Hi Twitter,
Another Guinness World Record (@GWR) attempt.
Hilda inspired this thread - follow me.
In 2016, September 17th precisely, I had an idea to explore nature places within Jos Plateau state and beyond. I had about 300 people crazy enough to explore Shere Hills, a tourist haven in Jos North. That was the maiden expedition. I called the idea Jos Hike It (@joshikeit), registered it with CAC and we never looked back 7yrs later.
September every year became really significant for us in Jos Hike It because that became our anniversary month. We go up and above to stage mega hikes every September.
In 2017, we hosted a hike that saw about 500+ people come together devoid of any racial, ethnic, or religious differences. One year later, in 2018, we doubled the number to 1,124+ people on a single hike. This was yet a milestone. We used social media, esp Facebook Ads to make this feat possible.
Myself and my team sat down and yet again, wanted to pull out another dove from our hat, we tripled the last number to 3,000. At the end of the day, we were able to host 3,811+ people. We had people from Canada, USA, Bangladesh, and other African countries deliberately making the trip to Jos to attend this talked about hike. Aside using social media for publicity, we used banners and we wrote lots of letters to different orgs in Jos. Boom! it worked.
We won an award for the best use of social media in Plateau state in 2019. It was a great year for us.
In 2020, covid19 happened, we ran into the shadows, until 2022. This time we wanted to host 5,000 in a single expedition. I reeled up @GWR and realized that the highest number recorded for a single hike in the world is 815 people in Iraq. lol. So we broke a Guinness World Record without knowing it?
We thought that this 5,000 man hike will be herald around the world. So, we contacted @GWR , exchanged emails and we needed to pull up funds for some of their services. We contacted many sponsors like @MTNNG and @GloWorld among others. We were guest to several meetings in their offices in Jos, wrote proposals, etc, but nothing came forth (could it be because we are not in Lagos?lol). We sent emails to so many companies, either no replies or declined requests. Frustratingly, we did not host the hike that year.
Why this is important to us? Because Plateau state has had a bad narrative making the rounds on the internet, we wanted to change that and tell the world we are the epitome of tourism in Nigeria. We want to use the hike to promote peaceful co-existence within citizens and unity also. This is our simple contribution. We want the world to come to us.
The Barr Lalong Administration did not help also even after going to the govt for funding for this globally acclaimed project. Yet again, I submitted proposals but nothing happened. We thought a sane govt would jump on this on hearing it. I was excited to see Gov of Lagos at Hilda's Kitchen as she sets that record. Can't say same with my gov. but then...
If funding comes in, this September, of 2023, we intend to pull up more than the standing Guiness World Record for most people in a single hike in the world with 5,000 people. If you know a company who should be funding this project, please tag/mention them under this tweet. Hopefully the @CalebMutfwang administration can also look into this milestone attempt and sponsor/endorse it. Also, we will probably crowdfund just to meet financial demands for this huge project. Do you think crowdfunding will work?
This means a lot to us at Jos Hike It and we want to actualize it. We wanted to do this in 2022 but did not happen. We feel, this can only be delayed but never denied.
The Hilda success inspired us to dust our files and get back to planning until we get this done. We want to be on the Guinness World Record. This is not a Jos thing, but a Nigerian thing, an African thing.
Do you have any thoughts for us, please share under this tweet. KIndly RT, perhaps we may receive sponsorship deals from this tweet and make this happen.
Check thread for more pictures***
cc @DavidHundeyin@FS_Yusuf_@AishaYesufu@Tutsy22@SavvyRinu