Senior Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos state on Tourism, Arts and Culture, Damilola Ayinde Marshall, has said that the State was not officially informed of and carried along with IShowSpeed’s visit to the State.

Recall that IShowSpeed, a YouTuber, who is currently regarded as the biggest streamer in the world, visited Nigeria while on his Africa tour.

In an exclusive with ARISE NEWS on Saturday, Marshall stated that the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was not officially informed of IShowSpeed’s visit to the county, hence, the Ministry could not adequately showcase the country’s culture, heritage and history to the streamer.

“Intentionality. That’s the exact word for things that should have been done better and differently. I feel if IShowSpeed’s team had communicated and partnered with the government to make the visit very very engaging. Basically, we were not informed. There are many tourism bodies, cultural institutions, security agencies. I believe if these people were pre-informed, I believe the visit would have put Africa in good light. We were not informed and the government was not carried along. We tried to reach out. In my professional capacity, I reached out. The Honourable Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Toke Benson, also tried to reach out. But all our moves proved abortive.”

Marshall insisted that IShowSpeed’s team did not establish a liaison with the government, citing this as the reason why the rich cultural heritage of the country was not properly shown.

“They did not liaise with anybody in government. I tried to reach out to the PR team, but they said the people on his team and young and not usually organized. And that was it.”

Digital Media Strategist, Bodex Hungbo, explained that for Nigeria to properly show case her rich cultural heritage to the global community, there ought to be a partnership package between the key bodies and international acts.

“I think that moving forward, there should be a kind of partnership package between these promoters, PR companies and international acts that are coming in, so that they can be able to own the narrative. This partnership package should be compulsory. You don’t just bring in people who might not tell the story the way we want.”

Speaking further, Hungbo suggested that international acts who come into Nigeria for streaming purposes can be welcomed specially upon arrival as this can show the world that Nigeria’s receptiveness.

“We need to create a scene at the airport, so that they can also livestream how we welcome, how we actually do our reception when we have new people coming. Then we should also have allowed the Love Streaming Industry own the event. So we should have allowed people like Purple Speedy and Peller to be part of the reception. Then we should have had YouTube and Facebook be at the scene, because it’s their own user that’s coming in. So those are the things they should have done on arrival”, she said.

Tomiwa Talabi, a Brand Strategist, also said that while timing was important, proper planning and structure would have made IShowSpeed’s visit to Nigeria a good storytelling tool to showcase Nigeria’s culture to the world.

“To be honest, I feel like without the right planning put in place, even if he visits for like five days, it’s still not going to go well. Like Benin Republic, he spent 24 hours. I watched the entire stream. So everybody knew what they were doing. Right from the point when he landed there.”

Marshall also stared that the Lagos State Government runs an open-door policy, and is open to working with creatives to ensure preparedness and adequate planning in the future.

“From time to time, we usually have stakeholders’ engagement, where we bring people from the private sector, and we on the side of the government, we ask them what they want from the government. So if the Ministry has things like this, I feel everything is already put in place. All they need to do is to try as much a possible to attend these stakeholders’ engagement so you can make your opinion known. Tell the government, charge us, that’s why we are here.

“We run an open-door policy. People bring letters for sponsorship support; we support events and different things. So yes, they can come to the Ministry of Tourism. Sure, there are regulations that need to be abided by, and these regulations are in place”, she added.

Reiterating the importance of international acts planning and partnering with the government, Marshall said that it is always better to partner with the government, as it has tourism strategies.

“Like I said, it is always better to partner with the government, because we got the tourism strategy, whereby we bring all the institutions in place, security, LASTMA, and our guest can have a very engaging and meaningful visit. We also have a bigger outreach; we can make anything happen. I mean, it’s the government. This only makes sense, to make it bigger so we can put our state and country in good light”, she said. (AriseNews TV)

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