From Eyo Charles, Calabar
Special Adviser to Gov Ben Ayade of Cross River State in tourism, Eric Anderson has disclosed that a team from the tourism bureau will soon undertake a fact-finding tour of the amplified birthplace of Leader Olumba Olumba Obu in Biakpan community, Biase local government area of the state, to assess the tourism potentials.
He said they will also use the opportunity to look at the much-talked about slow-running Biakpan stream which mysteriously surrounds Obu's small community, and reputed to be potent with curative powers.
For this reason, hundreds of thousand of believers, pilgrims, miracle-seekers, foreign tourists and researchers have been flocking into the village continually to take a dip into the stream and also scoop the sands of Biakpan, according to reports.
It is for this reason that the state government wanting to shore up not only revenue to boost its lean finances but to also widen its annual Calabar Christmas Carnival has decided to collaborate with Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS).
According to Eric Anderson, special adviser to Gov Ayade on tourism, BCS pulls over a million adherents and thousands of other believers and guests both to its international headquarters which situate at No 34 Ambo Street, Calabar and Biakpan village every six months.
"To us as a government this holds special attraction. And as a tourism department or agency, it has occurred to us that we need to do something to mutually benefit by expanding tourism potentials of our state. We have approached the authorities if the BCS for us to see how we can collaborate", Anderson said.
Explaining purpose of the meeting he had with the coordinating bishop of BCS for Africa, 80 year old Archbishop James Crawford Ellerbe, a Black American, at the BCS Royal Museum, Anderson said that the state government has burning desire to set the ball rolling in order to take tourism business to a much higher level.
Andersen maintained that with large number of White and Black Americans, Europeans and other Africans steadily spending lengthy time at BCS Headquarters, they cannot afford to dilly-dallying.
"I can say that Brotherhood of the Cross and Star has tremendously impacted tourism in the state in view of millions of Black and White adherents that flock into Calabar and Biakpan, birthplace of the Founder of the spiritual organization frequently from around the world for religious observances. There is dire need for the state government to collaborate with the organisation and properly package religious tourism for mutual benefits as part of bolstering tourism drive".
Speaking when he hosted Andersen and his team about how Black Americans as well as teeming foreign adherents of the BCS fold can boost tourism in Cross River, the octogenarian Black American, Archbishop Ellerbe, who is a naturalised Nigerian called on the State government to provide land for the building of what he called Black American Diasporan Village.
Ellerbe said that a large number of Black Americans were now ready to return to Africa, Calabar, to be specific and equally naturalise.
It would be recalled that in 1993, Ellerbe led a 19-man delegation of Black American engineers, agriculture experts, academicians, entertainers, scientists, etc to spend one month in Nigeria where they met with the Sole Spiritual Head of the Universe, Leader O. O. Obu,religious, labour, business and government leaders and also explored beneficial opportunities.
According to Ellerbe, Black Americans, eager to return to Nigeria, would need land to build their homes, establish business ventures, transfer technologies and impact local economy with their expertise.
He told the representatives of the State government that there is imminent influx of foreign immigrants, particularly African-Americans, Europeans, Asians, into Calabar, in view of the divine powers of the founder of BCS, which he claims, have impacted them much.
"There are thousands of other Blacks in USA, Europe and elsewhere who are also eager to return to Africa, their ancestral homeland. I know very many that have traced their origin to Calabar and would want to come home. We need your government and indeed federal government of Nigeria to oblige us with lands more particularly.
"We need encouragement from Nigeria. Many of us are millionaires, international stars, influential experts in diverse fields. We want to come home and impacts our own", he said.
As it looks, Gov Ayade who has much love for and has actually signed many MoU with foreigners to invest in the state, may favourably grant the request if the octogenarian after deeper discussion, said Andersen.
Buttressing Archibishop Ellerbe, Bishop Parkson Edjeketah who is director of the Museum and Bishop Opara, a UK based adherent, said a delegation of the BCS will soon meet with Gov Ayade.
END
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