Ex-Commissioner Harps On Tourism Dev

Former Rivers State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Hon Sunny Nwokekoro, has called on the present administration to do more to promote and develop some tourist sites in the state to create other sources of revenue for the state.
Nwokekoro, who made the appeal in an interview with The Tide at the weekend, said the development of the tourist sites will not only attract foreign investors, but will become another avenue to create wealth and reduce unemployment rate of the youth, considering the divindling federal allocation to the state.
The former commissioner who regretted that past administrations in the state failed to see reasons to develop culture and tourism, said, if the government invest in it, the state will benefit immensely, adding that there are numerous sites to develop.
“We have tourist sites we need to develop, that will cost people yearly to come and see. All the past administrations did nothing in that regard as far as I am concern. when I was in office, my chief executive officer, Dr Peter Odili, charged me to go out there and get investors. I went out in search of investors, I travelled to South Africa more than thrice, I brought an investor that was to build a onestop shopping mall at the old Dr. Obi Wali complex, but it was  messed up. The investor got angry and left with his investment and money when he was not getting the response he ought to have gotten.
“If that had happened, it would have been better than what we have there today. We should be objective about it, what we have planned and wanted to achieve then would have given us cinema and a shopping mall, all in one stop shopping mall where everything you need will be. I belief the government of the state needs who has this idea, who can motivate it, encourage and make him see that it profits in investing in tourism. Tourism investment is not something you have return immediately, it is a long term project’’, he said.
Nwokekoro however,  said Governor Wike needs somebody who has the drive, acumen and idea to convince him, insisting that the state cannot lose if the government invests in tourism.
He noted that the state has many tourism sites that could be developed to an international standards regretting that the Isaac Boro Park is currently underutilised.
“When I was in government, I happen to ran into the master plan of Isaac Boro park. That park is totally underutilised. The concept of Isaac Boro park was abandoned and that was what I was trying to recreate before I left office. We also tried to build boat race site, acquire some of the water side and develop them into internal boat  race site that will earn the state lots of revenue but unfortunately, we didn’t realise it”,  he hinted.
The Former PDP chairman in the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, however said, for tourism to have head way, we also need to tackle security head long expressing optimism that Governor Wike would do his best in this regard with the ongoing Pleasure Park  under construction.