Nigeria, football and Rwanda

It is another Friday, and I am thinking about Football. This is not really about the Premier League titillation on offer this weekend. Rather, my thoughts are on football for a deeper reason. In a way, football is a metaphor on life. It is a genre, which reflects many aspects of our existence.

For instance, football speaks to the status or non-status of nations. Look at the round leather balls, jerseys, boots and stockings. Some countries are sufficiently industrialised to produce these sporting goods. How about my own country – Nigeria? We are virtually non-existent in this vital area. Yet, we aspire to feature prominently in world cup tournaments. This, to say the least, is a contradiction.

In the immediate sense, however, Nigeria is not on my mind. The political animal that occupies this space is Rwanda. Recently, while watching a premier league match, one of the teams, had inscribed on its jersey – Visit Rwanda. My mind was at work again. Here was a football match being used to showcase the tourism potentials of Rwanda – an African country.

I was naturally enthralled by the possibilities. On the platform of both the real and the virtual, millions were soaking in this message: Visit Rwanda. Actually, I have read a few good things about the country. Initially, Rwanda had been made popular since the post-genocide era. With top-notch infrastructures and healthy educational system as well as good hospital, Rwanda appears to be the place to be.

Perhaps, the only downside is that Kigali is reportedly being run by a strongman who has managed to hide his dark sides from the rest of the world. He has been so good at it that, in terms of ICT, high-tech, manufacturing base, Foreign Capital Continues to head for Rwanda almost heedlessly. And as if to sweeten the deal, there is the airline Rwanda Air, which can take you, in and out of Kigali with ease. So, Visit Rwanda is really a marketing slogan for a country which continues to be seen as something of an exception in Africa. And all of these are being conveyed through an ordinary football match. It is a win-win situation for both sides, i.e for the football club and the country Rwanda. As regards the former it means a whole lot of money.

And this will go a long way to shore up the bottom line of this football team. Similarly, Rwanda itself will reap huge dividends in terms of the tourism potential, which would come its way. As for me, even with my modest resources, Kigali is already on my mind. I must go see the place very soon, courtesy of that seductive phrase: Visit Rwanda. And as such matters go, the mind naturally shifts to my own country, Nigeria.

If we decided to embark on a similar venture, and entice the football teams, with a similar slogan, ‘Visit Nigeria’; something tells me that, there will be no takers. And the reasons are obvious enough. Ours is a country where the tourist potentials are huge. But the realization of these potentials is static. Again, taking on board our earlier example of Rwanda, which revels in Air Rwanda, there is nothing like Air Nigeria. And the background to this, is one of tragedy. Somehow, and over time, what should have been, Air Nigeria, has been eaten up by a rapacious and mindless elite.

So even if, and when a ‘Visit Nigeria’ is actualized, the gains will go elsewhere since Nigeria lacks a national airline. But this is not our only woe. How about the infrastructural deficit? For instance, one of our tourist destinations should be a scenic place like Badagry. Badagry also carries with it an emotional package. It was a major place for the then slave trade. And there is indeed a place designated as the Point of no Return. Naturally, therefore, a lot of African-Americans were eager to visit and possibly put down roots. But the snag is: how do you get to Badagry? The road leading to Badagry is bad. And it has been so for the past 20 years!! So, under this inclement circumstance, how can you entice prospective tourists, with a ‘Visit Nigeria’ slogan.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of this sad story. Badagry is not an isolated phenomenon. There are also tourist sites, up North, like say, the Yankari Games Reserve. Everyone knows where it is, but nobody wants to go there. Insecurity is rife. Bandits are on the prowl. Kidnappers are having a field day. And the Boko Haram insurgents continue to have an abiding presence in our daily lives. So ‘Visit Nigeria’ unlike ‘Visit Rwanda’ remains a dream.

Meanwhile, the latest take on what is being said here has since been worsened by happenings in the Eastern part of the country. For reasons that we are yet to fully fathom, Policemen and their Stations have become the targets of criminals – possibly aggrieved groups. In the light of such widespread insecurity in the land, a comparison between Nigeria and Rwanda can be likened to Night and Day. And this is why we should get our own act together.

Certainly, it is not to our credit that, as at today, Rwanda is monopolizing that roseate space.

Prof. Soremekun, immediate past Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, is the editorial board chairman of BusinessDay.