– Declares St. Patricks College, Calabar, others as Tourism Destinations
Edem Duke, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, says President Goodluck Jonathan has approved
a Tourism Development Fund for Nigeria. Duke, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Calabar, while interacting with journalists, said the fund would enable the ministry to seek private sector funding for its tourism development programmes.
He said that the president had pledged to continue to support and encourage the development and growth of the tourism sector, adding that the fund was phenomenal for the ministry.
The minister said, “Mr President has pledged to encourage the sector, particularly, the possibility of engaging with the private sector in order to strengthen the growth of tourism in Nigeria.
“It is pleasant news that just recently, Mr President approved tourism development fund for Nigeria that is just phenomenon for us.
“It means we can go to the private sector and raise money for various tourism programmes within and outside the country.”
According to him the funds will be distributed in line with the vision of the ministry.
“Our vision is that 70 per cent of the tourism fund will go to visual art, an aspect will go toward the provision of tourism infrastructure.
“While a percentage will be set aside for the development of the tourism product and training,’’ Duke said.
He said that the ministry had developed a working document aimed at making culture and tourism an integral part of government’s transformation programme.
The minister also said that culture and tourism underlies the very essence of development of any nation, adding that it forms the foundation of any given society.
“The people’s culture and their value orientation is the very fabric of their development, anything outside that is like building a foundation from the roof.
“The issues of corruption, indiscipline, insecurity, integrity and all of these revolve around how we orientate our people towards the issue of citizenship and nationhood,’’ he said.
Duke said that some people in authority had oftentimes misconstrued the economic importance of culture in national development thus they failed to give appropriate funding to the sector.
He said, “Oftentimes, we intend to undervalue the economic importance of culture and tourism.
“ A lot of people in high authority in both public and private sector look at issues of culture and tourism with a bit of disdain, but for me it is like aristocratic ignorance,’’ he said.
He said that Nigeria had the potential to grow tourism and make it one of the best in the World, adding that it was a challenge that could be surmounted.
According to him, we have the market, population, diversity, richness, landscape, ecosystem and we indeed, have the appetite to be able to consume culture and tourism products.
“So, for me, it is a very daunting challenge, but it is one I believe that we can address.
Duke said that there was the need for professionalism in the culture and tourism sector, adding that it was an all embracing sector that could accommodate all professions.
“Tourism is the only sector that can employ Engineers, employ Architects and all kinds of professional callings and competences because of its interrelationship with other sectors.
“It is a sector that is able to galvanise other sectors and can also accommodate skilled and unskilled labour,’’ he said.
Duke said that the ministry planned to take culture and tourism to the grassroots in 2012, adding that it also planned to introduce tourism curricular in schools across the country.
“So, in this New Year, we have to restructure the sector, we have to bring in professionalism and take tourism down to various regions and states.
“We have to go and work with the states and local governments and to introduce tourism curricular in the schools,’’ Duke said.
Edem Duke, said the tourism ministry is exploring ways of making St. Patrick’s College, Calabar, a national heritage site.
“I plan to visit officials of the National Museum to go to St. Patrick’s College, one of the first secondary schools east of the Niger, to see how the college can be made a site for national heritage.
“Also, the Eyo dynasty, the Mary Slessor residence, these are all potential heritage sites in Calabar and we shall be doing the same in all the states.”
The minister said that Cross River had one of the best tourism potentialities in the world, pointing out that the current annual Calabar Carnival was just a scratch in the surface.
“In Cross River, we are talking now about carnival but the state has so many other tourism potentialities and there are more opportunities in our eco-tourism.
“Nigeria has been identified as one of the 25 bio-diversity hotspots in the world and that is on account of the tropical rain forest in Boki, Cross River.
“We need to play it up and when the Nigerian tourism identity is unraveled an icon of Cross River tourism will be part of that identity.”
Duke noted that the Calabar Carnival, which began as an informal cultural display, had now become an international event attracting tourists from all over the world.
“We have set the state different from all other states of the federation.
“So you can imagine when the state achieves its full potential the kind of advantage it will have above other states.”
Duke also said that people from other states were making mockery of the carnival at its beginning, but added that several states were now emulating Cross River by organising carnivals.
“When we started carnivals, people were ridiculing us, saying that these people have nothing to do, they are dancing every year.
“But now, every state is emulating Cross River by organising annual carnivals.”
He described carnivals as a multi-billion dollar industry, saying: “Carnival is a multi-billion dollar industry but because we do not know this, we do not appropriate money for it for us to promote carnival.
“We are having a tough time trying to sell it to corporate sponsors.”
According to him, the global carnival circuit will begin in Trinidad and Tobago in February and end in October.
“After that, there is no other carnival elsewhere except in Nigeria, which features the Abuja Carnival and Calabar Carnival.”
Duke said the whole world had agreed that modern carnival originated from Africa, adding “so we must take back that which has given us much prominence.”