‘My dream is to transform Nigeria to another Dubai’

Otunba Olusegun Runsewe

— Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Abuja
By Tony Egbulefu and Lateef Bamgbose, Abuja
We know NTDC is about tourism development in Nigeria, could you please throw more light and tell us what it entails?
NTDC is the apex body of tourism in Nigeria, which primarily is to market, develop and promote tourism within and outside the country. And this in itself is what is obtainable all over the world, where we have similar organisations and agencies, which ensure the promotion of the tourism content of their countries. Now, this is what we are doing for Nigeria. It is known home and abroad as the major services we render.
In what area do you say this agency has lived up to its responsibility?
Well, basically, since I emerged as the Director -General, my leadership under this management has been able to face more practical aspects of tourism, in terms of imparting on the people and making sure that Nigerians take advantage of tourism as a total content. We also have been able to produce things like maps, building special cultural- related structures in some few geo-political zones of the Federation; we have been able to support over 20 cultural festivals across the country, we have attended several exhibitions abroad and at home. We have been able to make tourism a national discourse and Nigerians to understanding better that this can even generate more money for us than oil and it is a big landmark to have achieved that.
In this respect, can one safely say that NTDC has made Nigeria a tourism destination in the class of Kenya and South Africa within the African context?
We can say that because every country has its strengths of tourism context. If you talk about sport tourism, South Africa is not doing badly; if you talk of cultural tourism, and business / conference tourism, Nigeria is doing very well–virtually Abuja is a very good venue. So basically, every country has its own strength in terms of tourism context. Nigeria has been able to make a giant stride in the area of cultural, business and conference tourism. But we cannot get all at the same time. And that is what this agency is working hard at, to make sure that Nigeria gets a reasonable chunk of the tourism fund available in Africa.
Has the country been able to gain appreciable revenue from tourism as a result of the drive by the NTDC; can one say that tourism is now one of the revenue- generated sectors in Nigeria?
Certainly yes, you see no tourist will come to your country without having adequate information; no tourist will come to your country without being sure of getting some major services available and those are the things NTDC has now put out. Now, a tourist plans ahead before leaving his own destination. He wants a map to see where he is going, to know how easily he can get there, the easiest route and so on. All these things were not there before, but now with NTDC, we have been able to put things in place.
What role is the NTDC playing in trying to make Tinapa one of the major tourism destinations and cultural heritage in Nigeria, beaning in mind that since the project was commissioned, the place has been lying idle, except for one controversy or the other that surrounds its operation?
Tinapa is one project that if we get it right will have solved majority of the problems in the South south zone. Only two days ago, I was telling some journalists that Tinapa can create over 150,000 jobs. Tinapa has things like shop rites, boulevard of London. Tinapa has a 300- room Hotel, has a water park, has amusement park. All these things have been locked up. So all we are trying to do now is to enlighten the people involved that we needed to quickly get Tinapa rolling, because it has already been put in place, so what we need now is to make sure it is well-utilized.
Our job is to promote Tinapa, pick up developmental issues there and market it to the whole world, so that more foreign investors could come into Tinapa to invest. And let’s not forget that in Tinapa, there is an artificial lake, this artificial lake is what gives room to ships of about 20 tons to come and off-load there, so Tinapa is major project which NTDC is very proud to continue to market and also promote to the whole world and we also have a destination where you can come and do your shopping.
Despite the activities of the NTDC aimed at promoting and marketing of the cultural heritage and destination of Nigeria, like Tinapa, one discovers that existing tourism destinations such as the Yankari Games Reserve, Igbo Game Reserve in Benue and several other museums are in shambles?
You could be right to a large extent to have said that and I am happy that journalists are now asking this question, some of these organisations feel that these places or product is basically theirs, so they say look, this is the product. No, ‘you need an outfit like NTDC to market them. But a lot of people have this attitude of saying nobody should touch my area, we are the owners, no it cannot work that way. But I am very happy with this observation which is very good. We are supposed to market it for them. NTDC is coming up this weekend with a new programme we call Environmental Tourism. Immediately we finish we are coming up with Infrastructure Tourism. Now, to answer your question, we are aware that is why we introduce infrastructure tourism which obvisously will entail going to the states to encourage them to maintain and develop their structures to be tourism-friendly, so that more tourists can visit the place. You are quite right but we are working on it. Our infrastructure tourism project should be coming up before the end of the year.
What is the idea behind registration and classification of Hotels by the NTDC?
Classification of Hotels is a national security issue. Anywhere you go in the world, hotels are registered, not because of the revenue it will accrue to the government alone, but for national security. A tourist could be a terrorist and come to stay in a place and before you know it, he will cause havoc. We are supposed to have details of all the tourists that enter the country and details of their movements. How they come and when they leave. So the Hotels can help the security apparatus to check and monitor, to make sure that no tourist come to stay more than the number of days given to him or her as a visitor.
Nigeria is a vast country, with most of the big Hotels located in diverse corners and so there is the possibility that not all of them will be registered, is there any punishment attached to any defaulting outfit?
Let me correct this impression, we have staff all over the federation and right now we have started a public enlightment programme where we enlighten our people. If you don’t register and we find out, we seal up the building. Something has to be done. We must obey rules and maintain order; we must do it the way they are doing it all over the world because we cannot afford to be different.
One of your concepts is to turn Nigeria to a Dubai in Africa, how do you intend to achieve this?
Twenty five years ago, Dubai was a desert but today it is one of the best tourism spots in the world. Where there is the will, there is a always a way. We are reinventing the will. We should not deceive ourselves, Dubai has done very well in tourism. We are saying by the grace of God, Nigeria will be the next Dubai in Africa. We have to understand one thing: that we cannot continue to pay lip service to the industry. That is why we believe that if we don’t relax, in the next couple of years, Nigeria will be the greatest Dubai, in terms of tourism content.
Does the NTDC play any role in the preservation and management of cultural heritage because recently a group in Benin City, Edo State, took the Federal Government to Court on account of some of its cultural heritage.
We have to get something right, whether it is Art or Tourism, it is one government that owns it all. In the interest of the Nigeria people. What I think is the missing link is the fact that it is important for us to keep an inventory of what we have. Also, it is important for us to know how they go out and then return. So what is missed in the link is the feedback mechanism, for them to know what has come in and what has gone out which I believe the new management of the Museum is looking at. When that is done, I believe they should allow them to continue their good job.
Year after year, the nation witness the National Festival of Art (NAFEST). How can your organisation take advantage of this annual fiesta to bring the cultural might of Nigerians into national consciousness, like the Brazillian Samba which has become a very big revenue source for the Brazillians?
You see, the people who organise NAFEST are NCSE and NCSE will have to call us to market it for them. When they realise our strength and our ability to market them, why not. But we cannot just go there. We have to know what we want to market. They are supposed to come to us, we are happy, we are willing and we are ready to market such products.
What is the status of the National Theatre, Iganmu today; is it in private hands or is the government still managing it?
National Art Theatre is not under my management, but if you ask us how we can market it, you are right because there is strong market content in it. So, as for for that, with this new vision and focus I want to believe we can now go to market it when they call us. With this I will like to appeal to the entire Nigerian people to be patient and understand that tourism is one product that could take a little time, but when we get it right we will learn to develop our economic strength as a people and also my vision and my wish is to make Nigeria the best and preferred tourism destination in Africa and by the grace of God, I believe we will be there soon.