Today, Friday, April 26, 2024, the third day of the National Association of Travel Agencies’s (NANTA) Annual General meeting (AGM), the association’s members will be electing a new set of executives. It promises to be an epoch making occasion. Going by the campaigns, the election promises to be one of the most competitive in the history of the association. Different tendencies in the association are set to square up against each other.
Key positions that are currently the major area of sharp partisanship are the association’s President and First Deputy President where there are two candidates for each of these positions.
The intrigues
While, efforts had been made by NANTA’s leadership to harmonize the electoral process for the 2024 elections, a lot of intrigues and undercurrent are currently at play. For today’s election, the outgoing executives and the association’s Board of Trustees (BoT)had a meeting, according to source, where the law guiding the election was harmonized. It was agreed that the electoral law that brought in the current zonal leadership of the association be used for the national election.
Another contentious issue bothers on interests and supports for candidates. The leadership NANTA are said to have gone the extra miles to protect the integrity of the elections. To this end, those who are part of the electoral process with candidates they are supporting (especially in the BoT) were advised, in the interest of the association, to recuse themselves from actively participating as umpires. This may likely lead to a resignation of one or two leaders before the election. This is aimed at making sure every candidate has confidence in the officers conducting the election.
According to another source, pre-election campaigns by the candidates for the presidency of the association saw them comb the five zones of the association: Lagos Zone, Abuja Zone, South West, South East, and Northern Zone. The two candidates for the presidency, Mr. Yinka Folami and Chief Olotu Daisi had locked up the three zones of Lagos, South West and Eastern Zones. The likely battle grounds will be the Abuja and North. Both camps are hopeful that they can pull off victory.

Another major area of contention is the battle of the youths and the elders. Most of the young members of the association feel comfortable with Yinka Folami as President of NANTA as they believe he would nurtured them in the business of travel, the older members are said to be more comfortable with the other candidate , as he would likely be in better position to maintain the association’s hierarchy.
How these tendencies interplay today, will define the next leadership of NANTA for the two years.
From all these indices, barring any last minutes surprises, the young turks in NANTA will likely have their way with Yinka Folami likely to emerge as the new president of NANTA.