The revolution at NTDC - As Runsewe turns slum into paradise

By Wale Ojo-Lanre

Otunba Olusegun Runsewe,
DG, NTDC This is a first hand information and a wonderful impression of what Nigeria is made up in terms of tourism and cultural assets. It is a sign that Nigeria is not only serious at promoting and marketing its tourism potentialities but one is confident that Nigeria through NTDC is a good client to do business with. The first assurance is this beautiful office with the best aesthetic office environment I ever seen in Nigeria.

Since the creation of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) as a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Tourism Culture and National Orientation, it has never had it so good like in the past two years when Otunba Runsewe was appointed to steer the ship of the corporation

NTDC is strategic to tourism development of the nation hence it was made a parastatal with a leverage and latitude to get things done better and faster than the Ministry which had sunk itself deep into the mess of red tapeism and bureaucratic cobwebs.

To create a room for performance and fast-track action, the Presidency takes it upon itself to appoint whoever becomes the DG so that an appointee should not be at the mercy of whoever is the Minister.

Though, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation superintends over the parastatal, but the matter of appointments of its key officials squarely rests on the presidency.

NTDC had gone under difficult kind of men and women who tried their best but their best never brought the much needed rays of light to the nation’s tourism vision. With respect to Chief Alabi Aiyegboyin, others just passed through NTDC without any solid legacy of reference as being witnessed in the last two years. The interesting part of the story is that some of the past DGs refused to perform despite having access to fat budgetary allocations.

Apart from achievements recorded so far, one singular act which has greatly endeared the present management of NTDC to the public is the phenomenal turn around that its headquarters has witnessed in the last 18 months.


The ClinicBefore Otunba Runsewe’s appointment, NTDC office was tucked on a floor of a building which it shared with the staff of Ministry of Commerce at Area 1, Garki, Abuja. Lifeless, dull and drab with its staffers disgruntled and demoralised.

The building was not only unkempt with the office lacking basic accessories, the staffers had to go homes when pressed by nature or take quick solace at the frontage of the building which was an eyesore, a dump site and a natural public toilet.

The building was first baptized with massive rehabilitation and renovation and the offices have equipped with modern office fixtures and fittings. The hitherto dusty floor gave way to Italian tiles as the walls wore new coat of paints.

The NTDC office complex now proudly houses befitting offices, an hi-tech conference room, a media studio, a museum of Nigerian tourism history, a library of Nigerian tourism assets, a clinic, a coffee room and befitting toilets. And for the slums, the dung site and refuse dump, it has witnessed a 360 degree turn around which has continued to serve as a surprise to many people in Area 1, Garki, Abuja.

The dung site has been turned into an Eldoraldo of sort now being called a Nigeria Tourism Village and has continued to attract thousands of visitors daily. The dung site has been beautifully landscaped, floored with asphalt with a gate manned by private security guards.

The former dung site which could not contain 15 cars then is conveniently playing host to 85 cars without any traffic chaos, while an arcade where some Nigerian’s most cultural pictures and festivals are colorfully mounted on boards.

There is also the fountain of unity, love and peace with effigies of major ethnic groups in dancing mood mounted in the front of an African hall, a multi-purpose event hall built with traditional materials.

The premises also harbours a row of African kitchens, where traditional Nigerian foods are being served in the most hygenic form. Making a complete village, there is the Art & Craft shop, a row of mobile toilets, an African hair dressing salon, NTDC Cooperative shop, the ATM shed, and a mosque. One thing that has also fascinated most people is the cleanness and neatless of the Nigerian Village.

The whole atmosphere, the office, the arcade so well impressed the Ambassador of Cuban to Nigeria who said “This is a first hand information and a wonderful impression of what Nigeria is made up in terms of tourism and cultural assets. It is a sign that Nigeria is not only serious at promoting and marketing its tourism potentialities but one is confident that Nigeria through NTDC is a good client to do business with.

The first assurance is this beautiful office with the best aesthetic office environment I ever seen in Nigeria and the second is the clarity of purpose and vision of Otunba Olusegun Runsewe and his team at doing everything to sell Nigeria to a first time visitor. This office complex is great — Ambassador El-Savon, Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria said on his visit to the NTDC Headquarters Area 1, Garki, Abuja.”

It is on the record that what the NTDC recorded as achievements in the past two years over shadowed in terms of quality and quantity what the Corporation parades as achievements in 15 years. All because when a revolutionary and a visionary is in the saddle, he thinks of everlasting legacies.

To Otunba Runsewe, tourism is not about engaging in grammatical gymnastic or jaw-breaking English but a practical sector which creates employment, empowerment, development and an instrument of mobilising wealth for the generality of people. Hence, his theme, Practical tourism has been the fulcrum, of his operation.