The Chairman House committee on
culture and tourism Plateau state House of Assembly Mr. Nyam Dareng decried the poor state of government-owned hotels,
describing them as ”eyesores”.
Dareng made the statement in Jos when the
State’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Hospitality
appeared before the committee to defend its 2017
budget.
He said that the famous Plateau and Jos hotels
and other government-owned hospitality homes
had been neglected over the years by past
administrations.
“Plateau and Jos hotels in 1980’s and 1990’s used
to be conducive abodes for travellers passing
through Plateau and even tourists coming into the
state.
”Sadly, the two hospitality homes have been in bad
conditions, with the roof of most of the buildings
dilapidated and about to collapse.
The report also has it that most of the chalets and
rooms were rented out to families to occupy,
hence deviating from its original purpose.
Dareng, who queried the Tourism Ministry for
neglecting such revenue generation outfit, urged
them to as a matter of urgency ensure repair of the two
hotels and make them functional.
”A lot of things are going wrong in this tourism
sector, and as representatives of the people, we
will not fold our arms and see things getting bad.
”For Christ’s sake government is supposed to be
generating huge revenue from this sector, but our
attitude towards government’s property is always
poor; we lack maintenance culture.
”The state of the two hotels does not present us
as the true home of tourism and hospitality, so we
must do something quickly to revive those hotels
by giving it a face lift,” Dareng urged.
The chairman also directed those occupying the
hotels as tenants to vacate.
A member of the committee, Mr Jacob Kassam member representing Kanke constituency also urged the Ministry to initiate programmes that
would boost the tourism potential of the state.
Responding, the Commissioner in charge of the
Ministry, Mr Peter Mwankon, assured the
committee members that the hotels would be
revived very soon and be made functional through
public private partnership initiative.
”This was the situation when we came on board,
but we are not resting on our oars,” he said.

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Plateau law-makers decry poor condition of govt owned hotels