- NTDC Director-General, Folorunsho Coker (third right), and Chief Executive Officer of South-Africa’s Kaya FM 95.6, Greg Maloka (third left) with others toasting the Tour Nigeria brand during the South-Africans’ visit
The Chief Executive Officer of South Africa’s most popular FM station,
Kaya FM 95.6, Mr. Greg Maloka, has lauded the professional approach to selling Nigeria and placing her tourism potentials on the international market with territorial finesse and African cosmopolitanism.
Commending the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mr. Folorunsho Coker, for the initiative, Maloka also lauded Coker’s concept of Tour Nigeria brand to propel better patronage and appreciation of its domestic tourism.
Kaya FM is a radio station which reflects the lives of the predominantly black, urban listeners between ages 25 and 49 living in Gauteng Province and based in Johannesburg.
In a chat with newsmen in Lagos, Maloka disclosed that his team was in Nigeria for a profitable and worthwhile synergy with NTDC; “to see things through our own eyes, I mean African eyes. We do not want to report from the colonial eyes, which have been the order of the day and only subjective and sees and magnifies the amenable negative occurrences in Nigeria.
“We are committed to ensuring a phenomenal rise, leap and increase in tourists’ traffic from South-Africa to Nigeria. We want to reverse the Nigerians visiting South-Africa without a corresponding positive story of South-Africans visiting Nigeria.
“This is an unbalanced cultural-economic scenario which cannot foster sustainable and lasting economic relationship and brotherhood between the two countries.”
Kaya FM “is creating an intra-continental business tourism synergy which will be a win-win for the two countries.”
He lamented the neo-colonial politicisation of the elements and articles of harmonious cohabitation and commutation in Africa, especially through the mega media platform of intercontinental influence.
“And because of the confidence and trust which the South-Africans have in
Kaya FM, we deliberately set forth to visit Nigeria, feel Nigeria, see Nigeria and report Nigeria back to South-Africa the way it is so as to facilitate them not only to visit Nigeria but to also invest in the rural areas,” he added.
“South-Africans need to visit Nigeria to learn how Nigerians acquired the self-confidence and stoic features which are unique characteristics of a typical Nigerian grossly lacking in a typical South-African.
“We are going to sell Nigeria to South-Africans through the prism of African native wisdom and employment of African sociological approach rather than the Western format, which has brought more confusion and disunity.
“We are visiting tourism sites, engaging stakeholders who have something to sell in Nigeria to South-Africans, organising seminars, workshops and interactive sessions on what and where the South-Africans can access when in Nigeria.”
Member of the delegation, David O’Sullivian, added that they were in Nigeria “on a voyage of discovery, voyage of obtaining first-hand information for a better perspective; voyage that will lead to perception modification and correction.”
Meanwhile, Coker noted that “it takes a great mind to understand the socio-cultural international conspiracy against Africa, which is being perpetrated and festered through some intercontinental octopus mega media.
“It is also a matter of great valour for another media giant to rise swiftly and embark on positive intra-continental perception re-engineering that is of sustainable mutual benefit.
“On this, I give a warm African kudos and salute to
Kaya FM 95.6 for rising stoutly in a rare Pan-African information balancing stride between two most distinguished African countries.”
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