La­gos State, with more than 180 kilo­me­ters of sandy beach­front, myr­i­ads of is­lands, some in­hab­ited and oth­ers lying fal­low, prob­a­bly boast of the high­est tourism credential in West Africa. Lately, Lekki, one of La­gos’ LCDAs has taken up the gaunt­let to ma


A tourism zone
The Lekki Coun­cil De­vel­op­ment Area (LCDA) of La­gos has re­solved to use tourism as a tool for so­cioe­co­nomic trans­for­ma­tion and in the process put the area in the tourism map of Africa. The area has tourism as­sets that have been lying fal­low prior to this time. For those who know, it was just a huge waste of God’s gift. Lekki’s foray into tourism goes back more than 100 years. The colo­nial­ist saw the po­ten­tials of the zone as a tourism haven, and that was why they de­cided to build a chalet there where they could go and un­wind and gen­er­ally have qual­ity leisure time. That gave birth to the place that was later made more fa­mous when the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was de­tained there in the ‘60s.

Aside from the de­ten­tion cen­tre, there was no ma­jor high pro­file tourism project of the govern­ment un­til when the then Mil­i­tary Gov­er­nor of the State, Colonel Buba Marwa de­vel­oped the Eko Tourist Beach Re­sort at Akodo, Lekki in the ‘90s. A pri­vate sec­tor ini­tia­tive was also put in place by Otunba Wanle Ak­in­boboye when he opened the lux­u­ri­ous La Cam­pagne Beach Re­sort, Ikegun in the early ‘90s. Presently, it is as if the scale has been re­moved from every­body’s eyes and they can now see that this part of the state is a tourism gold mine. A free trade zone will soon be op­er­a­tional there, com­plete with its own in­ter­na­tional air­port. There is also a 27-hole golf course, myr­i­ads of ho­tels, leisure cen­ters, Lekki Mar­ket for crafts, Ele­gushi beach and Nike Art Gallery. The fu­ture is look­ing bright.

One would then ask, what, in terms of nat­u­ral tourism as­set, does the Lekki area have to of­fer? It has a lot; it has his­tory. Scat­tered on the beach front of the area is the slave barac­con that was used dur­ing the slave trade; the Refugee Is­land; the Free­dom Flag; the Awo De­ten­tion Cen­tre; some colo­nial relics at Orimedu and many oth­ers. Of course, there is close to 30 kilo­me­tres of white sandy beach, in­clud­ing that of the fa­mous Eleko Beach. The coun­cil also boasts of about 16 lakes, in ad­di­tion to the la­goon ar­eas and smaller is­lands.
It is in the light of this that the for­mer lo­cal coun­cil de­vel­op­ment area chair, Bar­ris­ter Mukandaisi Ogi­dan de­cided to turn the area into a Tourism Zone years back and, since then, re­mark­able progress has been made. The axis has meta­mor­phosed into a full tourism zone, es­pe­cially with the full grad­ing of the Lekki-Epe ex­press way.
Ogi­dan made his­tory made his­tory, as he was the first LCDA chair­man in Nige­ria to do so, and this was also to his credit as an ad­min­is­tra­tor.

Asked why he de­clared the area as a tourism zone, Ogi­dan said with the dec­la­ra­tion, the coun­cil would wel­come in­vestors in tourism and that they would be given all the nec­es­sar­ily co-op­er­a­tion to put projects in place for them to have re­turns on their in­vest­ments.
Look­ing back, it was a high pro­file event be­cause on hand as the spe­cial guest of hon­our, at the dec­la­ra­tion cer­e­mony, was the pres­i­dent of the World Coun­cil of May­ors from the United States of Amer­ica, Mr. James Walls, who came with his en­tourage. Oth­ers were, a for­mer com­mis­sioner in La­gos State, Chief Tunde Kasali; World Coun­cil of May­ors Tourism Am­bas­sador to Nige­ria, Otunba Wanle, who is also the owner of the La Cam­pagne Beach Re­sort. He be­lieves the po­si­tion of the coun­cil was a wel­comed de­vel­op­ment and promised to work with the coun­cil to de­velop the area. Also in at­ten­dance were tra­di­tional rulers from the coun­cil and other no­table in­di­vid­u­als.

Ogi­dan said the cer­e­mony was a cat­a­lyst for the trans­for­ma­tion of the area and he couldn’t have been more cor­rect. His words: “We see this kind of trans­for­ma­tion as the only way we can bring the eco­nomic po­ten­tials of this lo­cal govern­ment de­vel­op­ment area. Awo said in the ‘60s that this place will be the best in terms of de­vel­op­ment. Thank God this is com­ing true while we are still here and while our for­mer lead­ers are still present. We have seen our brother, Mayor James Walls, and their com­ing here to­day is good. It is also to se­cure the as­sur­ance that when they come here to in­vest, you will be pre­pared. We will give them ev­ery co-op­er­a­tion re­quired for the trans­for­ma­tion of Lekki LCDA.”

The Pres­i­dent of the World Coun­cil of May­ors spoke on why he de­cided to be part of the his­tory. His words: “It is truly an hon­our to be here for the dec­la­ra­tion of the Lekki Tourism Zone. Am­bas­sador Wanle Ak­in­boboye called me on the phone and said Mayor, I need you to be in Nige­ria next week. And I said to the am­bas­sador, are you crazy? I am in the mid­dle of an elec­tion, and you want me to stop what I am do­ing and travel to Nige­ria, and the am­bas­sador said yes, and I replied okay. And be­fore you know it, I am here in Nige­ria. I came to Nige­ria be­cause this is some­thing very im­por­tant. Prior to be­com­ing, the Pres­i­dent of the World Coun­cil of May­ors, I served as the Vice Pres­i­dent for tourism and am­bas­sador Ak­in­boboye told you, my first ex­pe­ri­ence of the moth­er­land was right here in Nige­ria and right here in Lekki. Since 2008, I have had the op­por­tu­nity to visit the moth­er­land and here in Nige­ria over 30 times. So, when you talk about tourism, it is very im­por­tant be­cause men and women and broth­ers and sis­ters of African de­scent need to re­con­nect with the Moth­er­land. I be­lieve that it is projects like this that will give African-Amer­i­cans, Africans in Europe and oth­ers an op­por­tu­nity to not only come back and re­con­nect but also come back and rein­vest in Mother Africa. So, this tourism zone is an op­por­tu­nity for Africans to come back and re-es­tab­lish their ground and rein­vest in our com­mu­nity and I will leave you with this: this is our day, truly it is, this is our hour and as Africans we shall make sure we do not miss our time.”
In­ter­est­ingly, Chief Kasali, go­ing down mem­ory lane to talk of the ef­forts of the lead­ers of the area to open up the place in the past, only re­in­forced the need to make this dream a re­al­ity. “When you talk about the econ­omy of an area, you talk about com­merce, in­dus­try and tourism. We thank God we now have the Lekki Free Trade Zone in this area. At the be­gin­ning of this free trade zone, it was like a tug of war be­cause we needed en­light­en­ment and a lot of talk­ing to let our peo­ple know that this is the fu­ture that we have been talk­ing about. Once we have the free Trade Zone, we are open­ing the place for com­merce and in­dus­try and then when we have the tourism project, then we are open­ing up the place for the whole world. I be­lieve, and I am so pas­sion­ate about it, that we haven’t seen any­thing yet.”

And with over 100 ho­tels and ac­com­mo­da­tion types, scores of leisure cen­ters, very col­or­ful and vi­brant mar­kets sell­ing every­thing from fish to ar­ti­facts, golf re­sorts, gal­leries, a con­ser­va­tion cen­tre and loads of sandy beaches, one can say Lekki has not only be­come a tourism zone but is also fast tak­ing over as one of West Africa’s ma­jor des­ti­na­tions.
Lekki is about an hour’s drive from the city of La­gos, off the La­gos-Epe Ex­press­way.

Mumu yeye.

We need pictures

May your path be lined with beauty, may your days be filled with favour. May every of your efforts yield positive result. Happy new month.

Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth"
~Robert Kiyosaki

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.” ~Donald Trump

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth"
~Robert Kiyosaki

In this New Month, your pains will be in the past, and your gains will be exalted because you shall have dominion over every challenge. Happy new month, I wish you a very blessed month ahead.

Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth"
~Robert Kiyosaki

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth"
~Robert Kiyosaki

Bless those who persecute/maltreat you;bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another;do not be haughty, but associate with the poor;never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God;for it is written,“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No,“if your enemy is hungry, feed him;if he is thirsty, give him drink;for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

. I am sending you all the good wishes you will ever desire to achieve in this New Month. I hope that this New Month you will continue to swim in the pool of grace as you succeed beyond human expectations. Happy new month.

Bless those who persecute/maltreat you;bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another;do not be haughty, but associate with the poor;never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God;for it is written,“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No,“if your enemy is hungry, feed him;if he is thirsty, give him drink;for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.” ~Donald Trump

Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual's cash flow and wealth"
~Robert Kiyosaki

May the Lord strengthen you to walk through the valleys of this month with grace. May He grant you the courage to shoulder your responsibilities with candour and enjoy the blessings with humility. May the Lord who knows the end from the beginning make every crooked way smooth for you and May he bestow upon you the divine peace and wisdom which will enable you to smile through the trials for they are not "problems" as the rest of the world thinks but stepping stones to the exalted position that the Almighty has prepared for you.

I wish you a Happy New month, remain blessed.

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“Owning a home is a keystone of wealth… both financial affluence and emotional security”.
Suze Orman

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

“It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.” ~Donald Trump

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
-Theodore Roosevelt

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“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than in all industrial investments combined. The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.” - Andrew Carnegie, billionaire industrialist

“Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president

“Now, one thing I tell everyone is learn about real estate. Repeat after me: real estate provides the highest returns, the greatest values and the least risk.” - Armstrong Williams, entrepreneur

“90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” Andrew Carnegie

“You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.” Gordon B. Hinkley

The philosophy of the rich and the poor is this: the rich invest their money and spend what is left. The poor spend their money and invest what is left.” Robert Kiyosaki

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“90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” Andrew Carnegie