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The House of Assembly member representing Obokun Constituency, Osun State, Honourable Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has stated that investments in culture and tourism by the Federal and State Governments would boost job creation and the economy.
The law maker said this in Ibokun, Obokun Local Government while speaking at the 2015 Obokun Festival.
He said that tourism development would not only serve as alternate source of income, but would also reinforce the fight against social vices and help address societal ills by instilling high moral standards and cultural values.
Oyintiloye pointed out that economic challenges experienced in the country was largely due to over reliance on the revenue from petroleum products and the concomitant effect of the fall in global oil prices.
He called for the need to diversify the economy by looking beyond oil if the country’s economy must grow.
The legislator listed areas of job creation in the sector to include tour guide, horticulture, food services, entertainment industry, craft and arts productions and waste recycling, maintaining that it was the prerogative of Nigerians to tap into advantage of these opportunities.
He commended the Osun state for developing tourism master plan, which according to him has a robust and global outlook, adding that the economic blue print of the state had the mind set of economy of scale, as it focused on development of local content.
Oyintiloye expressed the hope that the master plan which was meticulously and diligently developed by the State Tourism Board when fully implemented would set the pace for other states to follow.
To buttress his point, he cited the example of Olumirin Water fall, adding that through effective management by agency of the state government over 50,000 were attracted as visitors in 2014.
He stated that Obokun cultural value and tourism potentials were enormous, calling on stakeholders including sons and daughters of Ibokun at home and in diaspora to contribute their quota towards its development.
He added that strict supervision was necessary to explore the gains in the sector.
In his words, “It is not enough to allocate money for the sector, but we must guard our investment, to see it flourish and help develop our economy, because that is what some countries primarily depend on to survive.”
He continued, “If some countries depended solely on tourism to survive, nothing stops Nigeria from developing the sector to the maximum.”
The lawmaker called for the preservation and restoration of cultural and moral values, in order to restore Yoruba culture, which according to him was gradually fading away, adding that the positive impacts of culture preservation would not only include national integration but moral re-awakening.
Also speaking, the Oba Ibokun of Ibokun, Oba Festus Awogboro, urged the government to encourage the Obokun festival and other such cultural events in the state and that they are sources of revenue generation for government.
The monarch, who described Ibokun as the source of Ijesa people, called on the sons and daughters of the town to also find ways of attracting development to the town.
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