In this with ADA DIKE interview, the
Minister for Arts, Culture and Tourism, Chief Duke reveals the benefits of the
proposed plan for Public-Private
Partnership in upgrading the National Theatre and its environs.
Kindly
tell us the stage you have reached on the proposed concession of the National
Theatre?
We are still at the preliminary stage of
the project and taking out a roadmap, but it is important that in doing that,
we must carry all Nigerians along, especially, the National Assembly with
representatives from all over the country who hold a mandate to represent the interest
of the public, and what we have seen today, is an eloquent testimony of the
fact that it is time for a renewal of the National Theatre.
The state of rot, the state of dilapidation
and the state of abuse of the asset that makes up the National Theatre and makes
up the commonwealth of Nigeria has been raped by people who have no positive
consideration for us as a country.
We must find the courage, we must find the
will, after 36 years, to ensure that this property benefit from the new
investment that will groom the potentials of creative sector to its full
prospect.
Can
you tell us how much the government is likely to make from the proposed
concession?
It is not an immediate thing. What we have
in mind in terms of the business plan now is an assumption based on credible
facts that this project would benefit the government in the area of N100
billion and that over a period of 30 years, whoever invests here would continue
to pay money to the coffers of the federal government for the benefit of the
entire country and after a period of concession which we have to be agreed by
all subscribers to this initiative. Then the project will revert to the federal
government of Nigeria.
This is a classic initiative, classic
platform and opportunity for Nigeria, and unless we are being mischievous, the
statement and the business plan is very clear and very transparent.
I cannot tell you that this is likely to
generate a N100 billion Naira for the government, tomorrow it turns out that it
generates N150 billion and people will misinterpret it.
What
plans do you have in relocating the artistes that are revolting about the
development?
They are selfish people. If they are proper
artistes, they would not be dwelling in that kind of squalour and projecting an
outward façade that they are
creative people when that place is literally being turned into a brothel of
some sort. You saw the despicable state in which they are living in that place.
That is not what I see in artistes in South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, so that
must not be a benchmark for artistes for Nigerian community.
What
efforts have you put in place to ensure that they live up to expectation like
the ones in the countries you mentioned?
You must understand the fact that
government is an enabler. What we are trying to do is to enable and deliver a
more modern facility so, that their creativity will also be leveraged from the
basic element within which they are operating, which from what we have seen
does not recommend itself to a national best practices. The environment itself
must be an outward expression of the kind of creativity that you would be able
to generate internally.
How
do you ensure that this concession would not end like the one that happened at
the airport?
What happened at the airport? Can you tell
me?
There
are litigation here and there.
Of course, litigation will naturally come,
but the transaction advisers, VGL Limited, said they have taken all those
things into consideration. This is a facility that government developed 36
years ago, when it was in a state of inactivity, there is no litigation. Now
that the government now says it has found the courage and will to develop it,
of course there are people who will have different shades of opinions.
There
is a speculation that somebody is interested in acquiring some part of the
land. Is it true?
I don’t know. For us, this is a legacy
thing, for us, this is a Nigerian thing. If there is any individual so
interested, that is when the media must come with a full weight of its own
conscience to expose such individual. That is not likely to be the plan, this
has to be put through a transparent process and that is why we are bringing in the
stakeholders to look into it.
Won’t
the facility lose its value after 30 years that the investor will hand it back
to the government?
When a man invest billions of Naira into a
place that has been used to dump human wastes, corpses and a place that is used
to rear swine, then in 30 years, that property would be returned to government.
You cannot invest billions of Naira into a zero level and return in 30 years as
scrap.
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