 Let me join the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture in extending to you all a very warm welcome to Lagos, Nigeria, and in particular we welcome the Secretary-General of the UNWTO Zura and his team. Thank you for partnering with Nigeria to host this first-of-its-kind conference and for choosing Nigeria as the platform for showcasing African culture in this way. I also congratulate the Government of Lagos State and the people of Lagos State for being as usual such great hosts to our guests from all over the world. I must not fail to mention that we gather here and I think this point has been made at our iconic National Arts Theatre, built in 1976, 46 years ago, in preparation for hosting the second African Festival of Arts and Culture, Festak 77, as it was then called, where we welcomed over 17,000 guests from all over Africa, the diaspora, and around the globe. And I think it is symbolic that this conference, which focuses on rebuilding and restarting tourism, has been held here in our own rebuilt and refurbished National Arts Theatre. Excellencies, we must also commend the UNWTO for the great work that it has done through the years and especially the admirable way that it guided the industry in the bleak and uncertain months of the pandemic. Your bold and informed approach to guiding and advising the tourism world on restarting tourism in the aftermath of the pandemic has been pivotal in the very quick recovery of tourism worldwide. The theme of this conference, linking tourism culture and creative industries, pathways to recovery and inclusive development is in line with the great work that the UNWTO has done in speeding up economic recovery and promoting inclusive development. Tourism has already established itself, and we've heard quite a bit of this already, as perhaps one of the top job-creating economic sectors. This contribution to global GDP is estimated at somewhere in the order of about 10 percent before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. One out of every 10 jobs worldwide depended on tourism, and the aggregate of international tourist arrivals reached 1.4 billion people as of early 2020 before the COVID-19 broke out. Tourism opportunities and jobs are inclusive. They cut across all income segments, from the millennia entertainers to the janitors in hotels. Jobs are gender-sensitive, men and women take on all of those jobs, and accommodate rather than discourage those who speak other languages other than the local languages. Tourism is possibly also the most profound unifier of all economic activities, first because it's the greatest eye-opener. Those who live their communities and visit other places are more likely to understand other people and respect their cultures, their creativity, and their wisdom. When you hear the proverbs of the Kikuis of Kenya, or the Fullers of Guinea, or the Igbo's of Nigeria, you will no longer think of them as barbarians. You will quickly recognize the richness of their ancestry and the nobility of their thoughts and ideas. All notions of equality of human beings, of respect for human dignity, make far more sense when we interact with other people, as only tourism that assures that interaction. But perhaps more importantly, tourism provides us humans an opportunity to do what we like to do best, to achieve the deepest desires of our hearts, which is social interaction, enjoying the company, enjoying the company and the friendship of people from all over the world, reaching across race, across color, across language, to connect with our common humanity. The bridges that we employ, those bridges that we employ to cut across culture, to cut across language, are usually our cultural genres, our arts, our music, our crafts, our dances, our cultural festivals. Music, for example, as we all know, is a global language. Even those who don't know the meaning of the words of a song enjoy the rhythm, and some find out the meaning of lyrics, discovering the cultures and ideas that inspire them. But let me just test that theory of mine. That is that you don't need to understand the words of a particular of any song, to enjoy it and to be able to sing it, and that music is indeed a global, very, very global language. Let me just test that theory. Let people know this song. Let me see you. Let me see you. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, let's sing it together. Let me see you. Let me see you. No, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. You know the Boogah has to be a real Boogah. So let's do that last bit again. Let me see you. Lo, lo, lo, lo. Lo, lo, lo, lo. We got it. You got it. Today, today, Nigerian music rendered in different Nigerian languages all over the world. So people all over the world are dancing to Kiss Daniel, that song Boogah, of course, was sung by Kiss Daniel. The phrase Boogahmo is a Yoruba expression. It means front your hard-won success. Take the fruits of your work. Take the opportunity. All your successes. Show off your successes. Don't sit down there thinking my success is too small. Really, show it off. Many all over the world and many people all over the world are squaring up their shoulders and saying, it doesn't matter how hard it seems. It doesn't matter how hard it looks. I must show off my own success. No matter how little it may seem to others. It may seem to you that it's small, but I'm just going to Boogahmo anyway. And he'll be performing. And he'll be performing the song at Qatar, the Qatar World Cup in a few days. We're performing that song. I'm sure many of us also know Burner Boy. In Nigerian Afro-Beat Star, he performed in front of 70,000 people in the Finland's Flow Festival in 2022, just this year. Thinking songs like Last Last. How many people know Last Last? I just want to know how old you are, because all you old folks, because there's no way you're going to know Last Last. Okay, so how many people know Last Last? He don't ask Last Last. Everybody go chop breakfast. Ha ha ha ha ha. So he would chop breakfast too. Now in Pitting English, now this man sang this song in Pitting English to a Scandinavian audience of 70,000 people and they enjoyed it. They didn't even know what it meant. What does it mean to say don't ask Last Last? Everybody go chop breakfast. But of course there is wisdom in it if you choose to find out. It means that at the end, we're all going to matter, we're all going to succeed. At the end, Last Last, at the end, we will all chop breakfast. All of us, whether we are chopping breakfast now or not, one day you two will chop breakfast. That song is also the first Afro-Beat song to have sold over 500,000 units in the first 17 weeks of its release. The first 17 weeks is sold over 500,000 units and it's now been certified for gold in the USA. So this is the great song, accepted all over the world. Another Nigerian artist, Ashakeh, I'm sure you all know Ashakeh. Who knows Ashakeh, you know Ashakeh. I know all these old folks, I can see you all, there's no way you're going to know but we'll teach you, we'll teach you. Ashakeh who sings in Persian English. Of course, you know his song, the song, Organize, Organize, Every other day I organize, Some of us are wise, Every other person over wise. You don't know the song. Anyway, I'll teach you, let me tell you. So this song is saying, Organize, Organize, Every other day I organize, Some of us are wise, Every other person over wise. So the song, pretty cool, those who think they're too smart. I know there are so many people who think they're smarter than everybody else. So this song is saying, come on. We're all wise, we're all smart. Don't ever think that you are smarter than everybody else. Now these are street slimes. These songs are street slimes in Lagos and perhaps in some other urban parts of Nigeria. But the world loves it. And this particular artist, Ashakeh, in his show at the O2 arena in Brixton in the UK sold out to an international audience in less than five minutes. As soon as the tickets were put online in less than five minutes, Joe had sold out. And then of course, see how the Black Panther movie and its sequel, The Black Panther Wakanda Forever, has taken the world by storm, breaking box office records, making an excess of $330 million in sales in its first week. And it's an important movie because it proved the point that Africans, local and diaspora, and using music, actors, producers and technical people who are African, create a movie that is outstanding, outstanding cinematic and technical achievement all by itself with modern songs, relevant with modern takes, modern cinematography, and loads of hate songs, written and sung by Nigerians and by other Africans. So we're here last week. I'm sure that Lagos recognized that it showed up here last week for the African premiere of that movie, that an African premiere was held here in Africa, that an African premiere was held at all for any movie is an important statement all by itself. And I think that we should always remember to commend all of these great young men and women who are doing such great things, unifying Africa and unifying the world in the process. Because of the vast components of tourism, of course, we know that the components of tourism are largely local and homegrown. They are more likely to be sustainable. And the promotion and preservation of cultural sites, forests of natural life and aquaculture for tourism purposes works well with our zero carbon ambition. So when we teach a whole new generation to love and respect our beaches, love and respect our forests, and at the same time we create jobs and livelihoods in doing so, we are actually achieving the perfect balance that enable us to longer enjoy God's endowments in nature and in prosperity. Let me again commend the UNWTO for not just this groundbreaking conference, but just all that it took to ensure that this succeeded. And I'm sure that all of us who are here who have experienced the last day or two recognize that this is such a well put together conference. And what it's also this conference is an opportunity to define the future of tourism. What more can we do to make the movement of people across borders easier? How can we counter the nativist ultra-nationalist rhetoric of politicians who seek to demonize foreigners, promote racial segregation? How about technology? Will virtual reality, virtual visits and tours heal human interaction? Or can we turn virtual reality to advantage tourism? Too many questions. I'm sure that this gathering of experts and industry players and enthusiasts will find answers and keep finding answers. The good thing is that this is only the beginning of this important conversation. So while wishing you a very enjoyable and fruitful deliberations as you continue in the conference, it is my very special pleasure and privilege to formally declare open. I'm sure that we have already opened it in our various ways to formally declare open the UNWTO global conference, tourism and culture and creative industry pathways to recovery and inclusive development. Thank you all very much. God bless you.