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By Joel Anekwe
In a bid to make Bonny Island, its operational base, a tourist haven, as part of its Bonny-Dubai vision, the Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) last week announced the completion of a two-week intensive and hands-on training on tourism business and entrepreneurship for some Bonny youths, in partnership with Goge Africa.
This is as Bonny Kingdom’s business development vehicle, the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA), has kicked against the engagement of Goge Africa, a non-Bonny company, to establish the Bonny Tourism Initiative and handle a tourism training programme for select individuals in the community, describing it as the height of the growing trend of neglect of the chamber.
But NLNG said the training equipped the youths with skills to enable them to function as tour guides and champions of tourism, especially in the areas of cultural and eco-tourism adding that trainees would use existing tourist attractions/landmarks to promote the tourism potentials of Bonny Island.
In her remarks, NLNG’s general manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Mrs. Eyono Fatayi-Williams, said the trainees are expected to create and drive businesses that will draw tourists to the Island.
She stated that the capacity-building initiative would deliver dividends in the future when the company’s vision of Bonny-Dubai would have become a reality.
The Bonny-Dubai Vision is a strategic development intervention by NLNG that seeks to make Bonny a major international investment destination by the year 2040. We aim to diversify the Island’s economy, especially with Bonny’s rich potential from its unique history, culture, and traditions, from reliance on oil and gas activities to other areas such as tourism.
“To make this goal a reality, we are currently finalizing the Bonny Tourism Masterplan, which will detail the step-by-step activities that will bring the vision alive. These activities include the deepening of eco-tourism at the Finima Nature Park and alignment with Bonny Kingdom and community stakeholders. Other activities include engagements with community, local and foreign investors on tourism opportunities in Bonny and the rebuilding of the Bonny Consulate building, a significant landmark that will serve as the hub for tourist activities on the Island,” she stated.
Mrs Fatayi-Williams added that NLNG intends to create a tribe of committed Bonny ambassadors who will market Bonny to the outside world even as she expressed confidence in the ability of Goge Africa to provide the needed experience and expertise to encourage innovation and maximise Bonny’s existing opportunities.
Bonny Island, a historical trade hub in Rivers State, is home to NLNG’s sponsored Finima Nature Park, a 1,000 hectares land of freshwater swamp forest. The park was designated an internationally acclaimed centre for Wetland Education and became a Wetlands Link International member in 2019.
However, in a letter titled: ‘NLNG’s Constant Neglect of BOCCIMA’s Role in Bonny Kingdom,’ jointly signed its president, Lawrence Jumbo, and director general, Constance Nwokejiobi, BOCCIMA said “We sadly observe that in recent times the NLNG has been neglecting the BOCCIMA in her efforts to attracting businesses into the kingdom.
“We are concerned about the recent effort to bring Goge Africa without carrying the Chamber along,” it added accusing the NLNG of neglecting its role in the socio-economic development of Bonny Kingdom.
The protest letter said BOCCIMA represents the voice and interest of the Bonny Kingdom business community.
“BOCCIMA has been designated a clearing house for businesses coming into the kingdom and to work with other organizations within the kingdom to ensure economic development of Bonny. In this regard we expect that NLNG will partner with us in attracting strategic investors to the island. Tourism is an industry with great potential in Bonny.”
It expressed optimism that with strategic synergy milestones can be achieved in developing the sector in Bonny, adding that “If we work together, we can revive our lost festivals in the kingdom, attract a 5-star hotel to establish base in the kingdom.””
As a way of “averting a recurrence of the misunderstanding,” BOCCIMA called for the establishment of an economic sustainability driver, the Bonny Sustainable Economic Committee, comprising the NLNG and BOCCIMA, while insisting that the gas company must register with the chamber as a “demonstration of its forthrightness to synergize with stakeholders and institutions to develop Bonny Kingdom economically.”
President of the chamber, Lawrence Jumbo in a further clarification said that the committee when set up would define the parameters for economic sustainability and chart the path for its actualization.
“What I have suggested to them is a Bonny Sustainable Economic Committee to drive economic sustainability on the island. The committee should look into it and define what sustainability would be and guide NLNG and the IOCs on how to achieve that sustainability in the island.”
“The Bonny Chamber of Commerce is the coordinating body in Bonny, on the Island. It is known all over the world that chambers of commerce exist to protect the interest of businesses in that community.””
On her part, director general of BOCCIMA, Constance Nwokejiobi, called on the Nigeria LNG to take urgent steps to halt the drift in terms of engagement of businesses within Bonny Kingdom and to review its business inclusion policies.”
She noted that this would help the company to avoid a situation where its strategic objectives, aimed at developing their area of operation, are met with resentment from the same people they seek to empower due to being excluded in the process of delivering such objectives.”
Nwokejiobi, who is also the chairman, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Lagos and District Society, described NLNG’s foray into tourism as a departure from its core business domain which is oil and gas, stressing that the engagement of Goge Africa was aimed at creating confusion and a sense of alienation amongst local businesses in Bonny and an apparent demonstration of its neglect for the 90 member strong chamber.
“It has therefore become evident that NLNG, whose core business is oil and gas, has decided to neglect the role of the chamber in Bonny Kingdom by bringing in several competing businesses such as Goge Africa into the kingdom to establish tourism activities within the Island thereby creating confusion and a sense of alienation amongst the local businesses.”
“Aside other instances, this particular action appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine or engender a decline in the GDP of the island given its dangerous potential to create unrest amongst the disenfranchised businesses with the capacity to deliver same objectives.”
“This current action has left us with no choice than to believe that this company has decided to intentionally neglect the chamber of commerce as Bonny Kingdom’s business development Institution as introduced to them. I want to believe that widening the gap in terms of business inclusion in Bonny Kingdom has now assumed a corporate template in the NLNG.”
