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PEOPLES DAILY, TUEsday, OCTOBER 11, 2016
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Tourism: What Abuja can learn from China’s Qinghai By Sheriff Ghali Ibrahim
U
nlike Abuja, Nigeria’s new Federal Capital Territory, China’s Qinghai province has a long history. A military fortress known as Xipingting built the former site of the city Xining by a hero general HuoQubing in the second year of the reign of Wu Di of Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220), dating from 2100 years ago. During this period, officials from central government settled in the region to exercise the rule of Han Court. When I first arrived in Qinghai, I asked about the history of this wonderful place that is surrounded by mountains and appeared only in my heart as the place my grandmother used to tell me in stories when I was young- about a mountainous place far away from home. I was told that the Qinghai province has a long history. As I marvelled at the wonderland, all I could think about was how to replicate this in Abuja and boost my city’s tourism potentials. Abuja even has potentials to surpass Qinghai if the right things are done and focus placed on development of its tourism prospects. In the 4th year A.D, I learnt that Qinghai’s local government was officially founded at the prefecture level. Later, in Sui Dynasty (581- 608), two more added. The city Xining began to appear in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), meanwhile the judicial system was reinforced. With the development of the region, trade expanded dramatically. The capital city of Qinghai - Xining had only a population 40,000 in early 1950’s. Now it has become an emerging industrial site in the north-western part of China, as well as a political, economic and cultural centre of the Qinghai province, with estimated population hitting 4.88 million after 2005. Like Abuja is situated amidst undulating rocky formation, so does Qinghai province,
which is located mostly on the Tibetan Plateau. The province has long been a melting pot for a number of ethnic groups including the Han, Tibetans, Hui, Tu, Mongols, and Salars. Qinghai borders Gansu on the northeast, Xinjiang on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and the Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest. Qinghai province was established in 1928 under the Republic of China period during which it was ruled by Chinese Muslim warlords known as the Ma clique. Tourism, a major money spinner for Qinghai is made possible by the province’s judicious, creative and purposeful utilization of its natural resources such as lakes, mountains and others. Unlike the Qinghai Lake, which has become a tourist destination, popular for biking, bird watching and sight-seeing of its high mountain beauty, where tourists pay for relaxation and sight-seeing, the Abuja Lake in Jabi presents a perfect scenario where the government can invest and rake in revenues. The Abuja Lake, also known as Jabi Lake is not the only tourist attraction the new Nigeria’s capital boast. Abuja also has the popular Bill Clinton Pottery farm in Ushafa, a suburb of Abuja, where beautiful pots are produced by elderly women and are used for flowering or storage of water, and other valuables. As it is done in Qinghai, Abuja’s beautiful rocky formation also could be developed into alluring tourist attractions where tourists can go and have fun. Ta Er Si (Kumbum Monastery) As the religious activity centre of both monks and followers of the Yellow Hat Sect (also named Gelugpa Sect, a branch of Tibetan Buddhism), the Ta’er Monastery (Kumbum Monastery) is located in Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, 25 kilometers (about 16 miles) away from the capital city of Qinghai Province - Xining. In order to commemorate TsongKhapa (1357-1419),
founder of the Yellow Hat Sect, the Ta’er Monastery was built in 1577 more than 150 years after his death. Now it is considered a sacred place in China. Out of curiosity, I learnt that in the Tibetan language, Ta’er Monastery is called ‘gongben’, which means ‘10,000 figures of Buddha’. During its long 400 years of history, it has gradually become a place of interest for its distinct ethnic color and native style. The whole area covers more than 144 thousand square meters (about 36 acres) with mountains surrounding it. It has 9,300 rooms and 52 halls. Tibetan Culture Museum When I entered the Qinghai Tibetan museum, I looked at the preface boldly written I discovered that apart from the Tangka, the most significant part of the museum is one that stores major displays on Tibetan medicine and culture. When I delved into the great area of Tibetan medicine, I learnt that there are causative factors thatproduce suffering and to humanity. I therefore developed interest in the long term causative factors. In Tibetan philosophy and medicine, the main cause of every type of suffering or illness, is Ma-Rig-Pawhich is known as ignorance. They say that just as a bird is unable to escape its shadow no matter how high it flies, so are we unable to lose our ignorance which has been with us since our birth. Our basic ignorance generates the three poisons of desire, anger and delusion; this shows us clearly how Tibetan medicine is closely connected with Buddhist philosophy. Tu Yu Hun Da Yin In the middle of 3rd century CE, nomadic people related to the MongolicXianbei migrated to pasture lands around the Qinghai Lake (Koko Nur) and established the Tuyuhun Kingdom. In the 7th century, Tuyuhun Kingdom was attacked by both the Tibetan Empire and Tang dynasty
as both of them sought control over trade routes. Military conflicts severely weakened the kingdom and it was incorporated into the Tibetan Empire. After the disintegration of the Tibetan Empire, small local factions emerged, some under the titular authority of China. The Song dynasty defeated the Tibetan Kokonor Kingdom in the 1070s. The Salar Ethnic Nationality The XunhuaSalar Autonomous County is where most Salar people live in Qinghai. The Salars migrated to Qinghai from Samarkand (present day Uzbekistan) in 1370. The chief of the four upper clans around this time was Han Pao-yuan and Ming granted him office of centurion, it was at this time the people of his four clans took Han as their surname. The other chief Han Shan-pa of the four lower SalarClans got the same office from Ming, and his clans were the ones who took Ma as their surname. The Qinghai Museum Our final place of visit was the Qinghai museum, where I saw some of the great Chinese wonders as they happen more than in my own country. I saw innovation, creativity, hard work, scientific knowledge, industrial technology, clean and sustainable energy system, aviation system, rail tech, agriculture, many more and finally unity and harmony. Finally, it was obvious that what I learnt during my trip to Qinghai, I was not able to learn throughout my four years stay in China. It gave me hope and experience more than life itself. For the rest of it, I saw the home of humbleness, humour, industriousness, religion, resilience, welfarism, governance, justice, cooperation and unity. Dr. Sheriff Ghali Ibrahim is of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Abuja.
Time to foster national integration By Chinyere Juliet
N
ational integration is the awareness of a common identity amongst the citizens of a country. It means that though we belong to different castes, religions and regions and speak different languages we recognize the fact that we are all one. This kind of integration is very important in the building of a strong and prosperous nation. The greatest challenge facing Nigeria today is the threat to National Unity, as centrifugal tensions, resource control and self-determination, ethnicity based identity politics and religious cleavages have enveloped national consciousness. Since Independence in 1960, national integration has been a top priority of government in Nigeria. The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC scheme, the Unity Schools, the Federal Character Principles, and State Creation are examples of state policies intended to achieve this goal. Unity in our country does not mean the kind of oneness that comes from racial and cultural similarity. It is unity in spite of great differences, in other words, unity in diversity. For instance, an important historical event in which this unity was displayed was the freedom movement when all the Indians united against the British rule. There are many forces that come in the way of our national integration. Often people have very strong feelings about their own religion and language and oppose those of others. Such feelings lead to clashes between different sects. Such
occurrences damage our unity and prove to be a hindrance to our progress. It is pertinent to note that national integration can only be achieved through the recognition of the diverse parts of the country. National integration is a critical building-block for the harmonization of the socio-political as well as the economic life of a heterogeneous society into one whole entity to enhance rapid and sustainable development. It is the feeling of oneness that comes from an atmosphere of integrated and harmonious co-existence of the diverse ethnic nationalities and culture. In a rainbow nation, such as Nigeria, national integration can only be built on the pedestal of true recognition and respect for the nation’s diversities which will in turn engender a true sense of nationhood. It is regrettable to note that some politicians instead of working for the country’s unity are placing self first. Today, rather than integrating into a cohesive community with a common sense of national identity and destiny, citizens of Nigeria are returning more and more to primordial affiliation for identity, loyalty and security. This self centered attitude posed a danger to the country’s unity. Nigerian leaders should address the structural imbalance in our polity to avoid being marginalized. The Niger Delta crisis in the South South, Biafra agitations in the South East and Boko Haram crisis in the North are strong indices of national disintegration. The first requisite condition for
the attainment of nationhood is peace and harmony among the constituent nationalities in the nation. The country urgently needs to find a genuine and workable way of removing the growing distrust and hatred among our fractious tribes. It is quite evident that the peace of our nation has been seriously threatened these long years by our inability to forge unity by creating a psychological bond, and failure to understand our cultural differences, respect our diverse identities, manage our diversity in a very robust manner, evolve a well-oiled conflict resolution mechanism of dialogue and creation of a sense of community among the citizenry. No doubt, there is love among Nigerians; but the problem of disunity on the elite, which centered on religions and tribes are factors behind the threats to our national unity and must be addressed. For our nation to make a giant leap towards fulfilling its manifest destiny as a true giant in the continent, we must commit ourselves to doing the needful in making Nigeria a true nation in the real sense of the word. And there are a set of commitments which we must make on salient national issues along with a set of complementary action lines to achieve that. I call on our leaders to work to rekindle the faith of all our people in communal harmony by dwelling more on those public policies that will bolster our ebbing sense of community. We just have to do everything possible to restore the lost values back to our national life. Our youths must not be allowed to imbibe wrong sentiments,
because, according to Edmund Burke, the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men determine the character of the next generation. Government at all levels needs to pay great attention to the following: National Youth Service Corps Scheme, the Federal Unity Schools, and National Sports Festival, Inter-collegiate sporting competitions, to foster unity. All of these have helped us one way or the other to unify our people from across the country. We need to strengthen them. We also need to teach civic duties and lessons in patriotism and nationalism from primary schools up to the secondary schools. Other strategies to attain sustainable integration include education; collaborative approach and guaranteeing of rights where alternative dispute resolution method like mediation can be employed. There is need for mass mobilisation and campaigns to promote our national identity, Nigerians must be well-sensitised to respect the national heritage and symbols. The flag, national anthem and national colours must be made to become sources of pride to us. Thanks to National Orientation Agency: we need more of such public enlightenment campaigns across the country to imbue in all of us the Nigerian spirit and to galvanise us for positive actions towards keeping the nation one. Chinyere Juliet writes from Dept of Mass Communication, Nasarawa Polytechnic Lafia.