Adediwura wants Govt to develop tourism industry
By Jeleel Olawale
A tourist expert, Hon. Adediwura Adeshina has called on government at all levels to develop tourism sector in the country, saying there is a need for strong political will to drive the industry.
He said government has not been given adequate priority to the section and that why the sector is not performing as expected. The sector is well funded.
Adediwura, who said this in a chat with Nigerian NewsDirect on the dwindling tourism sites in the country, said corruption has been affecting the sector drastically because the government neglected the sector for oil.
“Government has not been paying attention to tourism because of corruption. They share oil funds but forgetting that one day, oil will finish. Let’s shift attention to tourism. Government should think of how to engage the youths to ensure that there is no crisis in the town.
“The world is now in tourism. I am a tourist consultant. If you go to DUBAI, it is tourism. The world is no longer focused on petroleum. People go to Jerusalem and Mecca, these places are tourist destinations.
“If we create and develop our tourist centers here, it will create jobs and increase government internally generated revenue.
“If you visit Europe, any hotel bill paid, goes to their council, apart from the hotel bill you paid and thus let us replicate it here to serve as a source of revenue for Local Government. Tourism is now richer than petroleum in the world. I am interested in historical tourism.
“Culture is different from religion, if you preserve your culture, people will respect you. If governments and individuals pay attention to tourism, what will be generated annually will be enough to finance our budget,” he declared.
Adediwura, who a candidate of the Labour Party for Ife central state constituency for the Osun state House of Assembly, said if given elected, he would sponsor two bills, culture, tourism, and agriculture, stressing that this would boost the economy of the state, create jobs opportunities for people.
“Government does not even understand the contribution of the industry to the economy of the state. There are a lot of tourist sites in Osun state. We have everything to make the industry better most of the notable tourism sites are developing.”
According to him, “Osun state is the bedrock or home of tourism in the whole of SouthWestern Nigeria because we have a lot of historical, archaeological and natural places that could fare well in tourism, if we developed it. It is not being developed well that is why I said it is not faring well.
“These are the things that make tourism flourish and government does not pay desired attention to them. Government needs to do more. They are not doing enough to expand the industry to general fund.
“There is a lot of money in the industry to compete with oil if we are able to tap them. We need to discover more tourist sites because there are a lot of them in Osun State. We need to expose them to the ones that have been exposed, we need to develop them.”
On the lackluster attitude of government to the tourism sector, he noted that it is like one is sitting on gold, but can only retrieve ashes. He said, “I am not happy on the state of tourist centres in Osun State.
“We don’t understand the value of visiting tourist sites. Government needs to change the attitude towards tourism. They need to invest both financial and human capital in the industry.
“Our people are using our money to develop tourism of United Arab Emirates. Most of our tourist centres are facing problems. The government is biased, and should change their orientation towards this.
“People don’t understand that those things called idols, they are the ones that did well in their own time, they developed their environment and people, we are not worshipping them. We are merely venerating and thanking them for what they have done.”
Adediwura stressed that Nigerian tourism can still compete with the United Arab Emirates if well developed.
“Let government fund it adequately instead of developing other people’s tourism.”
He noted that he foresees a brighter future for tourism industry, adding, “Nigerians are the ones who own most of the tourist sites in UAE.”
He urged government to fund the sector adequately and differentiate between culture and religion because people don’t understand the difference.
