Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort: 

Attracting Tourists to Ekiti 

Charles Ajunwa writes about his experience from his visit to the Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort in Ekiti State 

On a clement Friday, we assembled early at the state-of-art head office of Cavista Holdings in Illupeju area of Lagos, where we boarded a 24-seater Coaster bus that took us on a familiarisation trip to Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort, nestled within Ikogosi town in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State. Apart from interesting sights along the road from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun to Ekiti States, the trip was fun as Ada and Uche, staff of Cavista, intermittently cracked jokes and recalled unique things about the resort. Everybody in the bus was eager to experience this newly upgraded resort.

As we approached Ekiti from Ile-Ife axis passing through Afe Babalola University, different forms and sizes of hills surfaced from thick green vegetations. The name Ekiti, is derived from hills. When we  entered Ikogosi, it was a sleepy and serene town with people moving about happily. The country home of Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, was visible from the main road which is a walking distance to Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort. 

On arrival at the resort, we were cleared by security at the entrance gate. The whole landscape was green and surrounded by hills. We were received by Mr. Lanre Balogun, the Managing Director of Glocient Hospitality Limited, together with other senior management. Glocient, a subsidiary of Cavista Holdings is managing Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with the Ekiti State Government. 

Staff of the resort later took us to different assigned rooms to refresh and later returned to the restaurant for dinner. Orders for food and drinks were taken by neatly dressed male and female staff. Included in the menu was pounded yam, one of the favourite  delicacies served with egusi or bitter leaf soup. It’s a popular delicacy in Ekiti.  

Balogun later explained that Ikogosi which used to be described as “dead” has completely been revamped since Glocient took over in December 2022.

“When we came here, you must have the passion, you must have the zeal, and most importantly, you must have the understanding of the business. That is the most important. And our approach in making this place a success, you know, we have what we call SLAM, which is sell, leadership, alignment of strategy, and management of cost. Management of cost in the Cavista Holdings strategy is the most important, because you have to manage cost. So, everything you are seeing here was done by ourselves, no contractors involved. The rooms you stayed in were done locally. We got the local furniture people, the local artisans, the tilers, and the plumbers. But with experience, these are people that did other international brands that you see in Lagos,” Balogun said. 

“We did everything ourselves when we came here. I can boldly tell you that, it wasn’t properly aligned. The alignment you are seeing in the room where you have the media wall, and the TV wall, that was not where it was before. There was a window in that place. But, you know, from the hospitality experience, you must sleep. And your bed, your media wall must align directly to how you are sleeping. You can’t sleep this way. And your TV is that way. So, you’re not comfortable. So, all that we have to bring in our experience to design that. 

 “Experience and know-how was what brought us here and within eight months, we were able to complete 60 rooms. This place was completely dead when we came in. You couldn’t stay here for one hour. This place you are is where bats converged. There was no roof. The roof was falling off. It was dark. We couldn’t even enter. And even the leadership of the state, when they got in here, they were shocked. They were shocked about what they saw but we have been able to turn it around within the shortest time. And the resources we put in here, from what you are seeing, it’s bigger than what we actually spent because of our experience and how we’re able to run and manage the projects. So, principally it’s the knowledge and the zeal and passion for this business. So, now we brought it back. It’s now known all over the world. We have guests coming in from all over the world to visit Ikogosi. Even when we go to markets to tell people about Ikogosi, people tell us Ikgosi cannot be this. We had that challenge when we go to Abuja and other places because they don’t believe that Nigerians can transform businesses,” he added. 

 He described the springs as major selling point for the resort. “When you come to the spring, Ikogosi has the only warm and cold springs in the world. They both flow side by side and they maintain their thermal properties. For you to experience this, we tell our tourists, take off your shoes and use your bare feet. We have this warm spring coming this way and we have the cold spring coming the other way. All in the same area. So, they meet at a point. We encourage you to take off your shoes. You walk from the warm spring and you go to the cold. The cold is like water coming from a dispenser. You experience it. By the way, the water you use in your room also comes directly from the spring. The swimming pool is also a thermal pool. The water comes directly from the spring. 

“Now, I would like to add that we recognise that this is a very special place and so we must respect and uphold the culture as much as possible. Before we did anything, we had to see the custodians of this town to tell them, this is what we want to do. Eighty per cent of our staff are from the community. They tell you, ‘we are grateful you transformed our economy but the way it is, is the way it has been since our forefathers got here. Do not touch what you have there. You can make it clean but the way it has been, keep it that way’. But if you want to experience it, you can walk and feel it. Also, take the water because the history we have here is that people that are looking for children, when they take the warm path of the spring, they believe that it makes them to be fertile. 

“From what we see, we had women that come to say ‘thank you’ to the spring. That’s what they believe and it works. So people don’t take any water if it’s not the spring water. That is why we have channelled water to the town. So this water in town, it’s directly from the spring. But you can experience it, feel it, up to how deep you want to go.” 

Speaking further on facilities, Balogun said “First things first, the standard of the room we have here was not what they ever had. The class of rooms we have here, we reclassified the rooms. The state of the spring experience you have is not what it is. We upgraded the spring experience. When you go to the spring, the state of that place was not habitable. We upgraded it to a world class position. We are still continuing with the upgrade but at the stage we are at, it can compete with any tourist attraction anywhere in the world. 

The dining experience, we use QR code here now, which is obtainable worldwide. It was never in existence here. The security architecture we met on the ground was almost zero. 

“For our business, if you have one security breach, it kills our business. Majority of our clients are from outside Ekiti. They come from Lagos, Abuja, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and others.  Now, everybody is very security-conscious and they want to know the security arrangements we have before coming to Ikogosi. Rest assured that the security is top-notch. We have experienced hands, people that have managed security of major VIPs in this country, we’ve brought them down here to look after our security architecture.

 “On the infrastructure, we’ve categorised the property into three camps. There’s camp A, on the other side where we have 32 rooms, here because it’s called Camp B, we have 43 rooms. And Camp C, which is called the Villa, has 15 rooms and a Presidential Villa.

We’ve invested a lot in upgrading the landscape. The landscape you see here is not what we used to think. So we made it habitable.

 “We’re having a fish pond here. If you go outside here, you see that those things, those grasses you see there were not there. We actually planted those grasses, cleared the bushes and we’re creating what we call a forest park where people come, they can meditate.

 “We’ve lined the stream with hard core rocks to provide a befitting outline to the stream.

 We have park benches, pool and people come there to meditate and relax. You know we are tired of the hustle and bustle of the metropolis. You want a serene environment, a peaceful environment to sit. 

“Arrangements like this are being made all over the resort for families, for media people like you that need your quiet time to refresh. So that is what we are doing from here to the gates, to the villa. And a boardwalk is being created from here, from the reception because we are building a new reception here. Construction work is not concluded yet. In fact, this restaurant you’re seeing, by the time you come in December, it will be totally transformed. 

 “The level we are going to is not this level. But we needed a decent place for people to dine and eat. Those that have been here before are already blown away by what we have on ground.

 “From our leadership standard, our chairman will tell us, you are not even 10 per cent of where I want you to be. So imagine an investor telling you, yes, you are happy but this is just 10 per cent into our destination. Conceptualise that and imagine where we are going.”

 The following day at 8a.m. some Indian nationals arrived Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort just as we were getting set to tour the facilities. We learnt other foreign nationals also lodged at the resort. 

 The tour guide, High Chief Ayo Ademuluwa, Cavista Community Engagement Manager who wrote a book on Ikogosi, gave a brief history of Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort. 

Ademuluwa who acknowledged that Ikogosi is full of tourism sites, said Ikogosi means “the last turning on the left.” Another version has it that nine high chiefs who were brothers during the inter tribal wars discovered that the ridge  behind the spring is a town called Ogotun, the camp on the right called Oguotun and the camp on flip became Ikogosun. Iko means an emissary or messenger, Ogu means war and Osi means left. 

 Ademuluwa who took us round state-of-art  facilities such as halls for meetings, conferences, weddings, parties, gym, shopping centre and Presidential Villa. There are also facilities for hill-biking, hike trails, and camping. Along the road leading to the Presidential Villa, he showed us a zoo overgrown by grasses abandoned in 1987 after lions there killed the feeder. 

 Within same vicinity, Ruth, a tour guide at the warm and cold springs, showed us a tree with grooves inside dating over 700 years. According to her, the founders of Ikogosi were said to have migrated from Ile-Ife in Osun State. The guide said there is 24-hour surveillance to prevent intruders from desecrating the cherished site, adding that it’s a taboo for women on their menstrual periods to visit the place. The guide also said the warm and cold springs are believed to have fertility potency for women seeking for babies. Apart from supplying water to the swimming pool close by, she said the warm and cold springs have therapeutic particles for healing certain illnesses. 

 After taking us  round the Presidential Villa, we were taken to Arinta Waterfalls located at Ipole Iloro, a few minutes from Ikogosi Warm Springs. 

 Later in the evening, Ademuluwa took us to the palace of regent of Ikogosi community, Princess Omobola Adepoju, nee Olorunisola, who returned from Ibadan where she resided after the demise of her father, the Kabeyesi who transitioned at the age of 97. She described the relationship between her community and new managers of Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort as cordial, noting that 75-80 per cent of their staff were youths from Ikogosi. According to her, crime has greatly reduced since the youths were given employment by Cavista. 

 Other tourist sites in Ikogosi according to Ademuluwa “is a sacred water in Erin-Ayonigba where fishes come out to eat only bread, at Igbarado there is a little spring that has creatures that look like fingerlings but when you scoop them they are shrimps. 

They are called Eretutu. Not too far from here is a hill where the first plane crash in Africa happened in 1942. The plane was believed to be in operation during the Second World War carrying ammunition. On impact on the hill, it exploded. The relics and fuselages are still on the site. The site was 72 years last year, and state government has earmarked it as a tourist site. Every first Saturday in November each year is Ikogosi Day which attracts visitors and tourists from all over the world.”

Chief Security Officer of Cavista Holdings,  CSP Dauda Ismail, who retired from the Nigerian Police Force, said “Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort is in a location where the crime rate here is virtually zero.”

 “I’m already in touch with the conventional security forces. That is the police, the DSS, the civil defense, and definitely, based on the statistics they have, we are almost at a zero crime rate here,” adding, “For the tourists, on the aspect of the security, they should rest assured that the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort is safe.”