Foremost legal mind and founder, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, has called for the drafting of a robust and strong legal framework for the enhancement of the tourism sector in Nigeria.
Aare Afe Babalola made this call while receiving the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Ekiti State on Tourism Development, Mr Wale Ojo-Lanre and Team Ekiti Tourism Development, in his White Rock Office, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, after a tour of the Afe Babalola University campus, the Multi-System Hospital, the Planetarium and ABUAD Farms all within the ambit of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti.
Aare Afe Babalola who commended Dr Kayode Fayemi ‘s tourism vision exposed why Nigeria had not been reaping bountifully from tourism.
“We have a country which is overwhelmingly blessed with viable and humongous tourism wonders most in their pristine form.
“We have intelligent, resourceful and vibrant tourism practitioners and stakeholders who are frenetically strengthening themselves out to eke something from the tourism offerings.
“We have a world that is ready to explore Nigeria. But regrettably, we have a set of weak legislation and laws which were crafted when the tourism sector was in an analogue era.”
He disclosed that “One of the impediments truncating the phenomenal transition of Nigeria into a viable tourism economy is the lack of a robust and strong legal framework which is the necessary jelly for the lubrication of a vibrant tourism economy and business in Nigeria.“
He called on the public and private sector tourism professionals in Nigeria to synergize efforts at ensuring the enactment of a purposeful and vision-driven legal framework, pointing out that the tourism sector was at present an unregulated and uncoordinated sector that “revels in archaic and obsolete legal contents which bear no relevance of appropriateness in the face of contemporary developments.”
Ambassador Ojo-Lanre, in his remarks, disclosed that his mission to ABUAD was in furtherance of Dr John Kayode Fayemi’s tourism policy of enhancement of tourism potentialities of Ekiti State.
He described Aare Afe Babalola as an asset of inestimable value to Ekiti State not just only because he planted an international trans-generational academic enclave in Ado Ekiti, but has also created in Ado – Ekiti a global tourism destination capable of attracting millions of tourists to Ekiti State.
Ambassador Ojo-Lanre pointed out that “Here within the canopy of Afe Babalola University, one can enjoy the luxury of an Educ-tour by feeding one’s eyes with the beauty of a truly conducive academic environment, embarking on agro-tourism sightseeing of a large expanse of well-mechanized farmland of varieties of crops, poultry and animal husbandry with allied industries processing them to finish products, take an expedition on medical tourism to one of the most equipped medical complexes in Africa and finally take a trip from the Earth and explore the space at the biggest and largest Planetarium in West – Africa.”
He pointed out that the totality of Aare Afe Babalola as a person and accomplishments were tourism themselves for those who want to take a tour of a life which survived in the middle of hopeless deprivation and rose from grass to grace of fortune and opulence.
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