Nigeria with it eight national parks, hundreds of games reserves and other wildlife sanctuaries scattered across it sprawling landmass, the country ought to earn the stripe of a safari or ecotourism haven. But East African countries enjoy that distinction today all because not much is known about Nigeria’s natural endowments even the fact that it has one of the only two world’s ramsar site (Hadeija-Nguru Wetland) is lost on the world.
This is just in the same manner as the eight national parks combined are home to at least four of the big five; Lion, Africa Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino; are the allure for tourists after safari destinations in Africa.
Cross River National Park is home to the Africa Elephant
Nigeria National Park Service
The Nigeria National Park Service (NNPS) is dedicated to preserving, enhancing, protecting and managing vegetation and wild life in the National Parks of Nigeria. It is a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of the Environment but was under agriculture ministry in the past and is headed by a Conservator General.
It is responsible for the country’s eight national parks. These are Cross River National Park in Cross River State, Chad Basin National Park in Borno and Yobe states, Okomu National Park in Edo State, and Yankari National Park in Bauchi State, some years back, it was handed over to the state government but has again reverted to the federal government.
Others are Kainji Lake National Park in Niger and Kwara states and Gashaka Gumpti National Park in Adamawa and Taraba states, Kamuku National Park in Kaduna State and Old Oyo National Park in Oyo State.
Each park is headed by a conservator and assisted by a management team, who are responsible to the Conservator General, who himself is answerable to the minister of environment.
Historically, the first park to be designated a national park is Kainji Lake. It was established in 1979 when Olusegun Obasanjo was the military Head of State. In 1991, the Nigeria National Parks Service, with a governing board and five new national parks were birthed.
The Yankari Game Reserve was upgraded to a national park in 1992 and years later, Okomu National Park and Kamuku National Park were created. Essentially, these parks are treated as conservation enclaves dedicated to the protection and preservation of their rich ecosystem and abundant fauna and flora resources hence they were under the Ministry of Agriculture for years and later moved to Ministry of Environment.
Over time there has been agitation for them to be moved to the Ministry of Tourism because they are supposed to be one of the country’s tourist attractions with their flood gates opened to the public. But that effort has been resisted over the years with fertile attempts made to explore its tourism content except for the occasional visitors to the park during festival and public holidays.
The managers of these parks have also made effort to introduce some form of tourism activities to the parks through the location of guest houses and such other attractions but it was discovered that these have not really paid off because they are not promoted as tourism attractions as it is in other climes for them to attract the much needed interest from the public.
The result is that all the resources within these parks are closeted within with some even rotting away. Besides, parks’ managers are locked in constant battles with the various communities hosting the parks who don’t understand why they should be kept away from their natural hunting grounds.
As far as the inhabitants of the host communities are concerned the parks are dormant and not be put into profitable economic use as they hardly seen any notable activities in sight except for the occasional visitors that trickle in.
Sadly, the East Africans who don’t have as much as what Nigeria has are enjoying all the accolades and economic benefits from the little they have because they understood the tourism economy of what they have and had effectively deployed them for that purpose. As Nigeria’s government seeks for alternative revenue and ways to inflate the economy, it is perhaps the right time to take a second look at the national parks and open them to the world but certainly not in isolation as the tourism economy of the country has to be tackled holistically.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who is still trying to get his bearing since assuming office last year certainly has his work cut out. He needs to know that cultural tourism is not the only tourism product of Nigeria but just an aspect and that it is such attractions as the national parks, which have been left to rot over the decades that would make cultural tourism sale if they are all well put together rather than as a single product as he has been made to believe in certain quarters.
Nigeria’s natural enclaves and ecosystem is said to support more than 1,340 species of animals among which is 274 mammalian species. This makes it the eighth highest in Africa yet no attention or patronage is given to the national parks by the government and even Nigerians who hardly see the reason to explore them largely due to the fact that they only see it as conservation and research grounds as promoted by the conservative bureaucracy that runs them and are not ready to let go of them not without a fight.
Picture Credit: Guardian
