Category: Travels on Saturday

For over 1, 000 Nigerian children and youths, last year’s Yuletide celebration will be a season to remember for a long time as they were feted to a befitting celebration by Motherland Beckons through one of its activations, Diaspora Nigeria Economic Recovery Programme (DNERP).

This time, it was at the instance of a Nigerian based in Atlanta, America, Bolaji Adeeko, who feted them to a rich and wide selection of food items under the auspices of the DNERP. Adeeko was elated to have lifted the children and brighten their festive season with his kind gesture.

Speaking on this development, the Founder and President of Motherland Beckons, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, described it as a significant milestone. According to him, it was a great push for the movement, which he said is devoted to encouraging Nigerians and Africans in the diaspora to contribute to the development and growth of the country and continent.

”Motherlands Beckons movement is gaining momentum. It is basically a concept to create a platform for Africans in diaspora to add to the growth and development of the continent. Apart from just coming to enjoy themselves,” he said, stressing that: ”No matter how little they must begin a process of Africa’s resuscitation and growth.”

Adeeko, he said, has heeded the call to lift his fellow Nigerians. ”A 25-year-old Atlanta – based African – American with a Nigerian father and a Caribbean – American mother, has heeded the call. Based on that, he started by feeding one thousand children and youths this holiday season.”

He disclosed that this is just the beginning of his contribution, as he has indicated interest to take his kind gesture to another level next year by ensuring that over 5, 000 Nigerians are fed and entertained.

”He is hoping that by next year he will feed 5, 000 children and youths with the support of other friends of his from the USA that will come down with him for a major celebration. That will not only just be food but full entertainment for those that cannot enjoy the Yuletide because of the economic hardship on the continent and Nigeria,” revealed Akinboboye.

Adeeko’s contribution to the wellbeing of the children and youths, he said was part of the Motherland Beckons’ Diaspora Nigeria Economic Recovery Programme, which he said was created for this purpose where Nigerians and African – Americans abroad can come and contribute to the growth of Africa.

”If we have one thousand Bolajis feeding a thousand people that will be one million children and youths benefiting from such legacy that will help alleviate some of the hardship that they have gone through in the year and they can look forward to  Bolaji’s movement for next year.”

Akinboboye, therefore, expressed appreciation to Adeeko for the initiative, which he said was self -motivating. ”Motherland Beckons is grateful to Adeeko for this personal initiative because he came up with the idea as what he will like to contribute to the development of Nigeria.

”He has now been asked to bring with him a minimum of five people next year for this continent building project.”

The dry season weather on this New Year day in Okagwe, Ohafia council area of Abia State was harsh. The sun struggled to penetrate through the mild haze that covered the sky. It was a cold day. Despite the cold weather, the atmosphere was charged. The community is expecting its traditional masquerade, Ekpe to come out to celebrate the New Year. It is an event tourists could visit, watch and have an exciting experience.

Youths and elders kited for Igba Ekpe race through the main road towards Obu Ekpe (masquerade house) making menacing noise. They wore a single Ukara Ekpe wrapper round their loins. Those without Ukara Ekpe, tied George wrappers. They used chalks to paint their faces and bodies to have a fearsome look.

Some minutes after four in the afternoon, the Ekpe masquerade made its way from the Obu amidst hailing from young men clutching canes. Other scampered to safety weary of being flogged.  The Ekpe masquerade, urged by its followers, gracefully darted along the road, abruptly turned and wiped the nearest person to it. It triggered a chain of flogging. The whizzing sound of the canes could be heard from afar. The masquerade first made its way to the family house of Igwe kalu Uka, then the traditional ruler, Ezeogo’s house, the next is  kalu Amogu’s house, before heading towards the village square.

Watching this traditional spectacle, it was obvious Igba Ekpe, though exciting, is not for the faint hearted and the fearful.

Ohafia people pride themselves as warriors, so revelers in Igba Ekpe festival must be able to endure pains. Whipping people with cane is part of the Ekpe dance. Participants are expected to take in the whips without flinching or showing pain, and also to return such favours in kind by whipping anybody around.  It is a manly event with no female participant.

On this day in question, Okagwe was in high spirit having just finished the celebration of Igba Uche. Igba Ekpe and Igba Uche are held at the same period once in three years.

Earlier before the new year, the festivity had kicked off on December 28 with the Igba Uche festival, a festival held to celebrate the attainment of elder hood of an age group.

Igba Uche has become an important event in the life of  indigenes of Okagwe in particular and other parts of Ohafia where it is referred to as Otaomu. It signals that individuals have attained the status of elders of the community and could no longer be sent on routine community assignments.  While other parts of Ohafia hold the programme only once, in Okagwe the attainment of the elder hood is in two stages: Igba Uche and Igba Ekpe.

The leader of the Mbana  group that had just celebrated the Igba Uche, Mr.Amogu Mba Amogu spoke to  The Nation newspapers on age group system in Igboland and the festival: “The reason for age grade system in our community is that in the olden days, Ohafia people used the age groups as vigilantes to guard the communities.  Ohafia people are renowned warriors and the communities understood that while at the war front, enemies could attack the communities from behind. So, the age groups were put together to serve as vigilante for the communities while the warriors were away. They were called Uke Uche. With time, as the age groups advance in age, there was the need to have younger ones take over their [position in the community and secure the community. This became a standing tradition.

The age groups are divided based on years of birth.  Two or three years separate one age group from another.

“The passing of years made the vigilante aspect of the works of the age group not too important. The age groups then became vehicles for community development. As it is in Ohafia today, the people do not wait until the government provides them with certain social amenities.  They provide these things for themselves. For example, the current age group that performed the Igba  Uche ceremony in Okagwe , built a skill acquisition centre where the youths could learn one form of trade or the other. They also built a primary health centre and also sunk a borehole powered by solar system. They also built four classrooms block. The skill acquisition has four department:  Carpentry workshop, plumbing section, tailoring, hairdressing and computer training.

“Just as Mbana age finished their service to community this year; it would take three year for the next age group to come forward. It has become a kind of competition. They next age group that could be coming out for the ceremony would want to do more than our age group has done. That is why the age group system is very important to the people of Ohafia.

Amogu allso talked about what is required by the Okagwe community to mark the Igba Uche: “Once an age group attains the age of 60 to 62, they are old enough to celebrate Igba Uche. Igba Uche is the first stage. The second stage is Igba Ekpe. The age group qualified for Igba Ekpe is from the age of 62 to 70 years. Once you an age group performs this, the members are regarded as elders.

“What happens on the day agreed for the traditional ceremony involves handing over the projects executed by the age group to the community. The community would lead us round the village and we would be given certificate as proof that we have performed the ceremony. After this, we would go back to our individual houses to celebrate with relations, friends and well-wishers. We normally invite the Okom-eba  traditional group and the also the war dancers. We also invite the Ekere group, these three groups are normally invited to perform in Okagwe.”

During the celebration of Igba Uche, compounds of celebrators are brightly decorated to show that festivity was on. Amogu also explained this: “This happens on the second day. The first day of the ceremony is for projects handing over. The second day is for members of the age group to sit at home and welcome visitors. It is normally a thing of joy for every family to see that their sons and daughters took part in the ceremony. It is a thing of honour. So, on the second day, the members of the age group sit at home and receive visitors. At home,  we have what we call the wrapper tent. A participant will use his George wrappers to build the tent the celebrator would sit inside and receive visitors to show that he is now an elder.”

Pastor Ebere Kalu, a retired civil servant who some years ago marked his Igba Uche, shed more light on the ceremony: “ Actually, this colourful ceremony is performed only once in other communities of Ohafia as Otaomu. So, the other communities’ celebration is a mix of Igba Uche and Otaomu. Okagwe has the unique feature of celebrating theirs twice.”

As the light of dusk faded welcoming the night, gradually, the tired young men of Okagwe, returned back to their homes wearing their swollen backs as result of whips, as badges of honour. It will take another three years for them to witness Igba Uche and Igba Ekpe in the same festive period.

Anywhere in the world, tourists are attracted to a destination by natural and man-made attractions.  The United Arab Emirates, one of the most popular countries for tourist visitors, has little or no natural tourist attractions (except the deserts). Over the years, the country, especially Dubai, has built man-made attractions like the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa; the world’s seven-star hotel, Burj al-Arab; the Dubai Shopping Mall and so on, that has made the country a popular destination.

Religious tourism is big, having the world’s biggest church auditorium in Nigeria is a plus for tourism. This was achieved in 2018.

The church building, which is owned by Dunamis International Gospel Center, is a 100,000 seater capacity building. Guests at the dedication of the church this year include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dino Melaye, Akwa Ibom State Governor Emmanuel Udom, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor E.A Adeboye and many others.

Despite all these gains, key issues like the implementation of the national tourism master plan, the Tourism Development Bank, the resuscitation of the of the Presidential Council on Tourism were not addressed in 2018. This has made many industry practitioners to clamour for a stand-alone tourism

The Senior Vice President, Development, Sub-Sahara Africa of the Carlson Rezidor Hospitality Group, owner of the Radisson, Park Inn, Mr. Andrew Mclachlan has seen the hotel brand’s recent bullish  foray into the Nigerian hospitality market was informed by the country’s positive economic signals.

Mclachlan made this comment during a recent interview with The Nation. He said: “There are two things we look at. One, we look at the size of the population in Nigeria. We look at how many hotels are actually in the cities. Based on the size of the cities, there is actually not too many hotels  in the cities. There is an under supply of quality hotels.

“Then, we look at the economy. I’ve been coming to Nigeria since 2002. I have been in business here for 16 years.  Nigerians are naturally entrepreneurial people. They need things to start moving. There has obviously been a number of setbacks over the last couple of years which has affected the economy. To me, that is temporary.

“Nigeria has a lot of good fundamentals to be going forward. They need to have consistently good leadership. There is still a lot of opportunities. I think it is important that the devaluation of the naira stays or stabilizes and it has for a couple years. So, it is relatively  stable. As long as it is stable, people can actually start trading again; people can start doing business. But when it is falling unpredictably, then it is very difficult for people to invest or do anything because you don’t really know what the economy is doing. So, I think there are a lot of positive things happening”.

Mclachlan further said: “We think Lagos could have at least 10 hotels and Abuja is a proactive city. We take our Nigerian strategy. We really feel that Radisson Blu in Nigeria, between now and the end of 2022, aims to have at least 10 hotels in Lagos, and have three to five hotels in Abuja. And then we also see ourselves obviously having a presence in Port Harcourt. You can’t forget it as a city. So, you complete the big cities’ corporate triangle. And we think that Park Inn by Radisson which is our three-star brand can go into a number of the state capitals. So, we see Park Inn not just operating in city centres, but also operating in  some of the state capitals. We have 36 states, we think we can be in at least 10 of the 36 states, maybe even more.”

On the Park Inn brand of group in Nigeria, Mclachlan said: “ We would like to have a Park Inn in Abuja and Lagos before Abeokuta. But due to certain circumstances in planning, we opened in Abeokuta first.  We have plans for Park Inn which we have in Victoria Island now. We have another one planned for Apapa.  We have a Park Inn under construction in Onitsha. We think Park Inn is a brand that can definitely go to Enugu.  So, there is a number of different places we could put Park Inn in”.

Mclachlan said the group’s  brands have done well since the first property on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, “So far, it has been very good. We’ve been happy with the performance of our first Radisson Blu. It has performed well. As new hotels are being opened, it continues to control its market share. It is doing significantly well at the market. We’ve seen the benefit  when we opened our second Radisson Blu, Ikeja. When we took over the former Renaissance, it has been very positive. It seems both hotels have benefitted from the fact that there is a second Radisson Blu in the same city.”

He also talked about the group’s ambition in Lagos: “In West Africa, we have two hotels opened in Dakar, Senegal. We have a Radisson Blu and a Radisson, one five-star and a four-star property.  In Bamako, Mali, we have one Radisson Blu which is opened in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. We have one Radisson Blu opened, one Radisson is under construction and one Radisson Red is under construction. We are also in Guinea, Conakry. We have a Radisson Blu which will open in the first quarter of next year. Then in Accra, Ghana, we have a Radisson which is under development. In Sierra Leone, we have a Radisson in Freetown which is opened and trading. It is the leading hotel in that country.”

December 28, the D-day for the 2018 Carnival Calabar, may be days away, but the whiff of celebration is all around the ancient city of Calabar. The city is gradually tuning into festivity mode. This was very much apparent during the third and final dry run of the 2018 Calabar Carnival.

From the Margaret Ekpo International Airport to the city centre, the buzz is on. Calabar residents have put on the charm to woo tourist visitors. ‘Welcome Home’ is a common greeting method that a visitor gets on arrival to the city.

Participating in the third and final dry run was like being part of the main carnival. It is to the credit of the Carnival Calabar Commission that there is so much attention to details in the build-up to the main event that every effort is made to make a spectacle for thousands that would spend their money to travel to Calabar for the carnival and millions that would watch it live through the cable television and online streaming.

The Deputy Governor of Cross River, Prof. Evara Esu, led the revelry for the final dry run. He explained that Carnival Calabar was apolitical and as such, he urged presidential candidates contesting the 2019 presidential elections to come to Calabar and hit the streets to join the party. He said he was looking forward to see the best dancers and hope that would help in endearing them to the people. Among those that joined him were Senator Florence Itta-Giwa, FTAN President Saleh Rabo, FTAN Deputy President Nkereuwem Onung, Chairman Carnival Commission Gabe Onah, Special Adviser to the Governor on Events Mr. Ben Akla, International Consultant to Carnival Calabar, Mr. Ikechi Uko and many others. The bike gangs were also on hand to rev up the atmosphere with their power-bikes.

Professor Esu did up to three kilometres dancing the music with other top government officials and bands joining to finetune the preparation. The colour and enthusiasm during the dry run could be compared to the main event. Based on the quality and entertainment on display, some tour operators promised to package the dry runs for tourists next years

Gabe Onah, the Carnival Calabar Chairman, spoke on the dry run: “This is the third and final carnival dry run. The dry run is an effort to try the system, inform the public and then calibrate the routing. This is because along the carnival route itself, we have utilities, the adjudication points, the rest point, the refreshment points, the merchandising points and, of course, for revellers to keep fit. We also host, during the dry run, some VIPs, stakeholders and tour agents who market us, who sell Carnival Calabar.

“The next level is to see that people come as tourists based on invitation by tour operators who are here on familiarization tour to see for themselves so that they will be able to market to potential and existing tourists.

“We usually hold three dry runs. Today the special effect is motorcycling, the power bikers and the wonders on wheels whose primary purpose is to activate and create excitement along the carnival route. Again they have expendable income. We believe that when a tourist arrives at a destination, his naira or dollar should stay. This is what we experience.

“This year, four bikers’ gangs will be participating. They will be led by the governor’s gang called the Scorpio Gang, followed the Metallic Knights, Tinapa Knight and of course the Aviators led by the former governor of Cross River State Mr. Donald Duke. The excitement this brings is unimaginable.”

Onah said tourists visiting Calabar this year would definitely have value for money entertainment: “One thing is certain. We believe that we have the warmest welcome in Africa   to offer our tourists, and if they come, they recreate and go back to produce more.

“We are ready to the extent that the hotels, the environment and those who provide the hospitality are geared towards making a difference and provide that which tourists look out for and ensure that there is a repeat visit.”

Onah talked about the festival village. He said: “It is part of Carnival Calabar. It is the industry behind the Carnival Calabar. Then, the emotional angle and the consciousness of the people, where people sit around for life changing experience.

“It is a place where people hang around under the family setting to share and enjoy the joy of the season. Yes, it is the first week, yet you see how busy the festival village. For us, the bottom line is the visitor element. We have visitors from the Cameroon, Ghana and other neigbouring countries. Then, we have the British chefs all out there. So we are very honoured.”

The icing on the cake for the dry run was the governor of the state, Professor Ben Ayade, joining the revelry, first with a display of some dance steps on the streets and later hit other parts of the city on his power bike.

Nigerians have been enjoined to make wellness a lifestyle in order to prevent the high rate of organ failure and premature deaths in the country.

Speaking at the grand opening of the Go Wellness Resort in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State recently, the CEO, Mrs Gloria E Awobasivwe that ailments such as organ failures, heart conditions and others causing premature deaths in the society can be traced to the food people eat as well as lifestyle.

“One of the major thing is what we eat. So many things we eat in Nigeria and the world generally now have so many artificial flavourings, preservatives and all that which are not beneficial to the health,” she stated.

Other factors she added, include self-medication, lack of periodic medical check ups and overwork. “Nigerians don’t know how to relax. Even when we go on vacation, we are still working, looking for money. We also don’t do proper, periodic medical check ups. Every body should be able to do a liver and kidney function test from time to time just to see how your organs are functioning. We should have more HMOs and and

That’s why I advice that Nigerians must make wellness a lifestyle. In this resort, we believe strongly in preventive care and are poised to help people eat healthy, exercise right, enjoy life and keep your body young and strong. We are redefining our food mentality and reorienting our exercise experience. Our approach to wellness and fitness is completely different,” she said.