Chairman of the Nigeria Hotel Association, Imo State chapter, Chima Chukwunyere, has announced his resignation with barely one year left until the expiration of his tenure.
This is even as he called for synergy and a paradigm shift within the organisation.
He called on hotel owners to take their proper place in the association as the legal rightful owners of NHA.
Chukwunyere made this known in a valedictory speech rendered during a send-forth organized in his honour by the association at the City Cruz Hotel and Suites, New Owerri.
The chairman who preferred to be addressed as ‘Chief Servant’ of Imo NHA, disclosed that he will be clocking 70 years this coming December and pointed out that his resignation was for personal reasons, having held the office for eight consecutive years.
Chukwunyere, the MD/CEO of Domino Paramount Hotel, Owerri who revealed that he joined the association in 1979 noted with utmost dismay that the greatest challenge facing the association has been the leadership tussle between the directors and managers of hotels.
According to him, the power tussle left the leadership in the hands of the managers for many decades and promoted mediocrity, impunity, recklessness, and infighting, among other vices in NHA.
His words, “The biggest challenge of the association is leadership, and that is why the leadership stayed in the hands of our managers for decades. I came into office in March 2017. I inherited N88.00, gross indiscipline, recklessness, conspiracy against MDs, insult, false accusations/allegations, and sabotage from some managers who call themselves cabals.”
Recounting his experience as the head of the association for nearly a decade, Chukwunyere revealed, “My efforts to correct the impression that the association does not belong to our managers were vehemently opposed and resisted, and the battle is still on even as i handed over to a new person.
“My eight years of leadership was stormy by two deadly squads, the Cabals and the revenue touts. In all fronts, the power of my God prevailed for me. The Nigeria Hotel Association, the Imo chapter, belongs to hotel owners only, and the Directors are allowed to send their representatives if they are not available. This is contained in
ARTICLE 7A in respect to full membership of the Association.
“History has been made today because, for the 1st time, a serving Chief Servant stepped down and is sent forth in this manner.
“We have resisted revenue touts from invading our hotels, and succeeded in protecting our members from unnecessary extortion mess, i intervened in MD and their managers issues, and God won the battle.
My threats to shut down hotels in December 2020 compelled the governor to disengage all the revenue consultants and touts and in September 2022, the governor invited me for a meeting to avoid the second shutdown.
“All the revenue consultants and touts who looted hotels were compelled to return them. There have been allegations and accusations from the cabals that led to two auditing.
“My advice to Directors is that before they engage any manager to run their hotels they should endeavor to carry out background checks with the Association to determine if the person’s conduct in their previous hotels is good enough.”
Responding, the acting chairman of Imo NHA, Josephat Esomonu Nwosu, applauded his predecessor for the numerous achievements recorded under his watch and wished him better days ahead.
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