Tourism industry stakeholders in the country have advised President Bola Tinubu to merge the newly-created Ministry of Tourism with any other ministry for effectiveness. They said that tourism could contribute immensely to the nation’s economy, if handled well.
The tourism stakeholders were excited about the first-ever standalone Tourism ministry in the country when it was created seven months ag9.
They said it seemed as if the “long awaited messiah of the Nigeria tourism industry had arrived.”
Today, many said they no longer needed the Ministry of Tourism which was struggling to get by.
The Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John had reportedly taken ill.
One industry operator said, “It’s very clear the Ministry of Tourism is having challenges. The entire Ministry of Tourism has yet to be on a proper footing and for more than seven months of its existence, nothing is being done.
“Ministry of Tourism has only one director, Director of Domestic Tourism (there were two directors at one time, one of them retired a few months ago), Tourism ministry shares Permanent Secretary with Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy. It’s not a ministry in the right way.
” How can the Ministry of Tourism last longer? Give the tourism ministry a rest or look for a possible merger with another ministry.”
Generally, the operators who spoke to this reporter expressed their dissatisfaction with the government officials in the ministry.
The call for a merger of the ministry with another was made following the FEC resolution to implement the Steve Oronsaye report.
Another prompter was the announcement by President Bola Tinubu that a committee will look out for any political appointee that is not performing.
“Where’s the Tourism Minister Lola Ade-John? Tourism industry insiders in the country had asked. The private operators complained that they were not happy that the Tourism Ministry had yet to take off months after its creation.
The tourism stakeholders are not alone. Other people have also dragged Tourism Lola Ade-John who they said hadn’t been working.
In the same vein, citizens said as a matter of urgency Tinubu should deploy or relieve Mr. Bayo Adelabu of his appointment as Minister of Power.
They said he had proven to be incompetent as the country was in darkness and nothing was being done to help.
Like Adelabu, tourism industry operators complained, saying that their own minister was not ‘available.’
Basically, the operators said they wanted a minister who would be a ‘Tourism Voice’ during Federal Executive Council meetings in order to influence the Federal Government on policy direction or involve decision makers including the President himself on tourism development in respect of global best practices in the tourism sector, for example.
A Lagos-based hotel operator, Mrs. Joy Udoh said, “The tourism minister has not as much as come down to Lagos to meet us (majority of the tourism operators are based in Lagos). We ought to rub minds and we would tell her the problems we are having.”
Another operator, a tour operator, CEO of Jemi Alade Tours, Mr. Jemi Alade who is indifferent cast doubt on government support, pointing out govenment officials’ lip- service of the past.
“The new Ministry of Tourism will not change anything for the tourism industry. What do I expect from the Ministry of Tourism? What did the last Minister (supervisory minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed) do for us? Minister of Tourism is a political appointment. Minister no fit do anything. Government is not useful as they don’t see anything useful in tourism,” he said.
He added that “This is the time for inbound tourism to prosper Nigeria, we should be able to earn foreign exchange for the economy but nothing is being done.”
For some of the operators, Nigeria does not necessarily need a Tourism ministry. One of them said, “Rather, we need a vision.” It is important, according to him, some tourism-friendly countries around the world don’t have a separate Ministry of Tourism. For example, Greece has a thriving tourism industry but they don’t have a Ministry of Tourism.
Meanwhile, the first female Minister of Tourism Lola Ade-John resumed duty just last month (February 2024) after recovering from an undisclosed illness.
She unveiled NIHOTOUR Mobile Kitchen in Abuja launched by a parastatal in the Ministry of Tourism, a few weeks ago. That was obviously her first public tourism industry function since she came into office in August 2023.
A source close to Ministry of Tourism said: “She (tourism minister) just resumed and there are lots of issues.”
A tourism practitioner recalled how some panelists, during one of the sessions of Economic Summit Group (NESG) ( NESG) recent event, pointed out the backwardness of Nigeria Tourism.
He quoted a panelist who said the last time there was a tourism roadmap for Nigeria was under former President Olusegun Obasanjo under Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation.
At present, there are a litany of difficulties as the tourism ministry has yet to take off.
Industry operators especially hotel owners are grappling with multiple taxation.
They provide their own electricity, potable water and even construct roads that lead to their property.
Nobody is talking about selling culture or having the much-talked about calendar of events for Nigeria festivals.
This is what the Nigeria tourism industry has not seen yet.
●The Ministry of Art, Culture and Creative Economy fares better.
The ministry of Art, Culture and Creative Economy is said to have an upper hand taking over more of the office spaces the two ministries share in Abuja.
Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa was said to have come with many aides including Special Assistant on Budget as well as Special Assistant, Finance. It’s unclear what the two parastatals in the Ministry of Tourism, the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) and NIHOTOUR (the National Institute for Tourism and Hospitality), are doing to give the nation’s tourism industry the push it deserves.
Clearly, the NTDA has yet to register hotels and other hospitality establishments across the country let alone grade them in order to avoid hotel owners grading the hotels themselves, where every hotel is a “5-Star hotel.”
The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), the organised private sector tourism, many believed, has not been able to live up to expectations in respect of forging a strong public-private sector partnership to restart tourism in the post Covid-19 era.
Nobody answers the tourism questions or gives direction as tourists flock to neighbouring Ghana and Republic of Benin.
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