The Nigerian tourism industry is currently in the twilight of the eight years tenure of the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) Mr. Folorunsho Coker. By March 31, he would have completely the second term of his mandatory eight-year tenure, and will exit from the office.
It was an eight-year tenure that offered nothing, and added nothing to the tourism industry in the country, except an un-implementable NTDA Act of 2022. So, it is no surprise that the tenure is ghosting towards completion with little or no interest from both the public and private sectors.
Africa Travel Herald (ATH) reached out to an aide of Coker for the DG’s eight years record of achievements, but the feedback received was a one page heavily padded catalogue of inanities and inconsequentialities being peddled as achievements.
It is no surprise that the leadership of NTDA is shopping for achievements to justify the huge amount of money budgeted for the parastatal in the last eight years. There is nothing to show. The NTDA is a shadow of what it used to be. These days, what used to be a vibrant Tourism Village has disappeared into obscurity.
In reviewing the eight-year tenure of Coker in the NTDA one has to rely on the blueprint of what he said he wanted to achieve during his tenure. So, after eight years, how has he achieved the vision he had proposed and tasked himself? Also, NTDA in the last eight years has made little or no meaningful contribution to tourism activities in the country, and neither has it come out with any implementable idea to move the industry forward. It is that bad.
Coker was announced as a Director General on March 31, 2017. Although initially posted to the Nigerian Films and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB) as the head, the Federal Government was to later to correct the information in less than 24 hours to confirm him at the new head of the NTDA (then NTDC).
Having served as the Commissioner for Tourism in Lagos State previously, many believed his appointment to head the NTDA was the government putting a round peg in a round hole.
Also, Coker’s personality that exudes sophistication, urbane mien and exposure suits perfectly to be the chief sales person for Nigerian tourism. He has the perfect personality to be at the forefront of developing and selling Nigerian tourism locally and internationally, but despite this, his tenure was a disaster for tourism in Nigeria.

Whither Coker’s vision of Promoting Nigerian tourism through technology

Early in his first tenure, when the Association of Nigerian Writers of Tourism (ANJET) paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja , Coker had outlined his vision for tourism in Nigeria. He said the marketing of Nigerian tourism is better driven through the platform of new technologies provided by the social media. He posited that the new technologies have the capacity of reaching millions in one single message. He said he would leverage on it to promote and market the country’s attractions.
His words: “We have to accept that the dynamics of tourism marketing has changed and then proceed to embrace it. In the same manner, we also need to identify our key products in comparative terms. What do we have that others don’t have? That is what we have to identify and market.”
Folorunsho Coker said parts of his blueprint for the industry include prioritizing the growth and development of the domestic industry: “Right now, our entertainment and hospitality have become our selling point, and with that we identity our niche market and age bracket of that market.
“Our fashion and film industries under the entertainment are already known all over the world. We need to key into these markets and identify the segment of the society shopping in that market.
“My focus for now will be the development of the domestic industry which I believe is much more sustainable and which, if properly done, will drive the international market for us. If we are able to get it right, then, the international segment will naturally take care of itself. We have to start from home.”
To further push forward his development and marketing agenda for Nigerian tourism, the outgoing NTDA Director General conceived the ‘TOUR NIGERIA” brand. It was supposed to drive domestic consumption of tourism products, commercialize tourism and generate employment. The brand was hinged on the identification, exploration, exposition, enhancement and promotion of creative assets across the country using sustainable approaches. On paper, it was a beautiful idea, but in the last eight years, little or no efforts were made to actualize this vision. There was also no efforts collaborate with the private sector or get a buy-in from them. It has been eight years of great promises and delivering nothing.

Tourism development ROADMAP to nowhere

Coker had this fantastic idea of growing tourism using what he called a roadmap. He outlined it: “To quicken growth in our tourism industry, we have prepared a Tourism Development ROADMAP with short, medium and long-term objectives. We have also agreed on a strategic 5-point Action Plan to innovate our tourism and improve service delivery and effectiveness in critical sectors of the industry. The acronym for the strategic 5-point Action Plan to grow the industry is CHIEF.

He explained: “The brand will leverage on the best of Nigeria. Nigerians are known to be intelligent hard-working people, we are also known for our “can-do” and “never-say-never” attitude, which is complimented with a friendly and accommodating spirit. We are proudly the most populous black nation on Earth, home to the second largest film industry on the globe whilst also being the fashion, technological and creative hub in Africa.
“There is need for conscious investment in the promotion of domestic tourism.”
“We appeal to everyone in the tourism value chain at the federal, state, local governments and the private sector to work together and be ready to drive the market with the TOUR NIGERIA brand. We are deeply confident that the brand will strengthen the ties that bind Nigerians to each other and to the rest of Africa.” If the Nigerian bell-ringing street gospel preacher that went viral few years ago were to comment on the above, he would likely interject ‘lori iro!” The implementation of the above in NTDA was zero. The idea had no impact on the tourism fortune of Nigeria either locally or internationally. All these were during his first term in office.
It was in the light of this that the Africa Travel Herald published on April 14, 2021 an article titled “Of NTDC DG, Mediocrity and Wasted Billions on Incompetence.” It was a review of the first four years of Coker’s tenure. ATH had noted then: “So, how has the NTDC marketed Nigerian tourism in the last four years? All the talk about building premier online destination for authentic Nigerian content, using technology, creativity, arts and culture to push the new national agenda, what did the last NTDC DG achieve in the last four years?
“While the NTDC wallowed in inactivities and lack of vision, young upcoming tourism stakeholders were on the road marketing and promoting Nigerian tourism content. They took all the risks; some even paid the supreme price. Yet we had a leadership at the apex national tourism agency that made all the right but hollow noises about tourism, who, even with full complement of the might of the Federal Government’s purse, had to be cajoled and ‘blackmailed’ into visiting tourism sites. They did not have passion or emotion for the industry, but were passionate about the subvention from the government that went to the industry.
“They used political connections to corner this important sector, and use the same to try perpetuating their poor leadership and incompetence.
“Back to the CHIEF initiative by the NTDC, ‘C’ stands for corporate governance and regulation. The only effort in that regard is the lobbying of the leadership of the National Assembly to amend the NTDC act. In this process, NTDC leadership, in the last four years, threw everything into this effort. Unfortunately, four years later, nothing came out of it.
“‘H’ stands for ‘human capital development’. Either in the public and private sector, there is nothing to show for this in the last four years.
“In the last four years of NTDC, the only infrastructural development I know of apart from the Tour Nigeria vehicles is the building of a toilet at a tourism site in Plateau state. But if there are others, the NTDC did not give us such information.

“‘E’ stands for events and marketing. This area is comatose: the only major event NTDC had held outside Abuja, was the North Central Stakeholders meeting. If the focus was on domestic tourism like the ex-NTDC DG said, the least he could have done was to put his money where his mouth was. Unfortunately, no such thing was done.
“‘F’ completes the CHIEF initiative. One might not be competent to know about the finances and investment or what the last leadership of NTDC meant by that. Definitely no value was added to Nigerian tourism in this area in the last four year.
“If the industry stakeholders would be truthful to themselves, the last four years of leadership at NTDC has been a disaster. It is tragic that billions in allocation was voted to NTDC in these years, and four years later, there is absolutely nothing to show for the money. Rather, the industry is poorer than in it was on April 1, 2017.
“Lastly, on the leadership vacuum at NTDC, if Folorunsho Coker is returned as NTDC DG, it would definitely not be because of performance. From the score card above; he scored zero beyond the razzmatazz of sophistry. It might just be because of other extraneous factors like having the backing of a powerful political heavyweight. The Nigerian tourism industry will be the victim for this.”
Despite this observation in 2021, Coker was returned for another four years which is about to end. Those hoping the second term would be used for redemption were left disappointed. He never turned a new leaf or became more committed to the industry. The position was more as a sinecure and answerable to no one. The last four years, 2021 to 2025 went the same way as the first tenure. The only difference was that he was able to secure the NTDA Act of 2022 that signed into law in 2023 by ex-president Muhammadu Buhari. However, despite the signing into law of the act, NTDA was still comatose and inactive.
Eight years of failure and incompetence
The leadership in NTDA in the last eight years did little or nothing to attract inbound tourist to visit the country. Forgetting that a country benefits more when it is able to attract inbound tourists to come to the country and spend their money. In the guise of developing domestic tourism, the usual efforts at international tourism expos and events to market and promote Nigeria as a destination was consigned to the dustbin. Areas like data collation for; championing policies to improve approval for tourists’ visits to Nigeria; monitoring of best practices in hospitality outfits in Abuja and environs were never done.
Having lost out internationally, one would have thought within this last eight years the NTDA under Coker would intensify efforts to galvanise Nigerians into visiting local sites. Nothing of such happen.
In a kind of revisionism, Coker came out with a one page document to itemize his achievements. Under domestic tourism, his listed vague and obscure achievements that adds little or nothing to Nigeria’s tourism fortune like: “partnership with Plateau State government to develop Kurra fall (on going); completion of construction of construction of town hall in Abeokuta North, Ogun State; participation in Ogidi Day Cultural Festival 2023.
There are obvious efforts to shop for achievements to push forward as what was done in the last eight years in NTDA. Unfortunately, most practitioners see through this.
The eight years of failure at the NTDA by the current leadership should be a lesson to everybody, that no matter how long a tenure lasts, it must come to an end, only the legacies left behind in the service of the people and the country will endure.

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