Events and activities leading to the 42nd annual general meeting (AGM) of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) have been very interesting and tasking, a kind of breathless engagement that gives a lead into the future of this great association and those who may wish to aspire to its leadership.
Interestingly, the young man, Bankole Bernard, whose destiny is to hold forth and pilot the flight of NANTA into the 22nd century, has lived up expectations, opening vistas of futuristic culture and tourism timelines with options and value chains to better the lot of industry professionals. My most informed effort today is to highlight certain legacies left behind by past leaders of this association, as well as the impact and the need to sustain such progressive tempo.
The bricklayers who worked tirelessly day and night to erect a mansion are usually not known but their work speaks volumes, not just for the bricklayer(s) but the entire profession of artisans and, possibly, the supervisors. I usually experience profound joy at every site where bricklayers are at work, setting the first foundation block(s) and then gradually and carefully laying the rest of the blocks until a vision comes to bear – a house, home, village square, mall, an edifice of honour, a vision for an appointed time.
Apart from Bernard, there were NANTA bricklayers, so to say, that I came across not just on the sidelines as a travel reporter but as a watchman graciously encouraged to contribute to the bricklaying philosophy at NANTA, as a media stakeholder. Olufemi Adefope, Munzali Dantata, Tereza Ezobi, Ahmed Zabadine, Chief Emmanuel Omonioro, Charles Ojelade and Soji Amusan. Indeed, this generation of NANTA leaders came with certain measures of hope and aspiration. Adefope, for instance, was thunderous, an advocate of change in doing travel trade business and a nightmare to foreign airlines that failed to carry NANTA along in policy formulation and implementation.
To Adefope’s credit, automation of travel agents began in his era, a technological feat that opened the eyes of travel agents then to embrace change that comes with technology. Tereza Ezobi remains the unbeaten amazon of NANTA’s romance with tourism and tour packaging. She also brought NANTA close to government, trading off her awesome contacts to change the travel trade narrative in Nigeria; she gave vent to astounding relationship between the federal and state governments working hands in glove with NANTA and the members to expose the huge domestic tourism potentialities that became a mark-up from the integral value chain in travel and tourism business.
Yes, others held forth and added a block to the NANTA dream initiative but legacies as pursued with relentless vigour by Bankole through proper head count and identification of travel agents cum constitutional legal framework to define entry and exit regime in the business, with mandate of accountability, lifts NANTA above board.
That selfless passion and drive to encourage history and bookkeepers to connect the bricklaying philosophy in NANTA beyond the act of mere human expression are more than gains and signs of a sure-footed establishment.
Messrs Adeola and Aminu Agoha were not flat-footed in this regime of legacy hunters but suffice it to say that each bricklayer comes with unique attributes and operational culture, the ingredient of hope and a measure of standard to guide those coming behind and those who wish to sacrifice self for the good of all.
A recent encounter with NANTA’s ex-president, elder and key influencer, Mr. Femi Adefope was very telling. He looked me in the face and, with his usual uncanny honesty and humility, excused himself from the listing of NANTA legends and thumbed up the era of Adeola, who gave NANTA an office and address of its own as sure-footed crown of glory.
We discussed the replica of himself and Tereza Ezobi in Bankole Bernard, a truth the grandmaster of travel trade confirmed endeared him to the wave-making NANTA president.
In the next few weeks and in Port Harcourt, where NANTA would elect new leaders, the deciding factors are already laid bare and there is no monkey business about it all. NANTA is at the bridge head, where legacy counts as a product of leadership and not sanctimonious shenanigans from confused choir leaders.