Category: Travels on Saturday

Though there was much to see in my first night at Downtown Dubai, it was the distinct voice of the late pop diva, Whitney Houston, that first drew me out of the room. The rich cadence of Whitney’s voice wafted into my ear. I came to the balcony of my 45th floor suite in The Address Hotel and Suites. I wanted to know where the music was coming from.

If I should stay

I’ll only be in your way….

And I will always love you

Will always love you….

The voice and music tugged at a chord in my heart, but the sight before me, looking down from my floor, almost pushed Houston totally to the background. Before me was one the best choreographed music movements I had ever seen, and it was not by dancers. From the Dubai Fountain at the foot of the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, and beside the biggest shopping mall in the world, the Dubai Mall, water from the fountain danced and twisted to the voice and music of Whitney Houston. Thousands of tourists gathered round it shouting and clapping as the water fountain twisted and turned to the music. Whitney’s voice hit high towards a crescendo as she sang I will always love you, the fountain in sync erupted high, gushing water up to 50 feet high. On this Arabian night, it was one of the most beautiful sights to behold. It was the best welcome I could get to the glitz, and, of course, the bling of Dubai.

It was a privilege to be most strategic point to see the Dubai. From  my room      on the 45th floor, the sight before me from the Balcony is the Majestic Burj Khalifa. It  was the day time. The silver glasses that covered the tower sparkles in one’s  eyes and in the night, it exploded into millions of twinkles. Looking down still with just the little effort of turning my head ensconced in the chair on the balcony, the fountain also sparkled with its twinkle of lights and water. It is little wonder that the area has been described the Emaar Group, owners of Dubai downtown and other choice real assets as the Centre of Now. Seeing such beautiful sights and basking in it left me with mixed feelings. I wish I could stay here for long; and happy that it was this kind of structure, including the hotel property that the Eagle Hills Group in collaboration with the Nigerian Centenary City would create in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

Outside the views, The Address boasts of about three restaurants giving visitors wide range of gourmet experience. The restaurants include Cut, Zeta, Cigar Lounge

The Address hospitality group will be managing a landmark property in the Abuja Centenary City and the Chief Operating Officer of the group, Mr. Phillipe Zuber, spoke enthusiastically about the group’s inroad into Nigeria. He spoke about his hotel in Dubai and what The Address will be doing in Nigeria: “In our hotel in Dubai, we have 145 nationalities. So, on a day-to-day, we are almost celebrating a national story. The whole understanding of Dubai in this multi-national approach is that we have respect for each other’s community. We are currently working with a lot of Nigerians. We have a lot of Africans . So, the fact that we have integrated any nationality towards understanding of our culture is in our DNA. We  are extremely confident of that.

“It is also very clear that we go into any country with a humble approach.This humble approach makes us understand that we have to work with the local community. We have to make sure that we train them; we develop them to understand the way we want to develop our brands. We , for sure, will work with Nigerians when it comes to the workforce of our hotel,”Zuber said.

Zuber said the entry of the hotel in Nigeria, which is expected to be ready in 2018, will positively impact on the economy.

He “The Address in Dubai currently employs 650 associates for an inventory of 196 hotel rooms and 626 apartment-residence, and a large  component of food and beverages, inclusive of the spa, inclusive of all of the restaurants that we have. So, out of these more than 600 associates, this is the benefit that will come to Nigeria. We will need to hire more than 600 people, if we have the same equivalent, and we will go to the local market. What we commit towards our brands, we want to make sure that we develop Nigerians towards our hotel in Dubai and we come with expertise to train them to our standard.

“When we come to the critical period towards opening of the hotel, we will put a very clear action plan to make sure that we will have a lot of knowledge to be transmitted by people who have the right understanding of our culture and the way we want to do our business and entertain our clientele. This is our approach, and hospitality is the most fantastic that you can teach people in a very easy way. You can screen them just by the fact that if they want to do the services, if they want to engage customers, they already have 95 per cent. The rest of the things can be easily taught through some very good session . “You understand today that among our portfolios, we have created a fantastic academic process to continuously train our associates towards providing the best of services and to continuously adapt to the latest trends. Hospitality is the most dynamic industry that is changing on daily basis.

“You cannot sit down and relax, thinking you have the knowledge, you have to consistently have this new approach . Dubai is consistently moving.  Dubai is leading in many trends today when it comes to hospitality. So, we have developed an amazing knowledge on how to train and how to develop our associates. We are developing top talents internally. So, bring people into our company and you are able to jump from position and move towards becoming fantastic leaders in our hotel. I am very confident that we are going to achieve all these in Nigeria.

“We will approach the Nigerian market with humility, not promising. We come with our expertise . We are coming with something that has been proved to be a successful business model. I am very glad that you have seen here in Dubai some of our current projects and existing properties. This is what we call experience . If we gain  experience, we cannot fail. We have a full guarantee that we have the expertise and partners that are equally experienced. They will be able to develop the sense of togetherness towards achieving the goals.

“We are coming to Nigeria as a management company to bring our expertise when it comes to hospitality. We are 100 per cent focusing on hospitality, combining business and leisure in the same environment, making sure that we are the best in food and beverages, the best in rooms , spa, events , kids club, business centre, in all the core components of the hotel business. We partner the best of Nigerians to give to us local expertise. “

The head of The Address said despite the impressive array of international hospitality brands currently in Nigeria, his group would approach competition the way they did in Dubai and within a short period of time, became the best not only in the city, but in the Middle East.

His words: “We will benchmark all that we have achieved in Dubai. Dubai has all the international hospitality brands. The Addreess Hotel started five years ago. Nobody knew the brand, nobody gave credit to us that we can achieve something that will be a benchmark. After five years, first of all, our hotel is successful in terms of market share. We are currently running at a 85 per cent occupancy rate. We are leading the market in our competitive set and we are market leaders in each of the hotels that we currently have in Dubai. We are ahead our direct competitors. All of the these competitors are the top of the brands in the industry.”

The Address hospitality experience is something a tourist visitor in Dubai should savour in Downtown-Dubai, but the most important thing for me is that it is an experience that will be coming to Nigeria at the Centenary City.

FOR those steep in the tradition and history of Yorubaland, the mention of Iragbiji always evokes the people’s traditional praise them: Iragbiji oloke meji tako tabo lori agba. It means  Iragbiji made up of two rocks male upon the female. The modest town with a rather slow laid back mien common to most small towns in the semi rural areas, is scenic. It has one major road from Ikirun meandering through the town heading to Igbajo, Ada and other towns. There are other small roads. The towns visage is greatly influence by the  rocky hills that form a kind of arc round it. But the hills are not austere. Trees, shrubs and other economic plants fight with the igneous rocks fro space. It is as if they have reach a kind of mutual agreement that but the trees and the rock should co-exist side-by-side for the sustenance of the community.

Here man and nature, most especially the hills, have come to co-exist that one can hardly be mentioned without the other. Although hills are the basis for the aesthetic beauty of this town, but it actually one of the hills, Okanyilule that has become the symbol of the town.

Okanyilule spectacular hill is at the back of the town towards the boundary between the Iragbiji people and Obaagun town. The rocky hill juts out high into the sky. Right on top of the rock another one is delicately place as if a superhuman giant had picked the rock and balance rock on top. It is a spectacle and marvel for many.

It is from this rock that Iragbiji people got cognomen. Moving inside hill area is difficult with rocks and shrubs blocking the way. But finally one managed to make the it to the hill of course with scratches from plants. The site was worth the trouble. But according to the naitves, there was more to the hills than the aesthetics.

Oba Abdul-Rasheed Olabomi is the traditional ruler of the town. Cultured and well educated, talking about the tourist endowments of Iragbiji, most especially the famous Okanyilule hill seems to bring the out him. He has deep knowledge about his town’s history and talks about it like a history professor lecturing university students. He occasionally laced his speech with Yoruba songs in praise of his town. He talks about the Okanyilule hills: “The Okanyilule Hill is historical to Iragbiji. It is a monument that really depicts and connotes what Iragbiji is. Part of our cognomen says ‘Iragbiji owners of double hills, one fell down, while the other is still standing.’ Okunyilule has a history dating back to about 200 years ago. There was a dispute over the ownership of the hills area and the land around it. It involved the then monarch of Obaagun, a neigbouring town to Iragbiji. The monarch of Iragbiji then was Oba Oloyede Dada. Then there were no policemen, there were no soldiers and there were no courts; but traditionally, when issues like that arose, our people in the past had their own method of settling such dispute. What was then was to invite all the Obas around Iragbiji area. It involved the then Timi of Ede, the then Ataoja of Osogbo, Oragun of Illa. All of them went to the foot of the hills and asked each of the monarch to prove that their ownership. Eventually the Aragbiji said, to prove that he was the owner of the land and the hills, that within seven days, the two hills, Tako-Tabo, one male and one female standing on each other, one will roll down within seven days. The then Oloba Agun said nothing of such would happen. To the glory of Almighty God, on the third day, the small hill sitting on the other one, one of them rolled and fell down.

Since then, Iragbiji has considered the Okunyilule hill a monument. In fact every year, people go there salute the courage of our forebears who were able to stand by the truth, uphold and also say the truth. We also commend the gods who allowed the truth to manifest in the rolling down of one of the hills. Today, it is the symbol of Iragbiji on our letter head. Anything we do, we would always allude to the Okanyilule hill. It is one of our prime monuments.  We are proud of it.”

So, what are some of the things to attract a tourist to Iragbiji. The Oba has an answer: “Around the Okanyilule Hils, we have about four sites. There is a source of water at the Okayilule Hills. There is the site where the earliest migrants to iragbiji, called Iledesi,. That was where they settled. There is also a source of water we call Oloti. It was not Oloti from source, it became Oloti down the stream. If you get in there, you will see the marvels of the work of Almighty God, how water is gushing out from the base of the rock. It is as site to behold.

“When you leave there, you want to visit Oke Iragbiji itself, which has its own historical connotation. It started with the establishment of Iragbiji, about 600 years ago.

“History has it that our great grandfather, Sokungbade, was a great man, a hunter . when he arrived here, he went on hunting expedition to the pick of the hill, Oke Iragbiji. He was chasing an antelope and the antelope entered a hole on top of the hill. History has it that he entered and and the antelope and the hunter came out in front of what we now have as the palace. We cannot prove the veracity of that claim, but that is in our oral history. In those days, so many things did happen that we will see now and feel they are unbelievable. Since that time, our people have been celebrating the hill annually in what we call, Oke Iragbiji Odun rioke. We normally celebrate it last week of July every year. On top  of that hill too, we have the Ayeye stream. The stream has its source, on top of the hill. The water is always very clean and chilled. Then it was forbidden for anybody who was not a prince to go there draw water or have anything to do with it because it was sacriligoues. The water, before now, was said to be highly medicinal for barren women. The beleive3 was very strong that taking a cup full of that water, a barren woman would conceive. During annual festivals, people go to the stream to make a lot of pledges, the barren, sick and so on. history has it that about 100 years a go, there was an outbreak of small pox all around the then Yoruba land, if not Nigeria. That it was the water from Ayeye stream that was taken to heal the ailment. So, the water is regarded as highly medicinal and spiritual.

“We leave that place, we have the traditional wall fence, Odi. We have tow types: the earth wall fence and the rocky wall fence. According to our history, the two types were put up by extra-terrestrial beings. That our fathers in those days were so powerful that they invoked the spirit to help them construct the two traditional wall fences. Today, we still have relics of the fences. The earth fence has collapse, but we still preserve some of them.”

Leaving Iragbiji, one is left with the feeling of having been to a town where the people and nature are at peace.