The United Nations World Tourism
Organisation (UNWTO) on Wednesday, September 13, elected Nigeria as vice
president, Africa at its ongoing 22nd General Assembly in Chengdu, Sichuan
Province of Southwest China.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN),
the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, who led Nigeria’s delegation
to the general assembly assumed the seat on behalf of the country, for the next
two years.
Cape Verde
was also elected alongside Nigeria as vice president, Africa, of the global
body charged with the responsibility of ensuring sustainable tourism
development.
The 22nd biannual session of the
UNWTO being attended by more than 1,300 delegates from 75 countries also
elected Colombia and Mexico to represent the continent of America at the
General Assembly.
Romania and Switzerland were
elected as representative of Europe while Iraq was elected from Middle East and
Srilanka from South Asia continent on the Assembly.
According to reports that all the
elections to the seats were done by acclamation by delegates as agreed by the
General Assembly. The Chairman of the UNWTO Executive Council, Li Jinzao, who
conducted the elections and the General Assembly said that the body suspended
Rule 43 of its Statutes which stipulates secret balloting for the elections.
The Chairman of the UNWTO
Executive Council, Li Jinzao, who conducted the elections and the General
Assembly said that the body suspended Rule 43 of its Statutes which stipulates
secret balloting for the elections.
Mr. Jinzao is the Chairman, Chinese National
Tourism Administration, the host of the UNWTO 22nd General Assembly.
Reacting to his election,
Mohammed said that the last time Nigeria occupied the position of UNWTO Vice
Presidency was 20 years ago, 1997, and it was a great honour to the country and
him.
“I feel quite honoured and
humbled to be called upon to serve as the Vice President of the General
Assembly of the UNWTO and it is a very big honour to Nigeria.
“It has proven one thing that in
the last two years, the administration has succeeded in pushing tourism and
creative industry as a whole from the back burner to the front burner, from the
side issue to the main issue.
“This has also been noticed by
the global community and I feel highly gratified about it,” he said.
The minister said that the
position would propel him to do more in the development of the nation’s tourism
and creative industry
“When you are recognised on a
global stage like this, it encourages and spurs you to do more.
“One thought he was doing this
out of sheer commitment but not knowing that he was being noticed globally and
this is what I think it is impressive about this.
“My contributions to UNWTO at
various events held in Cote d’ Ivoire, Madrid and Ethiopia have been borne out
of conviction that, this is the way to go.
But I was quite surprised when I
got a call that I was being nominated to serve Africa as a Vice President of
this General Assembly.
“What that means is that you are squarely in
the saddle of driving the global agenda for tourism for the next two years,” he
said.
Mr. Mohammed said that he would leverage on
the new position to positively affect tourism in Nigeria.
He said: “With this new
appointment, you will begin to look at yourself not just as a Nigerian citizen
but as a World citizen and it means that a lot more will be expected from you.
“You cannot be serving as a Vice
President of the UNWTO General Assembly and allow tourism and creative industry
to lag behind in your country because it will be like, physician heals thyself
first.
“It also gives one a closer access to the
world tourism organisation and the way it works and it will be a good leverage
for Nigeria”.
The outgoing secretary general of UNWTO, Taleb
Rifai, congratulated the new executives of the organisation and enjoined them
to work towards bringing more members to the fold.
He noted that tourism had recorded successive
growth in the last six years and the new leaders should leverage on the
development.
The election of the new
Secretary-General of the global tourism body is expected to be ratified by the
Executive Council before the end of the five-day General Assembly.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Thank you for sharing such an important post.So it is very nice post. keep sharing.I am very glad to see your informative post.To know more about tourism visit here
ReplyDeletethe best countries are selected , what of china , Russia , Britain, usa, France , Germany, Australia, japan ,Taiwan , north & south Korea ,India, Pakistan Israel ,turkey Greek Canada brazil south Africa Egypt, Indonesia Yugoslavia , Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Spain mmmm the are not good places to visit because there terrorist like BH, IPOB, ISIS,DRUG BARONS,HAMAS,ALQAIDA ,etc--- GAZA SYRIA ,YEMEN should be added to the list of tourists places hahahahah
ReplyDelete