Solomon Bonu: Implementation of Lagos Tourism Master Plan Will Be Money-spinner for State

•Tourism •Arts&Culture

The Member representing Badagry Constituency 1 in Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Solomon Saanu Bonu, in this conversation, says non-implementation of the Lagos State Master Plan on Tourism is severely hampering the growth of the sector. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts

As Chairman, House Committee on Tourism, Arts and Culture, at what level of implementation is the Master Plan for Lagos State Tourism Development?

When we talk about tourism, we talk about population because you have to have the population and the destination. God blessed us in Lagos, and we have the population and we have the destination. How can we utilise all these and how can we turn all these to money-spinning machine? For me, I have the knowledge at executive arm of government having served as a Special Adviser on Tourism to former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, and today I’m in the legislative arm of government. Currently, I initiated a plan. I called all the past permanent secretaries and past directors in the Ministry of Tourism. The goal was to look at how we can implement the Lagos State Master plan. I was in the ministry then when we launched the Master Plan. But you could see it clearly that the ministry is not doing what it ought to do. You cannot run tourism without a Master Plan. And I give credence to those who helped us to package the Master Plan. I have a copy here. So we now decided to come up with a programme, set up a committee and start the implementation of this Master Plan. Already, I’m in talks with the Governor to give us the approval. Don’t give it to tourism, if he gives it to tourism, they won’t do what they are supposed to do. Those who have knowledge about it, let’s bring them on the table. That goes to show that by the time we get that approval, all the stakeholders will be involved. You know, tourism is all about transportation. Is transportation taking its course in the area of tourism? We have agro-tourism sector. Is that taking place? We have medical tourism. Is that taking place? And other things. It goes beyond putting artistes on the stage. What is the return of investments? By Friday and Saturday, come to this park in front of the House, you can’t drive in. For fun-seekers. What are we deriving from that? There’s nothing in that park. When people come, they just spread their mats on the floor and start engaging each other. The population is becoming too much. So all these things are embedded in the Master plan that we’re supposed to do. But the implementation of the Master Plan must start now. We want Lagos State to be one of the world’s destinations. And we can’t do it alone. So for the Master Plan, we are in talk with Mr. Governor to give us approval. I’ve set up the committee with over six past permanent secretaries and over eight past directors in the Ministry of Tourism. By the time we get that approval, we open it up. The document is ready. The House of Assembly has passed it into law. So rest assured, by God’s grace, next year, things will fall in place.

Constitutionally, the House of Assembly oversighting of ministries and MDAs is one of the things that drives transparency in governance. How has the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture accounted for the money so far expended from their budget?

You see, when it comes to the issue of accountability, it is not only the Lagos State House of Assembly. There are some things that we cannot see. That you can see out there. That is the reason why when the budget is passed into law, it becomes a public document. You have the right to ask questions. It’s not that we are not doing our own oversight function. But at times it will be difficult for us to see everything. So it is your responsibility as a stakeholder to ask questions; you said you have done this. How much was expended on this project? If they were unable to give an answer, you are free to approach us to do justice to that. The House has already started Public Accounts, inviting all the ministries. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Tourism is expected to face the Public Accounts Committee. With the Auditor General, we will ask some questions. So it is now left for you people. If you notice that anything is going wrong in the area of the Ministry of Tourism, you are free to just notify us. That is why we have public petitions. So many people have been writing petitions to the House. Just recently, I attended to one petition over one issue in the Ministry of Tourism. Somebody brought it up and invited the Special Adviser to the Governor on Tourism that this is in the public domain. So I have written my report and I’m going to submit it to the House, and all of us will debate it. The moment we pass any budget, it automatically becomes a public document So if you pick any holes in any one, you are free to come up with it. If you are not satisfied because it is taxpayers’ money and we must use it for the purpose of development.

Lagos State government has been pumping a lot of money into tourism, which of the projects has your committee oversighted in the last one year?

When you talk about oversight, for me Ministry of Tourism projects are divided into two. One, the infrastructural aspect of it and the other one is the consumables. The infrastructural aspect of it, is that maybe you want to build a film city, you want to build ‘Point of No Return in Badagry.’ But the other part of it is the consumables like Detty December. Talking about infrastructure, my committee visited the theatre at Oregun to see what is going on there because the Governor has given approval. We asked questions to know how much they were given and how much they had spent. Why is the job slow, to the level that we have invited the contractor to this office with my committee. And we have asked a series of questions from the contractor. We will shortly come up with our own reports. Some other projects are going on around here. There is a project that they call head bust of the past governors in Lagos, which can serve as monuments. The project is close to the Governor’s office. When we got there, and we saw what they were doing, we commented on its poor execution by the contractor. If you are creating head bust of somebody, it must resemble that person. At first instance, the question we asked how did you get this job? Do you qualify for the job? Who gave you the job? How did you bid for the job? Because if approval is being given by the governor, you have to publicise it. People will come and bid. Honestly, what we saw is that the man in question doesn’t know what he is doing. And we asked him to go and remove it and refund the public money to the public account because he doesn’t know what he is doing. He just managed to remove one, and we are still watching him. We now took him to another place to show him a similar project. We asked him does this one resembles this person? Somebody did it. Why can’t you just copy it? Those are kind of our oversight functions that we are doing. Instantly, instead of us coming to the House to come and give report which will go a whole long, we give that judgement that remove this thing, we don’t want to see it because it’s no commensurate with funds released. And we will even go deeper. We are inviting the commissioner very soon. How did you give out the job? How did that man come across the job? So we are going to ask questions. We’re the watchdog.

What is happening to the ‘Point of No Return’ project in Badagry?

The former governor stopped the job because of certain cogent points that I raised concerning the project. Everybody in the EXCO passed the vote that the contractor cannot do the job. Now, I’ve taken the present Governor down to the ‘Point of No Return,’ and he has given assurance that he will reconstruct that place and it’s all over everywhere. As I’m talking to you, he has given financial approval for the job and they are on the process. I don’t know whoever they are going to give the job to. But what I am sure of is that that the ‘Point of No Return,’ is coming back to life any moment from now.

According to performance index you were ranked among the best among first-timers in the House. Given your experience, what can Lagos sustain every year for people to look up to in the area of tourism?

On my performance in the House, I give God the glory. I thank Mr. Governor, I thank Mr. Deputy Governor who identified me. My kind of story is very deep. I was picked without knowing anybody. One day, I got a call from a lady that I should send my CV, and I thought it was one of these fraudsters. At the background, I had a voice, which was the Deputy Governor’s voice then I knew it was real. So a week or two weeks later, the noise was everywhere, you are being appointed into cabinet. I looked at myself among the 40. What kind of impact can I make? What can I do as contribution towards the law of Lagos? So when we get to the House, I didn’t keep quiet because some people sent me down here to speak for them. And I make sure that I keep on relating with the executive arm of the government. In the past two and half years I’ve taken Mr. Governor to Badagry two times and it has a developmental meaning. There are some kind of developments coming on the way. Just of recent, I came up with a bill on Yoruba Heritage Week. Yearly, we must be doing it just to promote the culture of Lagos State. By the time that one commences, all the Lagos indigenes far away, would be coming back home. Not everybody is a Christian; not everybody is a Muslim.

When we talk about culture, it’s all about tourism. Badagry people will bring their own culture, Ikorodu people will bring their own culture. It’s just like a replica of NAFEST. Another one, Desmond Elliott and I came up with is another motion over Detty December that says going forward, let Lagos start celebrating things from 1st of December to 31st. We still passed it to Ministry of Tourism and we don’t know what they are doing with it. On International World Tourism Day, we moved a motion, I moved the motion. We said going forward, let tourism in Lagos City be our money spinning machine. If you work, the next thing is to relax and when you are relaxing, it’s all about tourism. The last time I went to Ghana, we went to eat Amala, the receipt they gave us had tourism tax. Are we doing all those things? How much are our hotels giving back to us? What type of classification do we give to hotels? What type of monitoring process do we have for the hotels in Lagos State? When you talk about tourism, the first thing is about hotel. According to my investigation, there are some hotels in Lagos State now that they don’t even have signage and people are going there because they are afraid of giving back money to Lagos to pay their own tax. Next year, if Ministry of Tourism is going to appoint a consultant, let them come up with it. Our hotels must be safe.