Daily Independent (Lagos)
Joe Nwankwo and Kemi Yesufu
19 November 2008
Abuja — Many have described him as the Barack Obama of the nation's tourism industry, one who has carried a pitching change in otherwise moribund sector of the economy. It does not come as a coincidence that the man, Prince Adetunkonbo Kayode, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, is one of the earlier supporters of the U.S. President-Elect, Barack Obama.
Both men are prophets of the gospel of change. It therefore did not come as surprise when **Daily Independent** crew, met a happy and optimistic Kayode on the night of Obama's victory. Reacting to the epoch making event, Kayode, described it as one that has changed the face of politics all over the world, noting that the election of Obama will also serve as a lesson for Nigerian politicians as it would go a long way to de-emphasise the politics of tribe, zone and region as is practiced in the country.
According t him "right from the day he was given the ticket by the Democratic Party as its presidential candidate, it was very clear that Americans were set on an irreversible cause that will change the face of politics not only in America, but all over the world.
"By his victory, America has once again shown that it leads the democratic world in bringing change to the political process but in doing that, they have also created an unprecedented hope, the hope that is founded on the limitless opportunities is open to man" he added.
Kayode pointed out "that limitless opportunity is one that shows that every insurmountable obstacle can be pulled down, every mountain can be pulled down. All of us are very happy, very excited, but in our excitements we must continue to understand the lessons that this event has for Nigerians.
"Some of these lessons include the limitless opportunity open to man, that nothing is impossible, that we have to rise up above ethnic, mundane, colour, geographical, tribal and regional considerations at all times. We should also recognise the fact that there could be goodness in every person," he added.
The Minister further stated that "we have a lot to learn from what has happened in America, the fact that no political process is perfect as there were serious intentions by one of the parties to rig; they were sending fake test messages, telling Obama's supporters t come back on Wednesday and actually punching the list in some democratic strongholds to make sure that some people did not vote.
"Some of the machines were rigged that if you press Obama, it will show Mccain. They deliberately made some machines not functional, there were places like Indiana an Obama stronghold, where they had to secure an injunction to make the voting close beyond the voting 7p.m. deadline to ensure that everybody voted, and the court orders were obtained easily because the judges favoured the fact that everybody must vote and they were on the side of democracy" he added.
Kayode noted that "some of the lessons learnt for the nation are that all hope is not lost in Nigeria; we have every right to make the mistakes we made and learn from them. We should not allow ourselves to be browbeaten or hit on the head with the bogey of oh we rig elections when the bastion of democracy which America represents, they have been doing this for the past 230 years, and they still have these problems. They have not been able to surmount these problems of election rigging.
"There are no perfect elections. Although Mccain has conceded the elections but the challenges of the electoral process is still very much there, and one expects that they should have perfect elections by now. We have only been on this for just 12 years, even though if we have to work to perfect our electoral system, his victory also goes to show that good people must also come out, notwithstanding the imperfections of the system. Professionals must join politics to better the nation. In fact, this was one of the things that inspired some of us to leave our practice to join politics," he declared.
Kayode noted that accountants, lawyers, bankers, journalists, who have succeeded in the professions, should come into politics; they absolutely have no right to stay out. "They should jump into the fray and move this country forward as they would lack the moral right to criticise government when they don't want to join and make the nation greater," he said.
On the expectations of the Obama presidency, the Minister stated, "well, statistically, Americans believe that Bush did a lot for Africa but that is neither here nor there. The Obama election represents the new face for the world, he has known suffering, know discrimination and I believe that he would be able to tackle the issues of poverty, disease, issues about HIV/AIDS among others."
Speaking on the Abuja carnival, he said "you know the Abuja Carnival has become a tool of blackmail. Senior officials of the ministry, everybody, comes to ask for one thing or the other from the carnival. They say that was how it had been done in the past. You have people actually campaigning in the media against the carnival. I did not start the carnival. I inherited it and I am only trying to make sure that the private sector contributes to the funding of the carnival and not the case where the Federal Government carries the whole burden.
"Despite the threats and the blackmail, we have remained strong. And we have put in a management that is efficient. I expect that lots of Nigerians will make money from the carnival; not for people to sit and share government money. We know that there will be merchandise worth billions of naira made for the carnival, which people can sell the whole year round till the next edition of the carnival. If you go to Rio and the other parts of Brazil, you will still see memorabilia from the Rio Carnival. The Abuja Carnival is meant to market Nigeria and to market Abuja, so memorabilia from the event should be sold long after the end of the event," he stated.
The Minister, soliciting the support of Nigerians said, "what we need now is the patience of the public and their support so that we can bring the private sector to sponsor the carnival and make it one that creates wealth for Nigerians. "This year, we are expecting about a N150 million as sponsorship from the private sector. We have commitment from MTN, Dangote group. We are also expecting that some specific programmes and events will be handled by interested sponsors. Ordinarily, we have reduced going by what was spent in 2006. But again we want to acquire certain capital assets. Some of these capital assets are some of the things that will make the carnival sustainable" he added.
Reacting to the uses the assets would be put to after the carnival, he said "some of these assets can also be used to make money for the carnival that will be put into use by the management of the carnival when the time comes. What we have is a management that is serious and effective, not a
frivolous one.
"People who will do the right thing, people who in the next two years will make the carnival in the next two years totally sponsored by the private sector. For example, we have billboards announcing the carnival all over the Country. After the carnival we can lease out the billboards. Then we have other assets that we use year in year out for the carnival. They also can be rented out to be paid for. In-between the Abuja carnival other first rate ceremonies such as NAFEST, Arugungu Fishing Festival, can make use of these assets. So by next year we will not hiring things from people. Rather, we will be hiring ours to them" he pointed out.
On the amount to be expended for the carnival, the minister said "well, I know that in 2006, what was spent on the carnival was over N800 million naira. Last year we spent about N230 million and we are spending about the same amount this year.
Kayode who also spoke on the Private Public Sector initiative embarked on by the Ministry noted that "first you have to understand that the National Theatre is being handled at two levels. The building itself needs to undergo renovation. You cannot ask the private sector to come and take over a dilapidated structure. We as a government, have to repackage the building in way that we can bargain with the private sector from an advantaged position. Immediately we are able to renovate the building, we will call the private sector to negotiate with them, because we have more than ten thousand square metres of space not being used at the National Theatre. With the building itself, anyone who invests in the building will be making a good business decision. The National Theatre was actually built to be something like the Silverbird galleria, a place where you and your loved ones can visit, a place where you have restaurants, cinema halls, shops, bars and night clubs, a place of variety. So for us to put the place in shape a lot of money has been approved, contracts have been awarded" he said.
Speaking further Kayode said "When you leave the main structure, to talk about the compound, you have over hundred metres of land taken over by water. When we reclaim the land, then we will complete the master plan of the National Theatre because, going by the original plan, there is supposed to be a five star hotel and luxury flats. This plan was approved by government in 1978, thirty years ago. This means that the people who designed the National Theatre had vision, but it was not implemented unfortunately. What the government will do now is to create an enabling environment for the private sector to come and bring this vision back to life.
"We have many investors showing interest in taking over the National Theatre but like I said, government as the owner of the property doesn't want to hand over a water-logged place to those who will be taking over" he added.
On the Tourism Master plan he noted "it has been difficult implementing the plan because human beings find it difficult to adapt to change. But we have remained focused. We have achieved a few milestones, we have reviewed the laws that govern tourism, towards getting in place the Tourism Act passed. We also have a new NTDC Act, the new NIHCOUTR Act,
We held a workshop on the in this regard to make the acts familiar with stakeholders. We also have completed the plan to restructure NTDC, NIHCOUTR.
"We are also supposed to bring the WTO act as consultants in our move to create a Tourism Development Fund. We have signed a working plan with South Africa who will be our major partner in this drive to restructure the tourism industry. South Africa is doing well in tourism, so we hope to tap from their experience and their expertise. I think that before the end of the month we will be getting an official response from our partners in South Africa about the issue of grading our hotels. We will not go to London to bring anyone to grade our hotels when we can use experts from South or even Ghana who have successfully done the same thing in their countries. So a lot of things are going on because what we are trying to do in the tourism industry is like building a sky scrapper. We will have to start from the foundation, then build it up floor by floor" he stated, adding "I can say that we are satisfied with progress we have made".
Throwing more light of the Tourism Act, the Minister stated that" what we are trying to do with the tourism act is to create a national legal frame work for the tourism sector. Tourism falls under the concurrent legislative list which means that both the states and the government can make tourism laws. But if both tiers of government make different sets of laws, things may not go on smoothly.
So we needed to create a national structure to which the states will key in. We will be speaking with state Attorneys- General so that they can understand the act and buy into it. On the NTDC, the act that governs its operations is old and outdated. We need to get place reorganized so that we
can get in people with the proper competences. So that if an investor comes with his ideas, he can walk up to officers in the NTDC and they will be able to properly guide the investor on the right way to go about it" he declared.
Kayode pointed out that "secondly, it is the duty of the NTDC to manage the Tourism fund, so we also have to train them on how to go about this. Thirdly, we have to put in structure that will give NTDC staff the competence to properly carry out licensing and grading of hotels in the country. It is not enough to make noise in Nigeria. NTDC Staff need to be
trained so that they know how to market Nigeria and a tourism destination outside the country. There will be more directors at the NTDC. Each one of them will be an expert. The plan is to make NTDC bigger and better positioned to meet with up with expectations.
"The same thing goes with NIHCOUTRE. Only those who are competent will be found in the tourism parastatals. As it is this is not the case. We are looking at each state having a tourism school, not hotel and catering schools like we have it now. We have all of these plans on paper. All we need to do is bring them to life" he stated.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
