To read Apostle Paul, one of the greatest theologians and biographers of Christ Jesus, makes my daily Bible devotion very interesting. Apostle Paul’s choice of words and very descriptive narratives, particularly his voyage to Rome as captured in the Book of Acts, ranks the great Apostle as a travel journalist and writer with spiritual sensitivity to challenges of development and consequences there from.
It was Apostle Paul who penned of a pending head wind called Euroclydon, which caused so much damage to a merchant ship ferrying cargo and prisoners to Rome. He wrote, “I perceive this voyage will end in disaster and much loss, not only to cargo and ship but also our lives.”
That intervention in Acts 27 could be likened to the various historical time-outs during the 20-year voyage of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) to become the true gathering tent for all industry associations and players in Nigeria.
To the glory of God, I was privileged to witness the various ups and downs of most industry associations from ATPN, NANTA, ANJET, ATBOWATON, NATOP and not excluding FTAN. As a student of tourism history and a travel journalist, I must confess that recounting the full details and faces of those who were in the vanguard of Nigerian tourism evolution is tasking but, again, there are newspaper cuttings and references that could help joggle the memory.
That FTAN is 20 and a long list of names of individuals paraded some whom one could not factor their roles and contributions to the association’s formative years rankles the soul. In fact, it is like one strange hand suddenly appeared somewhere and handpicked names of individuals who caught his fancy or paid for the distorted epistle on those who the often crisis-troubled group wished to honour.
The clannish, self-serving and myopic unveiling of a mixed bag of certain FTAN testimonial influencers with questionable interlopers and “come chop” operators calls for this intervention and to which one does not in any way wish to assume a superior position but to help keep tourism and FTAN history in view. Let me digress here, please.
Sometime early last year, some of us noticed the tempest about to rock the federation to an avoidable disaster and graciously intervened. For many years, some of us distanced ourselves from boarding the rudderless FTAN flagship but swore to provide leadership and save the collective.
To Jos, Plateau capital, we all headed, Bankole Bernard of NANTA, Nkewreuwem Onung of NATOP, Kabir Malan of ATPN, Ganiyu Tarzan Balogun of ATBOWATON, and Andy Ehanire of the Zoo Owners Association. John Best, Special Advisor, Tourism, to the Plateau State governor, our host, Ikechi Uko and my humble self completed the “save FTAN” campaigners, with Andrew Okungbowa, president of ANJET who could not make the trip due to family engagements, and Rabo Saleh, current president of FTAN.
These gentlemen, the Save FTAN campaigners, could be likened to some of the early founders and influencers who sacrificed their all to birth FTAN. To, therefore, present initiatives, which I understand did not get the best hands, to come up with a template of enablers and fine souls who selflessly kept faith with tourism dawn in Nigeria, is unacceptable and must be resisted. There is a huge line of difference between light and darkness; therefore, the attempt to bribe and buy the history of FTAN with the so-called recognition award is a controversy too many for this fledgling tourism body.
I know Saleh, the current president of FTAN to be very weak and, regrettably, naive, the FTAN BOT, Samuel Alabi, as very ambitious, very generous with his porridge to everyone, particularly those who wish to sell their birth right. Akingbogun, the immediate past FTAN president, is a story-teller that, but for providence, would have buried FTAN with many others who nearly rocked the FTAN boat until the Save FTAN campaigners appeared on the scene.
So, let me ask, what did names like Lai Mohammed, Franklin Adejuwon, Chief Mike Amachree, Munzali Dantata, Rear Admiral Sunday Areola (rtd), Frank Nneji and Charles Ukomadu bring to the FTAN formative table, which could possibly outshine the selfless and dogged support of Andy Ehanire, Ade Aruna, former GM, defunct Ikoyi Hotel (now a pastor), Edem Duke, Dr. Mubo Eniola, tourism intelligentsia and eminently anointed secretary-general of FTAN whom fate denied the baton, Paul Onyia, Chief Margaret Fabiyi, Josephine Aneni, the late Joseph Odekena, a former director in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and SA then to Tukur Mani, Chief Olu Foesake, Sola Ilupeju, Ambassador Frank Ogboewu, Minister of Tourism under President Obasanjo, Godwin Nwachukwu, Fatima Garbari and Victoria Soluade?
Oh, yes! What are the so-called parameters used to pick some colourless names FTAN is parading about? I can’t possibly see what Lai Mohammed did, which Edem Duke did not do better, even though both of them fell below my scale of measuring achievement and legacy. Dantata? Maybe someone is trying to reward incompetence of the highest order, and to bring Nneji into FTAN history book smacks of sycophancy. Nneji is my friend and did well for road transportation but how he helped FTAN, I can’t find it in my books.
To mention, Eko Hotel, Sheraton and Rossborg hotels as institutional support groups to FTAN, without a mention of the roles of defunct Nigeria Hotels Limited (NHL), which deployed its flagship then, Ikoyi Hotel, under the watch of Ade Haruna, to help birth FTAN, providing banquet facilities, lunch and dinner, including an office space, is, to say the least, very uncharitable.
In fact, without NHL, with Haruna taking the pains to ensure a soft landing for the intense formative period of FTAN, the dream for a collective tourism body would have been in vain.
To also leave out ANJET, Vanguard Newspapers and Uncle Sam Amuka, who deployed his newspaper to give tourism development in Nigeria, including the affairs of FTAN a space, is a history made in discord and ignorance. One can go on and on but suffice it to say that it is not too late for FTAN to apologise for this lazy “pick and honour” effort and do the needful.
And if the FTAN leadership, under Saleh, wishes to do good to the society, it would be a welcome development for FTAN to visit motherless babies’ homes as a goodwill venture to appreciate God for the various interventions over its crisis-riddled 20 years, instead of a time-out with shameful half-truths on FTAN’s evolution.

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