TOURIST CENTRES IN MY COUNTRY

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Hey everyone! I hope this meets you well and good. The last topic/edition on this community brought about different people sharing their views on what was causing pollution in our respective local environment and what could be done to salvage the situation. Well, you can check out my entry - POLLUTION - THE DULL SIDE OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES.

Now, we have another topic here:

Week 08 - Edition 02 Topic
”TOURISM IN YOUR COUNTRY”
Every country has an inflow of tourists every year, even though it is only a little. Tell us about the place that is worth visiting in your country. And if your country is a bubbling tourist destination or not.

Tourism is one of the major sectors of a national economy that drives foreign customers and, consequently, foreign investments. Besides, tourist attraction centres are avenues to come to appreciate the distinguished work of nature (or work of man as the case may be). Very well, in my dear country Nigeria, there exists many tourists centre, although I still believe that if handled better, that sector will be a huge national revenue-generating one.

OSUN GROOVE

First, the tourist destination I am most familiar with is the Osun-Oshogbo Sacred Groove. This is a site that attracts thousands of visitors including foreigners every year, especially during the Osun-Oshogbo festival. The festival is done in the honour of the Osun deity – goddess of fertility. Back to the groove, it is located in a dense forest in Osogbo, the capital of Osun state. The groove has in it different artworks, sculptures, shrines etc. depicting some of the deities present in the Yoruba land. Seeing those artworks, one would think maybe they were carved by the deities themselves because, obviously, they require a high sense of art (science and engineering 🤣). It was even named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005 due to its symbolistic appearance.

YANKARI NATIONAL RESERVE

Prior to the time, I got to know about this site, I used to think that there were not many wild animals in my country other than snakes and maybe wolves. Funny right? But the Yankari National Reserve is actually a wildlife park situated in the Bauchi state of Nigeria and covers a large area of land. There, you would find different wildlife including hippos, lions, elephants etc, the African species precisely. This site records hundreds of tourists annually. And according to Wikipedia, this reserve has 4 warm springs, 4! Which is due to a distinct underground geothermal activity. One could say this resembles the Ikogusi Water Spring!

OLUMO ROCK

Lastly, we have the Olumo Rock. This huge rock formation is located in the ancient land of Abeokuta, Ogun state. Even the city kind of got its name from the rock, the name Abeokuta means Under the rock in English. According to history, the rock served as a refuge for the Egba people during the (civil) wars that happened. The Egbas were the original people who lived in Abeokuta. Not only did it serve as a refuge, it also served as a vantage point for them due to its height and strategic location such that they could see any enemy from a mile’s stretch. This place also gets visited by tourists too and it has developed from just a mere rock location. There are now tourist guides, accommodation etc.

There are other tourist destination centres in my country namely Ogbunike caves in Anambra, Idanre Hills in Ondo state, Ikogosi Waters etc. You should visit at least one of them, it'd be worth your time.