Senate Committee urges Nigerians to promote local cuisines

Nigerians have been encouraged to imbibe the culture of promoting local cuisines for both domestic and international consumption as a means of entrenching sustainability and food security.

This statement was made by the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism, Senator Nora Daduut at an event to mark the 2022 United Nations World Sustainable Gastronomy Day, hosted by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) in Abuja recently.

Nora said this became imperative as another avenue for promoting the nation’s rich food culture to the world as well as ’’growing what we eat and eat what we grow’’.

She noted that food is one of man’s most basic needs and 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 the availability of food for all at an affordable cost.

Gastronomy day

She added 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 vividly visible on the food map of the world.

In her address, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Dr. Ifeoma Anyanwutaku, said the Nigerian government is fully committed to the growth and development of the country’s foods and cuisines not only for internal consumption; but for export as another source of foreign income earning because of the fertile land that the country is blessed with to grow enough food and feed the world.

Senator Nora encourages 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.

Gastronomy destination

The Director General of NIHOTOUR, Nura Kangiwa stated that because of 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, noting that because of its multiplier effects as a tourism product, it will empower the youths and eradicate unemployment and the scourge of poverty.

Kangiwa said 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.

The 2022 World Sustainable Gastronomy Day instituted by the United Nations is aimed at enlightening the public and promoting the art of gastronomy which is a cultural expression of nations through their food choices, sources of ingredients and types of cuisines that thrives in culturally rich destinations.

The occasion had in attendance critical stakeholders in both public and private sector of the travel tourism and hospitality sector of the country.

Olusola Akintonde