Govt to turn National Theatre into Hotel

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A LAGOS landmark is set for a new status – if the Federal Government succeeds in its plan to find another use for it.

The 37-year-old National Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos Mainland is to be converted into a five-star hotel.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation Edem Duke has given a two-week quit notice to Federal Government agencies at the facility.

Some of the agencies are National Council for Arts and Culture; Nigeria Gallery of Arts; National Troupe of Nigeria and an unnamed agency.

But some stakeholders have rejected the plan, especially the sudden quit notice given to the agencies.

They are saying the Federal Executive Council did not approve the proposal and that a transaction advisor was appointed without due process.

Other stakeholders also see the plan as an attempt to short-change the Southwest.

The theatre was inaugurated on September 30, 1976 by the then Military Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo.

It was opened five months before the hosting of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77) in January/February 1977.

The Federal Government unfolded its plan through a March 18 letter the Minister sent to some agencies, including those that had been directed to leave the edifice.

Prior to the letter, it was gathered that the minister did not brief chief executives of the parastatals under him on the government’s plan.

But the two-week quit notice aroused the stakeholders’ curiousity about the project.