Vanguard
5 December 2008
The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation NTDC has been described as the flagship of Tourism in Nigeria by the House Committee Chairman on Culture and Tourism, House of Representatives, Barrister KGB Oguakwa.
Barrister KGB Oguakwa who led other members of the Committee to Tourism Village, Abuja as part of their visit to Ministry, Departments and Agencies under its oversight bracket was full of praises for the NTDC.
In the words of the Chairman: "with flagship like NTDC marketing Nigeria, and developing the platform for the roll out of Tourism Master Plan, I think that we will go very far from what we have seen". He stressed that NTDC should be energised as the flagship of Nigeria tourism.
Hon. Oguakwa further affirmed that NTDC should be utilized and continued to be supported as the major flagship to market Nigeria. According to him: "NTDC has shown capacity to market Nigeria and should be encouraged", I think we should encourage them to do that", he said.
The House Committee Chairman on Culture and Tourism stated that the Committee was in NTDC as part of their oversight of the sector. Having seen what was on ground at the Tourism Village he expressed thus: "we have seen the Cultural Village at play, is working, is no longer a concept on the drawing board". He explained that if the model as it was seen working in NTDC could be replicated across Nigeria, that it would help to reduce rural-urban migration.
To this end therefore, the Chairman affirmed that "the deployments of Tourism Villages nation-wide should be brought into play with more funding for that particular item".
He explained there was need to diversify our attention to other sector of the economy, especially in view of the fact that US was on the verge of drilling its own oil. Hence the need to allocate more funds to the sector as an investment into the future. He reiterated that his committee "has a mandate, '"has a historic duty to build a platform to focus Nigeria towards the culture and tourism sector, that is what we want to take seriously", he said.
According to the Chairman; "we see that in NTDC you are trying to create a new Nigeria magic, indeed an African Magic that has not been seen before".
Consequently, he stated that "in NTDC today we are beheld with the spectacle called tourism, we congratulate you", he said. The Chairman further expressed his impression about NTDC in this manner: "NTDC has broken what I will term historical shackles to emerge as a very vibrant platform to market Nigeria".
Responding, the NTDC Boss Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, affirmed that "the House Committee on Culture and Tourism is the committee to save this country".
His statement was premised on the fact that about 17 countries of the world are depending solely on tourism so the committee has a lot to do in creating the enabling environment through legislation for tourism to thrive. He added that in the past, monies have been put to places without adding value to the system.
The NTDC helmsman stressed that the most dynamic and constant thing in life is change, hence it is high time we stopped paying lip service to tourism.
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