Aviation

Coker: Lagos is Dubai of Sub-Sahara Africa

Coker
Coker
Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Art and Culture,
Folorunso Coker, who spoke at the launch of Flavours of
Lagos, said the state is being made a tourist attraction and
create wealth for the citizens.
  • understand that some of these things you cannot do them
    over night.
    We have created three tourist brands in Lagos in less
    than a year, including the Flavours of Lagos. If we
    entertain 100,000 people and they spend an average
    N5000 each over a two-day period, including transport,
    multiply that. What is the implication on GDP? So these
    are the areas we are thinking about in terms of community
    domestic tourism; driving consumption down to the
    grassroots level.
    Security is part of tourism. What are you doing to
    ensure that people are protected in Lagos?
    If you move around in Lagos you find out that Lagos is
    safe. Lagos is safer than many cities in the West. The
    amount of money Lagos state government expends in
    providing security in the state is second to none in Nigeria.
    Any time the government spends money on security, it is
    not just for you and I alone; it is also for anybody that
    comes here. There is a lot of security in Lagos. In
    February last year we had a marathon of 26 kilometers in
    Lagos, there was no incident. But if you compare Lagos to
    any of the cities in advanced countries, I don’t want to
    name any of them, when last did you hear of somebody
    going into a supermarket and starts shooting? They will
    say Lagos is not safe, but I will say your city is not safe. I
  • am more at risk in some of those cities in some of those
    countries than I am here.
    They may have a bigger voice but let us not delude
    ourselves; let us stop thinking negatively about Lagos.
    You need to talk positively about this city. For example,
    this is a Blackberry phone produced by Canadian
    company. It is a global product. Where it was made the
    people there consumed so much of it, they loved so much,
    so it grew from one country to the whole world. If we want
    to grow our own we must state positively about what we
    have. And let not the non-African thinking dictate our
    future. Whoever said you have to go through the Dubai or
    London model before you grow your own tourism? We are
    just 56 years old. We may not have a national carrier but
    this does not mean we cannot develop our own tourism.
    Let us believe that with our own hands we can shape our
    own destiny.
    Where do you want tourism in the state to be in the
    next 10 years?
    I want to see a Lagos that is loved even more by all
    Lagosians. I want to see a Lagos that its vibe is second to
    none. I want to see a Lagos where Lagosians are
    consuming so much of Lagos. That the people from
    Yoruba land come to consume more of Lagos; that the
    people from the rest of Nigeria come to consume more of
  • Lagos and people from West Africa come to consume
    more of Lagos. It is in that consumption of what is indeed
    ours, of all the skills we have here; of all the assets that
    we have here that we generate employment and generate
    income. It is from there that I will be surprised to see non-
    African, Europeans coming to Lagos because they must
    have heard there are 24 million people living in this state
    of aquatic splendor, merry making tribe of sub-Saharan
    Africa and having fun, let us go there and see. Let us
    shape positive images of the aquatic splendor of Lagos.
    It isn’t about negative things all the time. Let us know that
    anytime you put something negative out there it is
    consumed by the world and that suppresses our potential
    advancement. So anytime you write something think about
    the implication.
    THISDAY
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