Rising Scale:
Africa can be a united force
By George GBENGA OLOWOYE
Picture of Nigerian children and their chaperons who visited Arusha
I am becoming enthused with some developments to make Africa embrace and get to know each other more. May be that way, we can begin to see our common humanity and promote the best on our continent. President Uhuru Kenyatta reiterated this in Arusha early this month when he said, “It is high time all Africa become border-less and we in East Africa are pioneering the process because when you come to think of it, it was the white men who drew these borderlines without even consulting our forefathers.”
Last Saturday I went to have dinner at Aquiline Hotel in Arusha with some young Nigerian children and their chaperons who were visiting East Africa for the first time. Before arriving in Arusha for their safari excursion, they have been in Kenya for four days visiting the Massai Mara, had game drives, were at the Rift Valley, Tea/Coffee plantations and also tasted of the best hospitality that Kenya has to offer.
I asked Mrs Lami Opawale, the Director of Ule Travels and Tours who brought them why she decide to bring the children to East Africa for the first time. She said it is about time to start exposing our children to the best that Africa has to offer instead of always going to London and Paris and other exclusive places in the United States. She said East Africa indeed has the best tourist attractions in the world and many African do not even know about that. So, her firm collaborated with another tour company and had a truly exciting packaged tour that benefited and enriched the education and understanding of the young Nigerian children age 8-16 that came on the excursion. Indeed, times are changing now.
I remember sometime in 2006 when I was taking my daughter to resume high school in Nairobi. At the Namanga border on the Kenya side, the immigration officer would not grant me a visa to enter Kenya. He...