MIGRATION AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: EXPERIENCES FROM DIASPORA VISITS TO THE REDEEMED CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD

Abstract

Africa has been involved in migration right from the ancient time for various reasons; however, the modern variant is seen as conditioned largely by issues such as war of independence, civil wars, educational pursuits and lately severe economic crisis forcing large population of African skilled workers to become labour migrants. Thus, “brain-drain” which is also referred to as “brain gain” is of mutual benefit to the home country as well as the host country of such labour. This is due to the tendency of emigrants to maintain a close linkage with their home country through various means such as sponsoring or supporting political activities, supporting family members, religious and other societal links. This is the case with Pentecostal churches in Nigeria with members in Diasporas who maintain close linkage with their church headquarters through various annual programmes.  This paper interrogates human mobility and religious tourism development in Nigeria using the case of annual programmes of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The paper adopts descriptive statistical analysis based on primary and secondary data to determine the influence of this mobility on the socio-economic activities of the study area and how the development of infrastructure such as hotels, eatery and others had impacted on the area. The paper concludes that movement of members of the church to attend annual programmes could enhance tourism development in the country however; there is need for more government involvement in terms of policy decisions, awareness among others for the development of religious tourism.