The Director General   of the     Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC),  Otunba Olusegun Runsewe has said that Nigeria has more potentials for Tourism   than any country in the  South  Sahara.

He disclosed this recently when he played host to the 37 Heir Apparent Reality Leadership programme and officials at the Tourism Village, Abuja.

According to the NTDC boss “the only  secret remaining for Africa is Tourism.  He   explained  that Tourism has the capacity to impact on the people more than any   other sector of the economy.  Consequently, he stressed that Tourism is what we  need to catch up with”.
Otunba Runsewe further explained that about six African countries now depend  solely on tourism  as the main stay of their economy.

Thus he implored the Heir   Apparent Contestants to embrace Tourism by investing in the sector which has    multiplier effects on the people and the economy.

The NTDC helmsman commended the leadership of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and  the consulting firms that partnered with the agency to put together  the Heir Apparent Show.   According to him “one of the problems facing this  country is leadership”.  He therefore  appreciated NOA for using the platform of   the Youth Leadership program to address this  menace.

Earlier, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji   Idi Faruk spoke of the relationship and synergy between NTDC and his Agency.  He   stated that the two  organizations enjoy good working relationship which brought   about the collaboration in the  youth and Tourism Development in Nigeria.

In the words of NOA Director General, “If organization can pool resources together, we can  surmount our problems”.
The Heir Apparent is the first Leadership Reality programme in Nigeria.  37 youths, 11 girls and  26 boys were selected from across Nigeria.

The 37 Heir Apparent were subjected to various  leadership training skills at the   Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC Camp at Sauka, Abuja.  They   were trained on basic  skills in public speaking, entrepreneurial skills in   Agriculture, tourism, business development,  etc.  They had also tranversed   between Sokoto and Okitipupa as part of their exchange and skill  acquisition   programme of the Leadership initiative.