By Palma Ileye
President, Lagos State Chapter of the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria, ITPN, Dr. Babatunde Olaide Mesewaku has congratulated the Governor -Elect of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo Olu for a second term in the just concluded governorship election in the state.
In the congratulatory letter to the Governor, copy of which was made available to newsmen in Lagos, Mesewaku noted that while thanking God for the victory, ITPN with the core value and mission for human capital development and capacity building, particularly in the Travel Tourism and Hospitality industry of the country, was readily available to collaborate with the administration of Babajide Sanwo Olu to grow the tourism potentials that Lagos State was endowed with through training and professional upgrade of industry players and practitioners in the state.
He noted further that the greater successes and achievements recorded by the Governor in his first term endeared him to the people of Lagos State and so, willingly and readily gave him another opportunity to take the state to greater heights in all facets of human development.
Mesewaku who observed the tourism friendly antecedents of the Babajide Sanwo Olu administration, said the second tenure offers the wherewithal for the tourism industry of Lagos state to record an unprecedented boost, deploying a public private partnership, PPP, initiative that the industry highly desires to explore the great tourism potentials of Lagos, and for the benefits of the people of the State.
Meanwhile, the National President of ITPN, Chief Abiodun Odusanwo has commended the foresight of Dr. Mesewaku for felicitating with Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu on his victory in the March Gubernatorial poll that gave him a second term as Governor of Lagos State, noting that it was a good omen to the tourism industry not only in Lagos state, but Nigeria as a whole in human capital development and capacity building of professionals needed for effective administration and competent conducts in the industry.
He said the Travel Tourism and Hospitality industry now, more than ever before, requires tourism friendly states to grow the tourism potentials of the country as the only viable means for economic diversification of Nigeria from its sole dependence on oil that was exhaustible.
Adding that the industry can do better when personnel driving it are well trained with the right competency and skills to perform.
Chief Odusanwo then appealed to all State Governors across the country to follow the leading example of Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu in the efforts to explore and tap the tourism potentials of their respective states for better economic growth and development in partnership with ITPN for human capital development and capacity development of the unemployed youths and women in furtherance of economic empowerment and poverty alleviation which tourism is best known to offer.
