Travel and tourism writers in the country have described the proposed Nigerian
Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Act Cap N137 LFN, 2004 (Repeal
Re-enactment) Bill, 2017 (SB.429),which came up for public hearing on
the floor of the senate, last week, as ‘confusing, vexatious and lacks
the capacity and sincerity of purpose.’
In a statement, released Monday, the group under the auspices of the
Association of Nigerian Journalists and Editors of Tourism (ANJET) cited
contentious provisions concerning the Tourism Development Fund (TDF)
and Tourism Development Levy (TDL) in the proposed bill as an indication
of the fact that ‘NTDC wants to muzzle everyone in the country,
including corporate businesses and tourists, which among others it is
proposing to pull money from.’
It would be recalled that the
NTDC had proposed a bill before the National Assembly in which it sought
to repeal the original but controversial act which established it in
1992 as well as insert new provisions into a new law that empowers it
to, among others control and expand funding sources for the corporation.
However, stakeholders in the
industry have picked holes in the proposed bill even as they have also
mounted criticisms against the document with the umbrella body of travel
and tourism operators, the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria
(FTAN) presenting its own dissenting position paper at the August 9
hearing.
“Other critical and vexatious
provisions in the bill include the sections on Tourism Development Fund
(TDF) and Tourism Development Levy (TDL). These two put together,
clearly shows that NTDC wants to muzzle everyone in the country,
including corporate businesses and tourists, which among others it is
proposing to pull money from.
 |
| Chairman Senate Committee on Tourism, Mathew Uhrohide, with Tourism Minister, Lai Muhammed |
“Other than the fact that NTDC
don’t have such powers, it also lacks the capacity and sincerity of
purpose to do so and administer these funds in a transparent manner and
more importantly, it is way of denying the private sector the
opportunity to muster funds on their own for their businesses.
“The two provisions are
confusing and go against the grains of the TDF and TDL provisions and
recently the Tourism Development Bank (TDB), which the private sector
operators have been clamouring for and which was later approved by the
Federal Government and even contained in the National Tourism Master
plan provisions, which was recently reviewed by the Ministry of
Information and Culture.
“Beside these, there are other
areas of ambiguities, which make NTDC a busybody in other areas and tend
to confer on it powers and functions outside it and for which it lacks
the structure and capacities to carry out. For instance, the provision
for the establishment for a tour company, which though is not new but
for the addition of ‘to operate tour services within and outside
Nigeria,’ is in total negation of its primary duties, which is to
promote domestic tourism and inbound and not outbound tours,” ANJET said
in the statement.
Continuing, ANJET said: “No
country national tourism agency seeks to promote outbound tours as being
proposed by NTDC bill but inbound. By this provision, which FTAN and
its member association, Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP),
have opposed because it tends to take away their businesses by the
corporation setting itself in direct competition with the people which
the corporation had pledged to protect, promote and boost their
operations, but clearly shows that those currently at the helm of
affairs at NTDC, lack total understanding of what their role should be
and therefore, should be flushed out of the place before they set the
gear of tourism in reverse mode.”
ANJET, while flaying the
proposed bill as defective, as it alienates the NTDC from the body of
travel and tourism operators in the country, said the bill made no
attempt to locate NTDC under any ministry as it is the case with other
ministries, agencies and agencies of government (MDAs).
“Another issue that totally
shows how defective the bill is, is the fact that NTDC is seeking to
make itself an orphan in the Nigerian environment, because the bill does
not locate NTDC under any ministry as it is the case with government
parastatals. At present, the corporation is under the Ministry of
Information and Culture but nowhere under this new bill was the ministry
mentioned or even Ministry of Tourism which is being clamoured for by
the Senate itself, except the bland reference to a ‘minister.’”
The travel and tourism writers,
therefore, advised the senate to avoid passing the proposed bill in its
original form ‘to avoid the imminent doom and implosion in tourism.’
“The Senate committee should
rise to the occasion by doing the needful. That means, it needs to
properly scruntise the document, the various summations during the
public hearing, the provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended, the
ruling of the Supreme Court of 2013 on the matter of tourism and the
extant laws of NTDC 1992,” it said.
Also remarking, immediate past
president of FTAN and chairman of its Board of Trustees, Samuel Alabi,
who is also a legal practitioner, described the proposed NTDC bill said
as an ‘illegality.’
‘‘It appears the drafters of
the bill are not aware of the import of the Supreme Court judicial
pronouncement on the status of tourism in the 1999 constitution as
amended. By the Supreme Court decision, tourism has been held to be a
residual matter, and therefore, only state Houses of Assembly could
validly legislate on it.
‘‘It is laughable that what the
Supreme Court had dismantled in 2013 on the basis of the 1999
constitution is now been reassembled by the Senate without first
amending the relevant 1999 constitution. It is like reinventing the
will, pure and simple,’’ said the Legal Adviser of the Eko Hotels and
Suites, Lagos.
Similarly, in its rejoinder to
the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Act Cap N137 LFN,
2004 (Repeal Re-enactment) Bill, 2017 (SB.429), the Federation of
Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN), also contested amendments sought
by the corporation.
The FTAN in its own position
paper presented on the floor of the Senate by its President, Alhaji Rabo
Saleh Kareem, faulted Section 4 (c) Membership of the Governing Board;
Section 15 (c) Functions of the Corporation; Section 15 (d) Functions of
the Corporation; Section 16 (f) – Functions of the Corporation
(continued);
Other contentious portions of
the proposed bill, according to FTAN, include: Section 18 –
Establishment of a Tour Operating Company; Section 22 (f) and (g) Funds
of the Corporation; Section 26 & 28 – Establishment and object of
Tourism Development Fund; Section 29 – Tourism Development levy, which
the association must be expunged from the proposed bill.
Particularly for Section
29, titled; ‘Tourism Development levy’, FTAN said the ‘entire prayers
sought for inserting this section and clauses into the amendment are ill
conceived and would make the Levy inoperable on ground, more so there
would be no transparency in the processes.’
According to FTAN, “Tourism
Development levy should be collected on the site where it is applicable
by the operators and immediately paid into the bank accounts of Tourism
Development Fund. Tourism Development levy should be the primary source
of funding for the Tourism Development Fund.”
Also, commenting on the
document, a tourism expert, Dr. Franklin. J. Adejuwon, advised that the
bill should treat the NTDC as a regulatory and supervisory agency of
government and ‘not an autocratic organization that would begin
conflicting with Minister’s powers or encroaching on the rights of the
people,’ adding further that ‘tourism is entirely based on human
relations and influence. The bill must therefore attend to these
tendencies in its contents.’
Adejuwon chaired the
Presidential Committee which drafted the original National Tourism
Masterplan that was adopted by the former President Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s
administration and launched by Chief Adetokunbo Kayode as then Minister
of Tourism and National Orientation.
Continuing, Adejuwon said: “The
proposed bill should limit the cooperation to giving guidelines only
and follow up with state governments to operate within the guidelines.
We should remember when a situation is within the concurrent list, state
governments have direct powers to do and undo. There cannot be any
imposition of powers by federal government in this aspect. Inspectors
can only operate through state organisations responsible for tourism.
Let us avoid building an empire for NTDC at the expense of poor people
who wish to earn a living and provide jobs for other people by investing
in the industry.”
