Coker: Angry tourism stakeholders urge FG to scrap NTDA

From Justina Okpanku in Lagos

The Nigerian Tourism Development Authority [NTDA] formerly the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation [NTDC] has announced the retirement of its director general, Foluronso Coker, following the end of his eight years of his two- term tenure last month.

A send-off party was reportedly organised by the NTDA management and staff in honour of Coker on March 30, 2025. The

Director of Finance, the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA), Mr. Richard Ovie, said to be the most senior staff, is acting pending the appointment of a director general by President Bola Tinubu.

● Coker’s exit

Coker’s exit from the NTDA has sparked a call for the scrapping of the NTDA because the apex public tourism organisation was allegedly run down.

The conversation on alleged Coker’s poor attitude to work, action or inaction, and government lip-service to tourism has been ongoing in tourism industry circles months leading up to Coker’s retirement.

Operators regretted that the federal government went ahead to reappoint Coker for his second term despite the hues and cries by the operators over Coker’s poor performance.

Coker, who the operators called a “bully,” was believed to be one of President Tinubu’s aides before his appointment eight years ago.

Coker’s appointment must have been influenced by

Tinubu, a staunch figure in the ruling party, APC at the time.

Tourism stakeholders in the country had said ‘enough is enough’ after Coker’s first term of four years, but to their surprise, Coker bounced back.

Today, many said the NTDA had failed to live up to its responsibilities.

Truly, the NTDA had performed poorly in the past eight years under Coker. He brought the NTDA to its lowest ebb.

So it was a long wait for the helmsman of the NTDA (Coker) to go.

Ironically, now there’s no clamour for the exalted position.

The question on Coker’s legacy is not even being asked.

Speculation on who will be appointed as the next substansive director general of the NTDA is non-existent?

Expectedly, the private sector operators ought to have been busy granting press interviews to harp on their choice of a tourism chieftain, a “tourism technocrat” who has a passion for tourism.” No such thing is happening.

Why is there an urgent call for the disbanding of the NTDA established in 1992 by Decree No. 81?

Generally, the tourism stakeholders want the government to scrap the NTDA because it “is not working.”

The NTDA received knocks for the lack of public /private sector collaboration to foster the growth of the tourism industry. The problems are legion.

Would the federal government listen to the call for the disbandment of the NTDA just as they scrapped the Ministry of Tourism?

It is instructive that the first ever Nigeria’s Ministry of Tourism was scrapped just months after it was established because of the poor performance of the former Minister of Tourism, Ms Lola Ade-John.

The NTDA, charged with the responsibility of promotion and marketing Nigeria as a tourism destination, has not done well.

An experienced tourism operator, Mr. Shola Ilupeju expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation in the tourism industry in Nigeria today.

“The tourist industry is not growing. It’s like taking one step forward and 20 steps backwards. Are we really doing the right thing or taking the right steps in the tourism industry?” he asked.

Another operator, a travel agent, Solomon Igwe, was angry because the NTDA is no longer vibrant.

“Is the NTDC (NTDA) still there? Should government scrap the NTDA? Yes. Simple. Right now, the NTDA is doing nothing. Staff members of the NTDA are just drawing salaries.”

He continued, “Is it the same NTDC that Otunba Olusegun Runsewe and that NTA woman (Mrs.Omotayo Omotoso) popularised?”

We should remember that, at some points in the history, NTDC was an envy of many across the country. Without a doubt, the NTDA has lost value.

Even people outside the tourism industry said they were disappointed after taking a hard look at the “toothless” regulatory agency.

One Frank Ikejiani spoke about how he asked a hotel owner in Onitsha whether he knew about the hotel police, NANTA, during “a bad visit at the dirty hotel, recently.” The hotel, he said, opened its doors seven years ago and still the NTDA hasn’t visited them.

 

Regrettably, even hotels and restaurants in the major cities of Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt are not tasked on best practices, let alone the eateries and bars in the rural areas.

*Consequences of Coker’s ineptitude”

Coker’s appointment was regarded as a “square peg in a round hole” of sort because he was not coming from a tourism background. It was a huge disappointment from the federal government.

From the outset, there were allegations of Coker’s high handedness, which strained NTDA management and labour relationship. There were also complaints from the private operators in the tourism sub-sector that also militated against the tourism industry in the country. Public -private sectors’ involvement in tourism is key.

The NTDA, which used to be on the driver’s seat in the promotion of cultural festivals across the country like Kano Dubar and Osun Osogbo cultural festival, were no longer available with Coker as NTDA chief executive.

It’s important that the NTDA used to liaise with the various states’ governments across the country to ensure unique tourism offerings at the grassroots level got to buyers at the tourism market. Not any more.

Coker, according to tourism stakeholders,, couldn’t even as part of tradition, raised tourism awareness or sensitize the citizens on tourism during important events in the global tourism calendar like the World Tourism Day celebrated around the world every September 27.

The NTDA has since lost most of its core responsibilities to so-called “interlopers.”

*Travel agencies’ body, NANTA challenged NTDA

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) is said to be one of the private sector associations that usurped the NTDA’s responsibility in international tourism marketing.

NANTA announced that it has invested ₦742 million in marketing Nigeria as a premier tourism destination over the last three editions of the annual World Travel Market (WTM) in London, after her 2024 WTM outing.

The immediate past president of NANTA, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye said recently, “In three years, NANTA has spent ₦742,226,100 to deliberately put Nigeria on the global tourism map at the World Travel Market in London.”

Akporiaye’s-led NANTA, which reportedly led 100 delegates from Nigeria to the WTM 2024, was under fire.

The number of genuine tourism operators who were delegates and actually opened for business at the event is not clear. WTM, a global tourism exhibition, attracts over 192 countries every year to the British cultural capital to market their tourism offerings under one roof.

NANTA was not only criticised for usurping the NTDA’s role. They were also faulted because the organisers of its WTM 2024 outing allegedly cornered the “business opportunity”

One travel agent who is obviously not a NANTA member told this writer that “each NANTA delegate allegedly paid N3,000, 000 (three million naira) in order to be in NANTA 2024 World Travel Market, London delegation.”

Tourism industry insiders who fumed pointed out that it’s worrisome that travel agents that are selling air tickets for people to travel outside Nigeria (Japa) have suddenly started to promote Nigeria inbound tourism.

Most travel agents in Nigeria are known for their inability to promote domestic tourism.

Pundits, especially tourism operators in Nigeria whose visa applications to the United Kingdom were not successful during the WTM 2024 season, blamed NANTA. The suspicion was that NANTA must have taken all the slots allotted to Nigeria for the international event at the British embassies in Nigeria.

Comparing Nigeria to tourism-friendly countries, pundits highlighted where the ambitious travel agents got it wrong.

For instance, Ghana, The Gambia, Kenya, South Africa, and other countries’ delegations at WTM are usually led to the travel exhibition by their government through their national tourism organisations (NTOs). NTDC as Nigeria’s NTO was in the picture until Coker’s time at the NTDA.

A journalist, Niyi Davis, blamed the NTDA for the controversy.

“You know the present situation is an unusual one, and nature abhors a vacuum. So while NTDA and the Ministry ( the scrapped Ministry of Tourism) may have failed to live up to their responsibilities, let us salute those who picked up the gauntlet to be at WTM London,” he said.

The NTDA is challenging.

A vibrant NTDA would have put paid to the ongoing debate if Nigeria had 5-Star hotels or not.

In other clime, a country’s national tourism organisation (NTOs) work closely with hotels to register, classify, and grade hotels and other hospitality centres in their land for standards in the service industry.

Sadly, the NTDA is found wanting.

It was perhaps this reason the FTAN, the umbrella association of hotels, tour operators, travel agents, cruise operators and other tourism-reliant businesses in the country, looked elsewhere to collaborate with Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in grading of hotels, recently.

A Port Harcourt-based hotel owner said:

“The NTDA cannot give at least the much -awaited registration and grading of hotels. It’s their responsibility as our own national tourism organisation. They need to grade us. And by so doing hardworking hotel owners will be rewarded.”

Hotels in Nigeria still give self rating.

Eyebrows were always raised because the tourism chief (Coker) couldn’t give the tourism stakeholders in Nigeria direction.

● Coker’s achievements

In an attempt at a self-style rating, Coker’s scorecard is circulating around as he retired from the NTDA.

The scorecard listed Coker’s achievements in eight years to include:

• The enactment of the NTDA Act, which transformed the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) into the NTDA;

• The ongoing ISO standardization certification to enhance service quality;

• Expansion of the Authority’s organogram to create more employment opportunities;

• The Nigerian Flavours initiative is celebrating the country’s rich culinary heritage;

• Capacity-building programmes and training for staff to improve efficiency and service delivery;

• Digital transformation and global partnerships with Google, Meta, and Wikipedia that have enhanced Nigeria’s online tourism visibility and

• Industrial peace and improved staff management relations in NTDA.

One eagle-eye tourism operator pointed out that none of these achievements was part of the NTDA’s core responsibilities.

Not everyone criticized Coker or

heaved a sigh of relief, saying “good riddance to bad rubbish” with his exit.

A source at the NTDA hinted that Coker was able to make friends with some people in the tourism industry in Nigeria and beyond.

“Don’t mind the people who are complaining about Coker. Some like Coker here in Nigeria and at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, where he was recognised.”

Regardless, an Abuja-based event planner, Ibrahim Umah, said whatever that was gained at the NTDA through the years was lost as Coker couldn’t build relationships with the real tourism industry operators.

“We used to enjoy the NTDC leadership. Coker spoiled it. You can’t see Coker coming to support your event. He was always busy. And he couldn’t work closely with the industry people. Now it’s to your tent O’ Israel.”

The federal government could appoint a new director general who may turn to be ‘pharaoh’ that knows the tourism operators.

A staff of the NTDA who asked for anonymity dismissed this view with the wave of the hand.

He raised concerns about the calibre of people who government appointed to man the tourism parastatals lately.

“Coker was in tourism for eight years, yet he didn’t leave a tourism industry of our dream. Tomorrow, the government will bring another person who has no passion for tourism,” he said.

He also stressed that

“Government is not paying attention to the tourism industry which can help alleviate poverty because tourism is an employer of labour, skilled and unskilled. But they keep seeing tourism as a job for their boys.”

Even one private operator took to the social media to raise the same point.

“The federal government send their boys to man tourism. It doesn’t even matter to them that the people they send don’t know anything we are doing in tourism. It won’t work. Let them (government) kuku scrap the NTDA as we didn’t see the government’s enabling environment we are promised,” he said.

Already, some states government have taken over some of NTDA’s business. They have created a strong tourism industry in their states and are collecting revenues from hotels and other private businesses in tourism.

Lagos boasts over 70 per cent of hotels in Nigeria. But the NTDA cannot enter that state as a regulatory agency. A court injunction had stopped the then NTDC from collecting tourism fees from Lagos State. The then Commissioner of Lagos Tourism, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi described NTDA as an “interloper.”

Last January, a sister federal parastatal, NIHOTOUR announced that it will be changing from a training school to a regulatory institution. It means NIHOTOUR, too, wants NTDA’s regulatory function.

NIHOTOUR is positioned to take over through a bill it sponsored at the National Assembly.

The question on every lips is, “Who will now train hotel and restaurant workers to save the collapsing service industry in Nigeria?”

The truth is, the federal government will decide on what it wants to do with the NTDA.

The NTDA is empowered to regulate the tourism industry and this implies registration, classification and grading of hotels/ hospitality centres as well as tourism enterprises like travel agencies and tour operation companies, to ensure quality and compliance with established standards.

It is hoped the vacancy at NTDA will not be filled by another government loyalist who doesn’t have passion for the tourism industry.

The federal government is blamed for not listening to the tourism operators in the country. The country is worse for it because some of those appointments in the past didn’t add value to the tourism industry. Experts said tourism can foster peace among communities through the youth tourism market, for example.

Tinubu is therefore urged not to relent in creating the enabling environment for tourism to thrive.

Appointing tourism professionals to take charge of government institutions or agencies will help boost the tourism industry, which in turn will improve on the contribution of tourism to the nation’s economy.