Nigeria like some other countries has been blessed with the presence of beautiful tourist sites most of which are as a result of the mystery of nature and a few that resulted from man-made activities and actions. Few of these tourist sites include  Osun-Osogbo sacred groove located in the capital city of Osun state, Yankari Game Reserve located in Bauchi State, North-Eastern Nigeria, Awhum Waterfall located at Amaugwe village of Awhum town, Enugu State, and Iyake Lake the second of the two suspended lakes in the world which is located on Ado-awaye mountain in Oyo State, Nigeria.

Tourist sites are known to be places of endearment, they attract visitors from all over the world at different time of the year, in a sane society, this in a way or the other attracts foreign investors into the country.The importance and contribution of these tourist sites to the development of a nation cannot be overemphasized, if and when effectively and efficiently managed but reverse is the case as far as Nigeria is concerned. It’s an underlying fact that the potentials of majority of these tourist sites have not been fully tapped into and harnessed most importantly as a means to generate revenue for the country as most are in dilapidated states and the government has paid little or no attention to these tourist sites over the years.

Aside from the dilapidated states of these tourist sites, another issue of great importance which has been totally ignored is the safety and security of visitors both foreign and local. Most of these sites are known to be dungeons of death as there has been reports of kidnapping, stealing and extortion occurring in a few of these places. No one will intentionally walk into a place where their safety and that of their things is not guaranteed.

The country has focused primarily on oil and gas as a source for revenue generation for some years now, it was once agricultural products but that has been significantly neglected since the discovery of oil ,how long will the system continue to run like this? solemnly depending on a single industry or particular product type for revenue generation when that could be done simultaneously with several industries.

ADEWALE M. OLAYEMI