₦airaland Forum

sulaak:
Have you been to Thailand, tourism is important to their country but at a high cost to the moral and social development of the country. Thailand is known as the sex capital of the world for a reason and the consequence cannot be imagined. I will rather forgo the benefit of tourism, than the crazy prostitution going on in that country. When mother openly sell they children for sex and young men become ladyboys for foreign tourist.


The only tourist that will be brave to patronise Nigeria today will be foreign hustlers and sex tourist. Nigeria has a terrible reputation in the international community.

Any serious country will learn from the downside seen in Thailand and put measures in place. Very strict laws will be in place. In exchange for free visa, foreigners will submit DNA and biometric data upon entry if visiting for the first time. Returning tourists will already have data collected before.

Do you know how many hundreds of thousands already die of poverty that may benefit from jobs and wealth created by tourism? Tourists will spend in hotels, eat and drink in bars, restaurants, buy souvenirs and use transportation.

If we go by online pornography including child abuse, exposure of kids to vile stuff online, online radicalisation leading to mass killings, scam/fraud/yahoo, infidelity, murder by people met on social media and other ills, we should forgo ICT too. You cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater dude.

Seetto:
Seriously has to be commoted..

Lol

Jossyroyal1:
Obasanjo is irrelevant

History will say otherwise.

AreaFada2:
Any serious country will learn from the downside seen in Thailand and put measures in place. Very strict laws will be in place. In exchange for free visa, foreigners will submit DNA and biometric data upon entry if visiting for the first time. Returning tourists will already have data collected before.

Do you know how many hundreds of thousands already die of poverty that may benefit from jobs and wealth created by tourism? Tourists will spend in hotels, eat and drink in bars, restaurants, buy souvenirs and use transportation.

If we go by online pornography including child abuse, exposure of kids to vile stuff online, online radicalisation leading to mass killings, scam/fraud/yahoo, infidelity, murder by people met on social media and other ills, we should forgo ICT too. You cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater dude.

I saw this article in The Guardian today and I recalled your post from last years. It's very hard to avoid the journey of Thailand, Dominica Republic and now Kenya if your country is poor and underdeveloped. Tourism in poor countries has a serious downside.

Kenya calls for help in fight against rising sexual abuse by foreigners
Anti-trafficking organisations say widespread trust in white outsiders makes children an easy target for abusers from the west

Child protection organisations in Kenya say more needs to be done to protect young people from exploitation by overseas perpetrators, as the country reports a rising number of abuse cases.

The warning follows the arrest of Gregory Dow, a 61-year-old missionary, who last month pleaded guilty in a US court to sexually abusing girls at an orphanage he ran in Kenya.

It also comes after Kenyan authorities charged a 71-year-old German national in May on counts of trafficking, defilement, indecent acts and child pornography.

Mueni Mutisya, the head of Kenya’s anti-human trafficking and child protection unit, which launched in 2016, said that between 2018 and 2019, the unit rescued 230 children from local and international perpetrators.

She told the Guardian that trust in white people by many Kenyans, particularly in those offering to support their families, makes children an easy target for abusers from the west.

“The black people here view the whites as superior beings, and the whites know that and they take advantage,” said Mutisya.

“These are people that are living in abject poverty, so when someone promises that they’re going to get your children an education, that they’re going to feed you, these people will go for that,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/08/kenya-calls-for-help-in-fight-against-rising-sexual-abuse-by-foreigners

sulaak:
I saw this article in The Guardian today and I recalled your post from last years. It's very hard to avoid the journey of Thailand, Dominica Republic and now Kenya if your country is poor and underdeveloped. Tourism in poor countries has a serious downside.

Remember when mobile telephony first became popular in the 1990s?

Nigeria then rejected the notion arguing that criminals and armed robbers will be using it to communicate. While people in Benin Republic were using it (including people selling petrol in bottles by the roadside, I saw it myself) in the 1990s, Nigeria didn't have GSM. But we later embraced it.

We cannot be defeatists. Everything we benefit from today also have disadvantages. Without a decent tourist industry we have sexual crimes. Uwa was raped and murdered in Benin. Another girl has just been murdered in Illorin. Human trafficking is a big issue in 9ja. Done largely by local based in 9ja and abroad.

You cannot totally prevent any crime. But you can minimise it greatly. Make a harsh example of anyone caught.

AreaFada2:
Remember when mobile telephony first became popular in the 1990s?

Nigeria then rejected the notion arguing that criminals and armed robbers will be using it to communicate. While people in Benin Republic were using it (including people selling petrol in bottles by the roadside, I saw it myself) in the 1990s, Nigeria didn't have GSM. But we later embraced it.

We cannot be defeatists. Everything we benefit from today also have disadvantages. Without a decent tourist industry we have sexual crimes. Uwa was raped and murdered in Benin. Another girl has just been murdered in Illorin. Human trafficking is a big issue in 9ja. Done largely by local based in 9ja and abroad.

You cannot totally prevent any crime. But you can minimise it greatly. Make a harsh example of anyone caught.

Defeatist ...lol, more like awareness and realist.

A country must know it's level.

GSM is a poor analogy, try using a nuclear power plant, you wouldn't recommend Nigeria develop a nuclear power industry, with the knowledge of Nigeria poor maintenance records and culture, the consequence of nuclear failure and fallout is unimaginable.

As you rightly stated without a decent tourist industry we have sexual crimes across the country, imagine what it will look like with tourist industry in a country that cannot enforce the law on its own citizen, yet will be expected to enforce the law on foreigners.

Nigeria needs a reboot, fix the society or at least start trying, tourism will not even thrive in a country that is at war with itself. Tourist thrives in a peaceful and progressive country.

AtikuMeansJobs:
Nigeria is not rich. What Nigeria really needs now is to expand its economic base, we need to have more than 10 solid sectors firing all cylinders, i mean sectors that can employ a lot of people, instead of oil being d mainstay of our economy, build infrastructures from revenues from oil while building other sectors, invest in technical education, cut senators wage.... and we'll be alright.

Only solid investment in power supply and infrastructures like the rail network can make that possible.
There's no way around it.

sulaak:
Defeatist ...lol, more like awareness and realist.

A country must know it's level.

GSM is a poor analogy, try using a nuclear power plant, you wouldn't recommend Nigeria develop a nuclear power industry, with the knowledge of Nigeria poor maintenance records and culture, the consequence of nuclear failure and fallout is unimaginable.

As you rightly stated without a decent tourist industry we have sexual crimes across the country, imagine what it will look like with tourist industry in a country that cannot enforce the law on its own citizen, yet will be expected to enforce the law on foreigners.

Nigeria needs a reboot, fix the society or at least start trying, tourism will not even thrive in a country that is at war with itself. Tourist thrives in a peaceful and progressive country.

Haba! Ah. Nuclear ke? Una Don fit run Kainji Dam finish? You must be a clown.

Nuclear analogy is way too "nuclear and explosive".

Nobody said tourism will take off mightily right away. Tourist safe zones can be created. Like Tinapa, Lekki, some game reserves, etc. With special tourist police like in Thailand. Nobody not on suicide mission will head to Sambisa forest just yet, as good a game reserve it used to be.

With baby steps, we can effectively police the initial few tourists. Even if we take out 5k people from the jobless population through employment so created, it's a contribution to peace.
If we get discouraged by the scale of challenges facing us, we will never start.

The biggest war within countries in modern times is war of poverty. Jobs alleviate poverty.

Oil is losing importance as the world is going green, tax revenues low from poor economy and the youth do not want to farm. So should we not consider other things that resource poor countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Thailand, The Maldives, The Gambia and Thailand have harnessed so well?

AreaFada2:
Haba! Ah. Nuclear ke? Una Don fit run Kainji Dam finish? You must be a clown.

Nuclear analogy is way too "nuclear and explosive".

Nobody said tourism will take off mightily right away. Tourist safe zones can be created. Like Tinapa, Lekki, some game reserves, etc. With special tourist police like in Thailand. Nobody not on suicide mission will head to Sambisa forest just yet, as good a game reserve it used to be.

With baby steps, we can effectively police the initial few tourists. Even if we take out 5k people from the jobless population through employment so created, it's a contribution to peace.
If we get discouraged by the scale of challenges facing us, we will never start.

The biggest war within countries in modern times is war of poverty. Jobs alleviate poverty.

Oil is losing importance as the world is going green, tax revenues low from poor economy and the youth do not want to farm. So should we not consider other things that resource poor countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Thailand, The Maldives, The Gambia and Thailand have harnessed so well?

Oil isn't losing its relevance. The medical drugs that you depend on is a product of oil and gas. Nigeria must be the only oil-exporting nation that failed to develop an effective petrochemical industry from its vast oil resources, Nigeria pharmaceutical industries depend on imported petrochemical petrol chemical feedstock from India and Bangladesh, Nigeria is a major oil supplier to India. Please do some research on the petrochemical industries in India, Taiwan, Qatar and South Korea.

There's nothing wrong in being resource-rich if the people are civilised and sensible. Canada and Australia are resource-rich, developed and productive

Back to the main subject, you said Nigeria should embark on baby development steps " Like Tinapa, Lekki, some game reserves, etc. With special tourist police like in Thailand."

Well, thanks for highlighting the issues of Tinapa. Tinapa was designed to be a tourist city, yet despite $700 million investment and good rail links Tinapa is a complete and abject failure, it goes without saying that you need more than infrastructures and goodwill to sell tourism to the world.

The Nigerian story to the world is corruption, poverty, Boko Haram, incompetence leaders and indiscipline people, a tourist has many choices to select from.

A CNN report in 2010 showed that the complex was still largely empty, while interest payments on the construction cost of the complex was rising. Governor Liyel Imoke told a CNN reporter that the state government was looking for private sector investors who would run the project more efficiently.

A May 2011 report from the Daily Trust was entitled "Tinapa is dying". It said most of the shops had closed, and the other facilities such as the exhibition space and movie studio had not been used for a long time. The hotel was open but hardly had any guests. Only the water park was busy, since the reporter had visited during a school holiday.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinapa_Resort

sulaak:
Oil isn't losing its relevance. The medical drugs that you depend on is a product of oil and gas. Nigeria must be the only oil-exporting nation that failed to develop an effective petrochemical industry from its vast oil resources, Nigeria pharmaceutical industries depend on imported petrochemical petrol chemical feedstock from India and Bangladesh, Nigeria is a major oil supplier to India. Please do some research on the petrochemical industries in India, Taiwan, Qatar and South Korea.

There's nothing wrong in being resource-rich if the people are civilised and sensible. Canada and Australia are resource-rich, developed and productive

Back to the main subject, you said Nigeria should embark on baby development steps " Like Tinapa, Lekki, some game reserves, etc. With special tourist police like in Thailand."

Well, thanks for highlighting the issues of Tinapa. Tinapa was designed to be a tourist city, yet despite $700 million investment and good rail links Tinapa is a complete and abject failure, it goes without saying that you need more than infrastructures and goodwill to sell tourism to the world.

The Nigerian story to the world is corruption, poverty, Boko Haram, incompetence leaders and indiscipline people, a tourist has many choices to select from.

Actually Nigeria is not the only country that didn't develop a viable petrochemical industry. Venezuela has the largest oil deposit. More than Saudi Arabia. Another big oil producer Algeria also did not. Libya neither.

However, it does not mean we should pride ourselves in being in the worst company in that respect. We should have done way more. Let's be honest. Most developing countries do not have the know how. We did not even do much to acquire knowhow.

Most medicines do not come from petrol anymore. Biotechnology has taken over. Still most countries use petroleum primarily for energy.

Can't we learn from failure of Tinapa? It was a state Gov programme which could have been better conceived in terms of location, scale, orientation, transportation, etc. When you know the rapacious corruption of most Nigerians in the past few decades till now, the cost should not surprise you.

My question is as it is, do we just refuse to do anything because of potential disadvantages and look "ayanyan" as the whole world surges past us?

Criticisms are many and we Nigerians are all experts in it. But what are the solutions?

AreaFada2:
Actually Nigeria is not the only country that didn't develop a viable petrochemical industry. Venezuela has the largest oil deposit. More than Saudi Arabia. Another big oil producer Algeria also did not. Libya neither.

However, it does not mean we should pride ourselves in being in the worst company in that respect. We should have done way more. Let's be honest. Most developing countries do not have the know how. We did not even do much to acquire knowhow.

Most medicines do not come from petrol anymore. Biotechnology has taken over. Still most countries use petroleum primarily for energy.

Can't we learn from failure of Tinapa? It was a state Gov programme which could have been better conceived in terms of location, scale, orientation, transportation, etc. When you know the rapacious corruption of most Nigerians in the past few decades till now, the cost should not surprise you.

My question is as it is, do we just refuse to do anything because of potential disadvantages and look "ayanyan" as the whole world surges past us?

Criticisms are many and we Nigerians are all experts in it. But what are the solutions?

I agree Nigeria must learn from failure and find solutions to their problems, but that process starts with a change in cultural values, there was a time when Nigerians only believed in superstition and sold themselves as slaves then a critical change started with the advent of African missionaries introducing Christian values, education and modern values. I am not a Christain but aware of its values and benefit.

Nothing will change if the politician that control the policies are criminals.

If you are looking for solutions, start with the Nigerian government engaging with Nigeria in the diaspora, professionals with nothing less than 20 years experience working at the highest level in business, government and academia to invest a minimum of $100000 in the country, the government will ring-fence the investments with access to soft loans.

Tinapa was a state programme, they tried to invite private investors but most private investors are afraid to work with the Nigerian government, the level of corruption and incompetence is shocking and depressing.

Biotechnology is a technology process to design drugs using biological systems, living organisms or parts of this to develop or create different products. The feedstocks to produce the drugs are from hydrocarbons which come from fossil fuel or( oil and gas).

https://sciencenotes.org/petrochemicals-in-medicine/
Drugs Rely on Petrochemistry
In 1897, German chemistry Felix Hoffman synthesized aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), one of the most widely used, safest, and effective drugs in the modern world. The synthesis of aspirin opened a new world of drug chemistry. Petrochemicals cumene, phenol, benzene, and other aromatics are used to make not only aspirin, but also penicillin and cancer-fighting drugs. Ultimately, most drugs are organic molecules made using petrochemical polymer. Those that are not are often purified using petrochemical resins. Polymers are used to make pill capsules and coatings. Time-release drugs rely on a tartaric acid-based polymer that slowly dissolves, administering just the right dose of medication. Drug packaging, made using plastics, keeps medication sterile, child-resistant, and safe from accidental breakage.

AreaFada2:
Actually Nigeria is not the only country that didn't develop a viable petrochemical industry. Venezuela has the largest oil deposit. More than Saudi Arabia. Another big oil producer Algeria also did not. Libya neither.

However, it does not mean we should pride ourselves in being in the worst company in that respect. We should have done way more. Let's be honest. Most developing countries do not have the know how. We did not even do much to acquire knowhow.

Most medicines do not come from petrol anymore. Biotechnology has taken over. Still most countries use petroleum primarily for energy.

Can't we learn from failure of Tinapa? It was a state Gov programme which could have been better conceived in terms of location, scale, orientation, transportation, etc. When you know the rapacious corruption of most Nigerians in the past few decades till now, the cost should not surprise you.

My question is as it is, do we just refuse to do anything because of potential disadvantages and look "ayanyan" as the whole world surges past us?

Criticisms are many and we Nigerians are all experts in it. But what are the solutions?

If Nigeria intends to develop a tourist industry maybe they can start by protecting the remaining rainforests in the country and the animals that live in them. Implement a reforestation program and wildlife protection should be the first stage to developing a tourist industry.

Recently they discovered rare Gorilla's in cross river state, maybe the state government can partner with WWF to repackage Tinapa with the rare Gorrila's and protect the remaining rainforests and ban the export of timber.

https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/great_apes/gorillas/cross_river_gorilla/#:~:text=Cross%20River%20gorilla%20%7C%20WWF&text=The%20Cross%20River%20gorilla%20was,the%20world's%20rarest%20great%20ape.

AreaFada2:
Actually Nigeria is not the only country that didn't develop a viable petrochemical industry. Venezuela has the largest oil deposit. More than Saudi Arabia. Another big oil producer Algeria also did not. Libya neither.
.......................................

Algeria have a large petrochemical industry that produce a lot of different products . and have good raffineries capacity