Unanswered Questions About Tourism Master Plan
By Justina Okpanku
Four years after the inauguration of the National Technical Committee charged with the responsibility for the production of an enduring and internationally certified tourism master plan for Nigeria, the Federal Government is yet to get any result from it.
Investors and individual operators in the industry, weary of excuses, are wondering aloud why the over N100 million millennium project is delayed.
Why is Nigeria yet to get its own tourism master plan to be like other countries?
There are other pertinent questions: "At what phase is the project now and when would the document be ready? Has the committee been dissolved since its chairman, Dr. Franklin Adejuwon, was re-appointed to chair another committee on Presidential Council on Tourism without seeing the project to its end? What happened to the funds N100 million given by the Federal Government for the job? Don't they want the pioneering effort of the past tourism ministers to pay off? and so on.
The formulation of a tourism master plan is the most significant asset and a must-have for the global tourism industry.
This plan, tourism officials (World Tourism Organisation (WTO) say will ensure that investors in the sub-sector will get a guide in the development of tourism and safeguard the environment. Countries interested in having a tourism master plan normally seek the assistance of WTO. Nigeria showed interest and was given project No. MIR/01/00314/08/99.
By so doing the government demonstrated its readiness for tourism as the main thrust of this document is to boost tourism, generate foreign exchange, and employment, accelerate urban-rural integration, encourage even development and promote tourism-based rural enterprises. The document is necessary because it will identify with the problem of visa. In fact, it is imperative for any country interested in having a viable tourism industry.
"Any luck about having the master plan this year?" THISDAY asked the Chairman, National Technical Committee on Tourism Master Plan, Dr. Franklin Adejuwon, in Abuja last April.
Dr. Adejuwon, who was visiting the Tourism Minister, Ambassador Franklin Ogbuewu, when members of the tourism press also paid the minister a courtesy visit after a Presidential Council on Tourism meeting, answered only when the same question was repeated outside the office.
Gesticulating with two hands up, Adejuwon said: "We are through; I have done my part".
Still, there is nothing to present to the people. The national tourism master plan appears to be another failed project.
For sure, the lack of this document stares policy makers and investors in the face.
Today, industry insiders are asking. 'What is in a formulation of a document that four ministers could not achieve in four years?'
In 1990, the Federal Government's blueprint was launched to develop and promote the tourism sub-sector into an economically viable industry. The new focus is just to update the document to be in tandem with the current realities in the global economy.
Pioneer Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, inaugurated the National Technical Committee on the Tourism Master Plan on March 30, 2000. There was a smooth take-off as the committee was sub-divided into groups for effective realisation of the field work and objectives. There were groups on natural resources, study groups on cultural and historical resources, accommodation and recreational facilities and others.
The states and the Federal Government were involved. In fact, States' representatives assisted the research committees with logistics and administrative support when the they visited their respective states.
No sooner had the committee got down to work than technical experts from the WTO arrived Nigeria to assist it to commence the second phase under the former Tourism Minister, Ms Boma Bromillow Jack.
Bromillow Jack held a press briefing for tourism stakeholders in Lagos on the activities lined up for the important document.
She said with glee that experts from WTO were in Nigeria for the second phase of the master plan.
"It took the determination of the Federal Government and UN Development Programme for this dream to be realised as the latter assisted Nigeria with US$40,000 to cover cost of transport and travel of the two experts. The federal government approved 100 million naira to assist UNDP that was partnering Nigeria in getting the important investor document," she said.
Today, Nigerians do not feel proud of the committee that could not deliver the document. All one gets from the committee is, "We will, we will",
Currently, some of the committee members have quit and nobody's explaining anything.
Stakeholders in the tourism sub-sector argue that the development could make Nigeria laughing stock for being unable to get its master plan ready after many years.
One of them said: "National Technical Committee and Presidential Council on Tourism, which one precedes the other that a serving chairman should abandon an unfinished business? Nigeria stand to lose if a few individuals are allowed to go ahead to jettison a project that could be of benefit to all. Don't they know a review of the master plan will kick-start the burgeoning tourism industry"?
He added: "If Adejuwon desires, he could be advised to participate in the PCT as member but not to head the sub-committee till he presents the tourism master plan to the people".
It is imperative for the federal government to lend its voice to ensure that its desire for the tourism industry is achieved.
A well-structured tourism master plan, experts believe, would provide a good measure of contribution to the gross domestic product and alleviate poverty.
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