in courts of the land.

We cannot continue to run our nation down while praising other nations which had spent little or no funds to attract and sustain their global tourism traffic. The same gang of civil servants who misled and formed part of corrupt pool of influencers are still in the corridors of the Ministry of Tourism today.

Am very determined to die for Nigeria tourism or be jailed if found guilty. A man must sacrifice for what he believes or he is just merely passing through this world. I will never buckle under any threat to appear in court; at least it will give me the opportunity to let President Buhari know about the smelly rots that are yet to be addressed in the system and what we had lost to a cabal of wicked politicians before now.

Let me again restate my resolve to stand on the part of tourism truth. I love this country and it will amount to witchcraft bewitchment to give up now. And as one committed a better and greater Nigerian tourism future, am not afraid to stand in the duck. Yes, am a snare to tourism darkness and to anyone who would come to our tourism world to parade fake news. However, I pray and would be friends to any sincere Nigerian leader(s) appointed or selected to help better the lot of our people through tourism engagement However, am yet to find such gift(s) in this administration for now. Tomorrow is in the hands of God. May God help Nigeria tourism, Amen.