As confusion rages over the status of the National Theatre, Lagos, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, has said that the Federal Government has no plans to turn the main edifice into hotels.
Duke, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Taiwo Oladokun, however, restated plans to execute the master plan of the heritage, in a move that involves building a hotel and other facilities on the expanse of land that surrounds the building.
A national paper (not THE PUNCH) had reported on Thursday that the FG was planning to convert the edifice to a hotel.
Besides, an instruction that occupants of various buildings around the theatre should vacate the place, based on construction that would start in the vicinity, had raised the suspicion that government might be hatching another plan to sell off the facility, which was marked for concession in 2007.
But in a statement signed by Oladokun, Duke said that plans by the FG to develop the National Theatre area, through the provision of ‘’world class entertainment and recreational facilities’’, predate this administration.
He said, “Convinced by the merits of the plans and the benefits to be derived by all Nigerians, the FG set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee, including the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Ministry of Lands and Housing, Ministry of Works, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, Surveyor-General of the Federation and the Lagos State Government., which met for several months and developed for the President, a proposal, based on the original master plan of the National Theatre, which the President approved. Approval was also obtained from the President for work to commence on the site through a Public- Private-Partnership arrangement.
“Consequently, the minister held a meeting with heads of agencies and other organisations operating around the National Theatre and briefed them on details of the project and the need to vacate the location temporarily for the planned development to take place.
“For the avoidance of doubt, therefore, what was given to the organisations concerned was not a quit notice but a simple directive to embark on temporary relocation, consequent upon previous communication, pending the completion of the project as they will all be accommodated eventually in line with the master plan which Government is determined to implement.”
Also commenting on the development, the Public Affairs Manager at the National Theatre, Mr. Toyin Muhammed, on Thursday, told our correspondent on the phone that the edifice is intact, stressing that the plan does not affect the main building at all.