By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As Nigeria celebrated the 2022 Gastronomy Day, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism, Senator Ladi Datuut has said that Nigeria’s Food Culture is key to boosting the nation’s sustainable development.
Datuut noted this while declaring open the 2022 United Nations World Sustainable Gastronomy Day World Sustainable Gastronomy Day hosted by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) in Abuja over the weekend.
She said,” The culture of promoting Nigerian foods and cuisines for both domestic and international consumption as a means of entrenching sustainability and food security for the country has once again been stressed.”
According to Datuut, using food has became imperative as another avenue of promoting the nation’s rich food culture to the world as well as growing what we eat, and eat what we grow.
The Senator said,” food as one of man’s most basic needs must be put in the front burner of our national discourse as a means of not only fighting hunger, but also eradicating poverty and ensuring availability of foods for all at affordable cost.”
She emphasized that the annual observance of the World Sustainable Gastronomy Day in Nigeria under the auspices of NIHOTOUR is a welcome development that must be promoted, maintained and sustained so that Nigeria will remain visible on the food map of the world.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Dr. Ifeoma Adaora Anyanwutaku, who was represented by Mrs. Patricia Narai, Director, Domestic Tourism in the Ministry, disclosed that the Nigerian government is committed to the growth and development of the country’s foods and cuisines both for internal consumption and for export as another source of foreign income earning for the nation.
Narai noted that Nigeria is blessed country with fertile land to grow enough food and feed the world.
She called on Nigerians, irrespective of their societal status, to take up farming even if it is at subsistence levels to achieve food sustainability and food security that the world is yearning to achieve.
Director General of NIHOTOUR, Nura Sani Kangiwa who hosted the event stated that owing to the rich cultural diversity of Nigerian foods and cuisines, the country will soon be a preferred gastronomy destination in Africa for the global tourism community.
This Kangiwa also noted that due
to this tourism diversity it will empower the youths and eradicate unemployment and the scourge of poverty.
He disclosed that NIHOTOUR will continue to intensify efforts at hands-on skill training for youths and practicing professionals in the travel tourism and hospitality industry in order to place the nation’s tourism and hospitality industry in the right position as an economic activity for the socio-economic benefits of the country.
There were side attractions such
as exhibition of Nigerian foods, beverages and cuisines from the six geo-political zones of the country sponsored by NIHOTOUR showcasing of foods and cuisines by foreign embassies in Nigeria such as the Peoples Republic of China, Spain, Ethiopia.
Among others were private food vendors and catering outfits as well as the unveiling of the state of the art Mobile Training Kitchen produced by NIHOTOUR to upscale the outreach of its hands-on training in cookery and hospitality management.
