By Lukman Olabiyi
A culture enthusiast, Prince Olaniyi Oyatoye has adviced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider splitting the Ministry of Information and Culture in order to maximize the potentials in the tourism industry for the country.
Oyatoye who is the President of Asa Day Worldwide Inc., based in Canada said this during an interactive session with members of League of Yoruba Media Practitioners (LYMP).
He held that there is a lot the country can benefit from tourism industry, Arts and Cultural promotion in terms of revenue generation, if the Ministry of Culture could be independent.
The culture enthusiast said merging information and culture as one ministry has hampered progress of arts and culture promotion in the country, and it is depriving the nation its exact position in the league of countries that are raking in millions of dollars from the tourism sector.
Oyatoye called for collaboration between government and private organisations towards exploiting all the benefits the industry could offer, stressing that Nigeria is endowed with both natural and human resources that could be leveraged to multiply its IGR through tourism.
He stated that arts and culture are part of daily life and one of the arms that hold tourism, health, social being, welfare, heritage and every other thing that one considered as part of life.
Oyatoye urged the federal government to put more efforts at strengthening the creative and cultural industry for the growth of the nation’s economy.
“For our President to get things right in Art and Culture affair of the country, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture must be separated, this will make whoever is in charge to be dedicated and committed to arts and culture promotion, which is an alternative source of revenue for government Merging the ministry is really having adverse effect on our tourism industry. Art and Culture which is the major product of tourism is what some countries are using to run their affairs as nation.
“There is urgent need for a meaningful and sustainable financing of cultural development by the government and financial institutions, and multinational organisations in Nigeria. The arts, culture and tourism sector has been denied government attention and financial empowerment. If properly funded, the creative and cultural industries would enhance and strengthen the growth of the economy as well as contribute to stem youth restiveness and criminality,” Oyatoye said.