Chris Ochayi
5 December 2008
The National Union of Hotels and Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW) has said the continued hostage takings and militants' activities in the Niger Delta region has impacted negatively on economy and development of hotel and tourist industry in the area.
NUHPSW President, Comrade Leke Success who made the disclosure in Abuja during the National Executive
Council (NEC) meeting of the association, lamented that the series of attacked on hotels in the region which claimed some lives has now turned the once bustling sector in the region to almost ghost enclaves.
He said the crisis is gradually grinding business activities in the region to a halt with most entrepreneuis relocating their business to other regions.
According to Comrade Success, "the unending crisis in the Niger Delta has continued to impact negatively on the economy including the hotel and tourist sector.
The attack on Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt on the New Year Day in 2008, which claimed lives .including hotel workers, has turned the once bustling hotel to a ghost enclave. Similarly, the Airport Hotel in Port Harcourt has been closed down due to this unending crisis".
He said "the creation of a full fledge ministry to address the needs of the Niger Delta region to us, is not the solution to the problem. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) created earlier to provide the needed infrastructural facilities could not move the region to the next level".
"We do believe that the creation of a full fledge ministry and no matter how
long the fighting in the region may go on, peace can only be achieved through dialogue and compromise".
He therefore advised that, al parties to the crisis should accept to dialogue, instead of turning the region to battle zone.
On the state of infrastructure, the union bemoaned the three tiers of government over their failures to rehabilitate existing road network in the country.
"The accrued revenues from excess crude oil account should be used to develop basic infrastructures that will impact positively on the lives of the citizenry like revival of our railway system, rehabilitation of existing roads, building of new power projects, that will generate more megawatts and not darkness, total turn around of our hospitals and moving our educational system to the next level".
He added, "the failure of government at all levels to rehabilitate existing roads and construct new ones should be regarded as deliberate attempt by our leaders to further subject oppressed Nigerians to untimely deaths through preventable accidents on the death traps we call roads".
On the ravaging economic crisis in the country, the union called on President Umaru Yar'Adua to take urgent step to address the plight of Nigerians including workers through the provision of social amenities and upward review of their take home pay to cushion the effect of the economic hardship.
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