‘Our safety, infrastructure interventions to boost tourism activities in Plateau ’

THE Plateau State Commissioner fpr Information, Mr Yakubu Datti has reaffirmed the state’s commitment to regain its position as one of the revere tourism capital of Nigeria through different intervention and projects to create and enabling environment for tourists.

Dati, who spoke to selected journalists at the recently hosted NATOP AGM in Jos, Plateau State said that the state governor, Mr Simon Lalong has continued to give preference to areas of economic strength and sees the tourism sector as one of the comparative advantages to leverage on because of the rich tourism potential.

According to him “Governor Lalong has listed tourism as part of the key programmes that will be pursued and all these falls into the five policy thrust of the administration.

He said Plateau has remained the centre of tourism, in his words “it is naturally endowed and the people are also friendly, the weather, you cannot find it anywhere in Nigeria, so there are a lot of combinations that projects Plateau State as the headquarters of tourism and I believe with this visit, most of you will bear witnesses of the abundance of tourism potentials in the state.

“Our governor is also working round the clock to ensure the sustenance of peace in the state because if there is no peace, there isn’t much you can do. For the facts that groups like you visited, shows to the outside world that Plateau State peaceful.

“Peace is not the absence of conflict. in every society, there are bound to be conflicts where human being are involved, but the capacity to be able to nip it in the bud or ensure that you develop standard operating procedures to control it is what makes the difference.

“We are happy that so much has been done, just recently, President Muhhamadu Buhari was here where he even spent the night and launched the state’s road map to peace which is a five document that creates a systematic steps that will be taken to avert any breakdown of law and order. These are practical strategies taken by this government to sustain peace.

“You are ?here now, you can see that the state is peaceful, off course once in a while you see some criminal elements that try to take advantage of gaps to create mayhem and is not peculiar to Plateau, these things happen across the country and I am happy that the President is taking action to ensure that these things do not go out of hand.

“Even though the issue of security is that of the Federal Government, the state is not relenting, that was why recently, the governor purchased and distributed about 21 Hilux vans to assist security agencies to compliment the support we give them in terms of logistics.

“So these are all the efforts put in place to strengthen the security agencies, to enable them to carry out their responsibility of keeping everybody safe and we are happy that all those interventions are yielding fruits, which accounts for why an association like NATOP picks interest to come to plateau State.

“We are very happy about the NATOP visit and that is why the state is also collaborating with them to ensure that they have as much view as possible during their three day stay.”

Datti declared that the state is safe for tourism and all other activities, adding that before this government came on board, most of the hotels are hardly filled up, but after two years in office, the state have regain stability and things have changed.

“We have about 150 hotels and every weekend, the hotels are fully booked. That, in itself is an indication that people are coming into the state and off course people cannot come where they feel unsafe.

Speaking on the state governor’s practical intervention to create an enabling environment for business and investment to thrive, the commissioner of Information said all effort are channelled at Infrastructure and safety.

According to Datti ‘The venue of the NATOP conference, the Hill Station Hotel was in a dilapidated state until this government came on board, pumped in money and engaged some investors to work it up and now it is habitable.

“Also there are also deliberate efforts being made to ensure that key drivers of tourism like tour operators also focus on this state because they are the ones that will move the traffic here, so by the time they are able to see and are convinced, it makes the gospel easier.

“So much is being done as you can also see that from the airport, I am sure you enjoyed the beautiful road which was commissioned by the President Muhammadu Buhari.