Hon. Cornelius Doeyok 


The commissioner Plateau State ministry of tourism, culture and hospitality, Hon. Cornelius Doeyok, has reaffirmed his unwavering commitment towards harnessing diverse cultural heritage in telling Plateau real story to the outside world.

Doeyok, expressed delight that Plateau with a vast potentials of about 54 different ethnic groups, and if properly manage it will go a long way in changing the negative perception about the state.

He said most the children that grew up in the urban areas were not in tune with what is obtainable in their culture.

The commissioner who recently assumed duty following the cabinet shake-up by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, made the assertion on Tuesday during a familiarization tour of Plateau State cultural troop at Luka Bentu Indoor Theatre, Jos.

He revealed the governor have given Plateau people an open cheque of preserving and projecting their culture, saying that the ministry is working round the clock towards encouraging innovation and sharpen talents for better future.

The Commissioner assured that government will give a lifeline to Luka Bentu Indoor Theatre edifice which has been abandoned for many years in order for tourism to fully thrive in the state.

"Today, that I am here we can see what it can be done. The governor will definitely come to see this place and when he see I am sure then we start talking on how to get it better. Just to let you know that our government is the government that prioritize Public Private Partnership (PPP).

"We can throw our back in reviving this place, I am sure any investor that come to this place and see this structure, I am assuring that we will find a lot of investors that are ready to invest here. So, it is a project that Plateau State need to take it. 

"For us to revive culture, for us to revive tourism on the Plateau this is one edifice that we must put into used. Plateau State is a God given place. The kind of talents you have seen, they have dance almost 10 to 20 different dance steps. So it shows the variety of culture we have on the Plateau, and I can assure you these are talents for international performance.

 "We intend to be engaging our our cultural troop weekly because most of us departed our culture.We must promote our culture by making our children to know those values because we have left our villages and we're in the city now. Most of our children don't know about certain culture now. 

The director of art and culture, Plateau State ministry of tourism, culture and hospitality, Telzing Ndem, decried shortage of manpower as most of the artists are not government employees.

"The artists are guest artists, and it may interest you to know that we don't pay them anything, but some served with us for about 28 to 30 years. If we have performances the charges we charged whoever is going to pay for the troop is what we give them. 

"They are not even a casual staff. We don't have provision for that, and of course, my commissioner has taken it upon himself that he had to see to the memo we wrote sometimes ago to enable us to employ new hands because most of the staff artists are not supposed to be on stage again because they have aged and some have been promoted to a very senior position in civil service. They need to come to offices and learn non administrative work because they have to progress in the course of their work", Ndem added.