Nigeria Safe For Foreign Visitors – US Lawmakers

Nigeria Safe For Foreign Visitors – US Lawmakers
Bode Gbadebo
— Nov 9, 2015 6:25 am | Leave a comment
The Georgian Legislative Black Caucus of the United States of America has said that contrary to the negative perceptions about Nigeria, it is a safe place for business, residence and tourism.
A three-man delegation of the caucus led by its chairman and member of the Gergian House of Representatives, Dee Dawkins-Haigler, disclosed this when it was received in audience by the management of the Nigerian-based African Leadership Magazine in Abuja at the weekend.
Dawkins-Haigler said the caucus is about all black members of Senate and House of Representatives in the US Congress and they were in Nigeria for the first time on the invitation of the African Leadership Magazine as part of its efforts to change African narratives.
She thanked their host for the work of education on the continent, adding that so many people in the world do not know the “vastness of Africa”.
“Nigeria is safe. We have to be careful about imperialism on our brothers and sisters on the continent. This is a safe place to be and perception is reality for some people. I love people to come here and more will come,” she said.
Dawkins-Haigler added that African Leadership Magazine is already working on bringing people to Africa even as she revealed that the US Congress was also working on education policies like students exchange and economic incentives for ease of doing business.
In his response, the publisher/chief executive officer of the African Leadership Magazine, Dr. Ken Giami, said his organisation instituted the ‘The Visit Africa’ prize in order to begin to change the narratives about Africa because “the perception is far from the realities”.
He added that in order to test-run the initiative, the Georgian Legislative Black Caucus was invited from US for all-expense paid trip to Africa valued at $100,000 and aimed at promoting tourism and investments in Africa.
“This prize offers opportunities for eligible journalists, bloggers, broadcasters and other media personalities who reside outside of Africa and have never been to Africa, to visit the continent and report their experiences in order to contribute towards changing the persistent negative reportage about Africa,” Giami said.
For her part, a member of the delegation, Senator Gloria Butler said: “We have been treated royally. It’s been unexpected treatment for me. I really do appreciate my coming home.”
Also, Rep Roger Bruce while commenting said: “I get emotional when I talk about this. I will tell my children that I have visited where we started…I think if we really what to bridge this gap, we can do it. We don’t need to depend on our governments. Don’t let is to be project for the government alone.”