Government not paying attention to tourism – Prof Ogunfolakan

By Jeleel Olawale

The Director of AG Leventis Museum of Natural History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Professor Adisa Ogunfolakan has bemoaned the government of not paying attention to tourism industry in the country, especially in Osun State.

Ogunfolakan made the disclosure in an interview with Nigerian NewsDirect.

He said the tourism industry in the year 2022 did not perform so bad, but just evolving in Osun state, saying that the industry is not faring well the way it should be.

Government does not even understand the contribution of the industry to the economy of the state. There are a lot of tourist sites in Osun state. We have everything to make the industry the best.

According to him, “Osun State is the bedrock or home of tourism in the whole of SouthWestern Nigeria because we have a lot of historical, archaeological and natural places that could fare well in tourism, if we develop it. It is not being developed well that is why I said it has not fared in 2022”.

“The last government tried to uplift the industry but not as it should be because government needs to fund the industry, renovate the existing ones so that they will be attractive to the tourists. For tourism to fare well, we need roads, hotels, security, electricity and these are the things that are lacking in this part of the world.

“These are the things that make tourism flourishes and government does not pay desired attention to them. Government needs to do more. They are not doing enough to expand the industry to general fund.

“There are a lot of money in the industry to compete with oil if we are able to tap them. We need to discover more tourist sites because there are a lot of them in Osun State. We need to expose them and those that have been exposed, we need to develop them.

“Those exposed ones were done last year by the former commissioner for culture and tourism, Dr. Adebisi Obawale. We did it on our own, the government did not put money to the development of the ones that have been exposed”, Ogunfolakan said.

Ogunfolakan frowned at the lacklustre attitude of government to tourism sector, noting that is like one is sitting on gold, but looking for ashes. So, one will not be happy when one is sitting on gold. “I am not happy on the state of tourist centres in Osun State. We don’t understand the value of visiting tourist sites. Government needs to change its attitude towards tourism. They need to invest both financial and human capital in the industry”.

He said he has been exposing tourism potential of Osun State to the world, “I restored historical places in Osun State. I have exposed a lot of tourist sites in Osun State through my research. And as a stakeholder in the industry, I have been writing on them to expose tourism potential of Osun State”.

“We are trying our efforts to develop the sector. I don’t have the power, but each time I have opportunity, speak and write about significance of tourism, the festivals, immovable heritage, I foresee a greater development in tourism potential of Osun State if we have the right people there.

“When we have a round peg in a round hole, then things will move but when we put round peg in square hole, it will not work and that has been the problem. When we put a medical doctor in education industry, things will not work and we do everything on politics without merit. Let’s appoint those who really understand a given sector and support them. But I hope one day things will work out.

“Our people are using our money to develop tourism potential of United Arab Emirates. Most of our tourist centres are facing problem of religion bias, people should change their orientation towards this. People don’t understand that those called idols, they are the ones that did well in their own time, they developed their environment and people, we are not worshipping them but venerating and thanking them for what they have done”.

Ogunfolakan stressed that Nigerian tourism can still compete with United Arab Emirate if we develop it. Let government fund it adequately well instead of developing other people’s tourism. He noted that he foresees a brighter future for tourism industry. We learnt that Nigerians are the ones owning most of the tourist sites in UAE.

He said; “We are doing sensitisation for people on our tourism. We should see our own heritage, culture as ours. I used to dressing in our culture. I never wore English attire. I have been trying to sensitize Nigerians on the need to imbibe our culture and tradition. Religion is a state of mind of an individual but our culture and way of life are different from religion”.

Speaking on OAU museum, the director stressed that people are visiting Ife Museum, especially the students, adding that there was a time when the Nigerian antiquities were stolen and taken to Europe. Most of Nigerian antiquities are in European Museums.

He urged government to fund the sector adequately well and appoint those who understand and have passion for the sector there, monitor and expose it, sensitizing the people on the importance of tourism to know difference between culture and religion.