*Floors Otunba Ayo Olumoko in federation’s election

Mr. Nkereuwem Onung, the chairman of Remlords Tours and Car Hire Services, has emerged the president Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria( FTAN). He is the seventh president of the tourism federation.

Onung emerged winner with a landslide victory of 71 votes over his challenger Otunba Ayo Olumoko who secured 22 votes at the federation’s election held at RockView Hotel, Abuja, yesterday.

Onung, the former president of Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) and its BOT chairman.

He was also the immediate past acting president of FTAN, after the death of Alhaji Rabo Karim Saleh. Other elected execo members include: Alhaji Aliyu Badaki, 1st  National Deputy President; Mrs. Susanne Akporiaye, 2nd National Deputy President, Yunusa Mohammed, Vice President, Federal Capital Territory; Mr. John Likita Best, and others. 

Onung, in his vision for the tourism sector in Nigeria, had said: “I believe that we have lost out on a whole lot of issues about tourism in terms of engagements because the engagements were inappropriate, the engagements did not take us anywhere, we believed that whatever has been the gains of the past 12 years, we will begin to consolidate it and raise tourism and FTAN to the national prominence

“I believe that we can robustly work towards that so that at the end everybody will understand what tourism contributes to our GDP, so that at the end, we begin to see how we can change the narratives and begin to work on our governments to begin to see us in that light that we are in the industry.

 “When this is done, I believe that we will gradually move to a point everybody will give us our rightful place, we will also begin to contribute properly to the economic spheres in terms of our GDP. It is also believed that if we articulate and create proper consensus in terms of where we are going, then we have the same narratives as we go forward, there is no how people wouldn’t take us serious. We can articulate and agree on action points like we are going to do this in the next six months, we are going to do that in the next 12months so that the consciousness will be raised, so that at the end of It all, we would have a better tourism industry”.

Other past presidents before Mr. Nkereuwem Onung include: Mr. Goodie Ibru, Alhaji Munzali Dantata, High Chief Edem Duke, Oluomo Samuel Alabi, Chief Tomi Akingbogun, and the late Alhaji Alhaji Rabo Saleh.