To give a comprehensive overview of the tourism and culture sector in the outgoing year and how much of core mandates have been achieved can only be done through the 10 parastatals under the ministry namely: National Council for Museums and Monuments, (NCMM); National Orientation Agency, (NOA); National Institute for Culture Orientation, (NICO); Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, (NTDC); National Gallery of Art, (NGA); National Troupe of Nigeria, (NTN); National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Development Studies, (NIHTDS); Institute of Archaeology and Museum Studies; National Theatre and Centre for Black African Arts and Civilisation, (CBAAC).
When the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, undertook his inaugural tour of agencies and parastatals within his purview in Lagos about two years ago, many stakeholders in the sector thgought the messiah had finally come. Looking back though, that optimism may have been misplaced. This is because the same issues that have bedevilled the ministry over the years have continued to rear their heads. But Duke is unequivocal about his determination to be a change agent and spearhead the repositioning of culture for national development.
In one of his interviews with The Nation he said: “The task is daunting. However, I cannot jump ship; I’m in this for the whole hog. The good thing is that I have the opportunity to make a case for the sector before the Federal Executive Council, FEC, and will continue to do so.”
Issues which readily come to mind are those of funding (the right budget for the ministry which received N2.2bn allocation in the 2012 budget), getting corporate Nigeria involved in the funding of culture, as well as putting in place the National Endowment for the Arts and National Culture Policy, among others.
Duke, has never shied away from shouting about the injustice of the small budget at the disposal of the culture ministry compared with the other ministries that get huge allocation. He has even gone as far as calling on corporations to weigh in for culture. But it does not seem like any of the heavyweight companies have taken the call seriously yet. Perhaps this is as a result of the failure to connect rhetoric with action in terms of the required follow-up spadework.
Duke stated further that because of the competing demands on limited resources of government, adequate financial appropriation had not benefited the National Theatre in the last one decade. Although stakeholders in the sector have queried the unilateral decision taken by the House of Assembly much earlier in the year during review of the 2012 budgetary provision for the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Duke was quick to point out that the National Theatre would remain on the front burner of its rehabilitation projects.
Earlier in November, the House Committee on Culture and Tourism took the ministry to task for “the implementation of the capital component of the 2012 budget”.
Holding Duke answerable for any lapses, Chairman of the panel, Ben Nwankwo, who spoke at the 2013 budget defence meeting with the ministry said that if the budget was implemented accordingly, it would generate employment for the country’s unemployed youth population.
“We are not generally satisfied with the implementation of the capital budget”, the lawmaker noted, adding that implementation of the budget was not a matter of choice but to be guided by law”, Nwankwo stated.
In his defence, Duke explained that 582 million naira was allocated to the ministry in 2012 for capital project, but that between January and November, only the sum of N268m was released to the ministry, representing 46 percent leaving a balance of N313m.
Duke said that out of the N588m allocated to the ministry for overhead, N499m was released to the ministry between January and October, representing 84 percent, adding that the level of performance of capital budget was 98 percent.
There is also the vexing matter of a lack of a National Endowment for the Arts, which is no doubt a result of the failure to implement the National Culture Policy drafted during Prince Tony Momoh’s tenure as culture minister in the 80s. As a matter of fact, Momoh in a recent interview said Nigeria loses billions for this anomaly– billions the sector desperately needs, which is why the vicious circle continues.
Stakeholders in the tourism sector and Nigeria citizens started this year with high hopes thinking the Millennium Tourism Tower project, started about four years ago, will be completed. Already, the year has slipped away with no significant milestones for the Tower project until recently when the FG announced that the project, estimated to gulp N69.3bn, will be completed in 2014.
2012 is best described as a year of spirited efforts by most of the culture and tourism parastatals but the level of activity is yet to resonate to appreciable dividends for the country or its citizens. One paramount reason for this is, as mentioned earlier, is the low priority the sector seems to be given by government and corporate Nigeria where it matters most funding. The onus then rests on the sector and its public officers to articulate their goals cohesively, put aside internal wrangling, rivalry and petty divisive tendencies which has seen some parastatals operating almost independent of the supervisory ministry.
RATING: C
