Ibrahim Gaddafi Tanko
I received the news of the recent acquisition of one of Abuja’s landmark Hospitality Outfit, Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers, by Nipco Plc a high flying player in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector as part of it diversification drive into the hospitality Sector with mixed feelings of Joy and apprehension.
The deal according to the new owners of the facility is a strategic move to turn around the fortunes of the fast becoming moribund facility by restoring it to her lost glory as Abuja’s No.1 luxury Hotel of choice.
No doubt, Abuja Sheraton Hotel and towers is a brand name that will remain permanently affixed to my memory due to my affiliation with the hotel through My Dad, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, who is a former employee of the famous Hospitality firm, himself a very popular personality within the Community of Workers having risen to the position of Treasurer and Chairman within the Hospitality workers’ Union in the entire Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in his hey days.
Even after my Dad left the Hotel, the location has remained a favorite rendezvous for the family particularly during weekends, thus making me emotionally attached to the hotel. On most occasions, former colleagues of Alhaji who still work in different sections of the Hotel will inundate him with tales during such visits of how the hotel is gradually progressing from grace to grass due to ineptitude on the part of management, poor welfare package for staff and the poor state of the economy which has had a spiral effect on the hotel.
So it was with both relief and anxiety like I mentioned in my earlier paragraph when I received the news of the decision of the capital Hotels Plc, former Owners of Abuja Sheraton Hotels and Towers which inturn is managed by Marriott/Starwoods to let go off the management of the Hotel for more serious investors who will work round the clock in resuscitating the five-star hotel and restore it to it rightful position in the league of it contemporaries like the Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
The new owners of the facility Nipco Plc, in a bid to give effect to its promise in restoring the hotel’s lost glory is coming up with the Novel Initiative of establishing a Hospitality Academy in Nigeria, the first of its kind that will train qualified and skilled Manpower that are desperately needed in the blossoming hospitality industry, this is in addition to the renovations already going on leading to the hotel’s closure.
My fear however is whether the new owners (22 Hospitality Limited) the Hospitality arm of Nipco Plc, will fulfill it promise to re-absorb the former personnel of the hotel. Marriot International already says mouth-watering severance packages that will sustain the former workers after the abrupt closure of the facility has already been offered to the already retrenched staff.
Infact promises of this nature made by other coys to their employees in circumstances of this nature never materialized, thus subjecting families to penury and wasting away years of experience already garnered.
As Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers goes under the surgeon’s knife to undergo a Major Surgical procedure that will breathe into it a new lease of life, it is my hope that in no distant time the surgery will be concluded with resounding success and the Staff of the landmark facility recalled.
Ibrahim Gaddafi Tanko, writes from Abuja and can be reached at ibrahimgaddafi0@gmail.com