Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Author of Igho Goes to Farm spotlights Ase Creek as tourism destination

By Maria Diamond
03 August 2019   |   3:07 am
Author of increasingly popular children’s storybook Igho Goes to Farm and editor with The Guardian, Mr. Anote Ajeluorou, has canvassed the need for Nigerians to look inwards and exploit the vast tourism potential and destination points in the country for the benefit of local communities and the country’s economy.

Anote Ajeluorou presenting a copy of his children’s storybook Igho Goes to Farm to Child Ambassador, Miss Treasure Obi, shortly after the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA)-organised Book Party, held in conjunction with Nigeria Liquidified Natural Gas (NLNG), sponsors of the prize, in honour of the 11 longlisted writers for Children’s Literature 2019 held last Sunday… in Lagos

Author of increasingly popular children’s storybook Igho Goes to Farm and editor with The Guardian, Mr. Anote Ajeluorou, has canvassed the need for Nigerians to look inwards and exploit the vast tourism potential and destination points in the country for the benefit of local communities and the country’s economy.

He condemned the penchant of rich Nigerians for always traveling abroad to enjoy the things that could be developed here at home, but which continue to abandoned and left undeveloped. He lamented the amount of job loss Nigerians’ unpatriotic attitude continues to exact and the attendant social menace it poses.

He said Ibedeni, a Ndokwa community in Delta State, where he set his children’s book is one such local tourism destination points in the country waiting to be tapped on account of the Ase Creek that flows along its banks and other communities and empties into the River Niger. He, therefore, called on Delta State Government and other business-minded individuals to invest in local tourism to help boost the economy of the state.

Ajeluorou made these submissions on the sidelines of the Book Party 2019 organised by the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), in conjunction with Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), sponsors of The Nigeria Prize for Literature. This year’s edition centers on children’s literature. His children’s storybook, Igho Goes to Farm, is among the 11 books longlisted vying for the USD$100,000 prize money on offer for the eventual winning work.

Ase Creek, Ajeluorou said, is comparable in stature to other internationally recognised and acclaimed water bodies like the Suez Canal in Egypt, River Thames in London, the Rhine River in Germany, and the Danube in Poland. He added that Ase Creek deserves to be treated with the respect accorded these other rivers that attract millions of visitors every year.

Ajeluorou noted that Ase Creek has a peculiarity that other water bodies do not have, noting that the river has two major seasonal offerings that make it unique. First are its numerous sandy beaches during the dry season that make it an apt destination for beach sports of all kinds, from football, basketball, volleyball to many others.

Secondly, according to the author, is the river’s flood season that starts in June and lasts through till November, when the floodwater sometimes overruns Ibedeni and neighbouring communities as it happened in 2012 and 2018. While this season is not good for outdoor sports, it offers mouthwatering boat rides up and down the river from the Ndokwa upland to its last point at Asaba Ase where it meets the River Niger.

What is, however, common to the two seasons, Ajeluorou noted, is the incredible amount of freshwater fish harvested from Ase Creek and its hundreds of streams, lakes, and ponds and also right on the creek by local fishermen, women, and children.

Ajeluorou said a major stream that flows into and out of the river, depending on the season, is Utekere that perhaps holds the largest and seemingly inexhaustible number of fish. Also swimming in the open river, as Ajeluorou rightly documents in Igho Goes to Farm, is a popular pastime for everyone irrespective of the season.

But Ajeluorou noted that while Ibedeni and its Ase Creek are so endowed with fish and games, what is lacking, however, is how to develop the river and the community to a modern tourism destination point so they could attract more tourists to the trickle that come only for the fish the town offers. He, therefore, called on Delta State governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to urgently pay attention to Ibedeni and other destination points in the state and develop them to world standards so tourists could visit to boost the state’s economy and help in the employment drive of the government. He said other destination points awaiting government and private investors’ attention in the state include Cable Point, Forcados, Excravos, River Nun, Abraka, and Koko to mention a few.

Ajeluorou further added that he chose to set Igho Goes to Farm in Ibedeni, a sleepy community situated on the bank of Ase Creek, as a way of returning to his childhood and dredging up unforgettable memories of his idyllic growing up years. He regretted the neglect the community continues to suffer as it still has no electricity and other social amenities to make life meaningful for the inhabitants.

He charged politicians representing Ibedeni and other Ndokwa and Isoko communities on that axis that include Asafo, Egbeme, Ase, Ekregbesi, Ivrogbo, Asaba Ase, and Epe to sit up and take the welfare of the people seriously by developing the communities so as to make the area a tourism destination, saying it was the only way the dividends of democracy could be delivered to the people.

0 Comments