The Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has accused some private security companies of contributing to Nigeria’s negative global image by exaggerating insecurity concerns in the country to attract business.

Onyema, who spoke with The Guardian in Lagos yesterday, said some security firms were “demarketing” Nigeria by creating the impression that the country was unsafe for visitors, foreign investors, airline crew members and tourists.

He argued that while insecurity remained a challenge, the constant projection of fear by some individuals and organisations was damaging the country’s tourism potential and discouraging international businesses.

Onyema lamented that the practice had created unnecessary fears among foreign airline operators and professionals visiting Nigeria.

According to him, some foreign pilots, engineers and aviation personnel often demand increased security arrangements before coming into the country because of the negative perception created around Nigeria.

He said: “Let me shock you, insecurity is business for some people. Check out the foreign airlines that are coming to this country. Ordinary cabin crew for these foreign airlines are being escorted by security because they are told, they will be kidnapped.

“The federal government should talk to them (security companies). They are demarketing this country. They are killing even tourism by the things they do and say to these foreign establishments and foreign airlines.

“When we bring in pilots and certain technicians or engineers from abroad, they start asking us, ‘where is your security?’ Who will be taking them?”

Onyema expressed that Nigeria needed to change the narrative about the country by promoting its positive attributes, rather than continuously emphasising its challenges.

The airline boss, urged Nigerians to embrace patriotism and stop portraying the country negatively, saying such actions were affecting economic growth and tourism development.

He also lauded the Federal government’s coastal highway project, describing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road as one of the initiatives capable of unlocking Nigeria’s tourism opportunities.

According to him, the project would improve connectivity, create employment opportunities and expose the country’s coastal attractions to local and international visitors.

Onyema said Nigeria had enormous tourism assets that remained largely untapped, including its coastline, cultural diversity, festivals, traditional institutions and historical sites.

He compared Nigeria’s coastline advantage with Caribbean countries, which he said had successfully built economies around their beaches and marine attractions despite lacking oil resources.

He said: “One of the best things this regime has done is the development of that coastal highway and I call on every Nigerian to support it because it is going to create a lot of job opportunities and improve tourism.

“All the Caribbean nations, they don’t have oil; what they have are waters and that is what they sell — the beaches, the marshes. Look at Nigeria, which has a sprawling Atlantic coastline from Lagos to Akwa Ibom, bigger than all the Caribbean nations put together, and we cannot assess tourism using that.”