By Frank Meke
Hannatu Musa Musawa and lola Ade John are possibly the two political elephantiasis appointed to balance gender equality in this government, and they are sadly the worst of the kind. The two ” omo pupa” ladies ( apologies Victor olaiya) bestrides our culture and tourism trade economies, an assignment to which they gleefully led into an aneamic medical position
With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu left to bear all the knocks of bared faced hopeless expectations from the citizenary, these two ladies had limped from one avoidable controversy to another, skeletal Grasshoppers of failures.
Checks and broad based opinions on the extant deliveries ecosystem handed over to the duo to turn around the culture and tourism space into a huge marketplace for job creation and revenue generation, have not been met, neither are they near the serious performance metrics that could show that we are on our way to the promised land of cultural tourism deliveries.
While Nigerians from all works of life , from socioeconomic and political leanings are in agreement that of the 44 cabinet ministers, Hannatu Musa Musawa and lola Ade John are lost in the top, medium performance ratings and rankings , it’s rankling to see the two ladies pretending that we take them seriously, serious as part of the renewed hope agenda of this government.
The top performers in this government are FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, Interior Affairs, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo and David umahi , the works Minister.
The 2024 first quarter assessment report by the Presidential Policy coordination and Central Delivery coordination unit , scored both Hannatu Musa Musawa and lola Ade John very low ( poorest of the poor) in terms of what they have brought to the table and in promised fulfilled in the past one year.
While Lola Ade John is ‘forthrightly’ humble in admitting her inexperience and difficulty finding effective rollout plans for tourism development and promotion, Hannatu Musa Musawa has been eloquently grandstanding and boastful to attracting over 100 billion dollars to inject life into the culture and creative economy. She contradicts herself endlessly!
The two ladies who are certainly oblivious to the values and gains of a collaborative relationship of the co joined twins, that’s culture in driving the tourism sector, has rather gone their separate ways, noses up and goebbelised the strategic economic sectors, prating arrogance and” I don’t care attitude”.
Failure is failure, and it’s glaring that Hannatu Musa Musawa is struggling to breathe and convince herself why she must still hold the culture baton. Lola Ade John, on the other hand, is a travel frick, hardly in the office, and looking for the best pecks of the office, hardly willing to make needed sacrifices. In fact, she is so fragile to organise a verifiable tourism economy but is strong enough to play the ostrich. She struggles to put up data and statistics and can hardly remember the lines of tourism haresay yesterday.
Lola Ade John puts her cart before the horse, shuffling from confused deliveries ecosystem to an embarrassing compounded confoundment.
To describe Hannatu Musa Musawa as a 21st-century cultural deceptive fairy tale bearer is possibly an under statement. She walks on her two legs grounded in organised mischief to lead us astry. Ignored by the top creative geniuses in Nigeria, in particular, the rave Afro Pop artists, including the crafts operators, she habitually organise ” select” ignorant strange fellows as journalists to share her boring and tiring tales of a hopeless culture blueprint. She’s the culture ground zero exponent with no bricks and cement held foundation.
Lola Ade John, on Channel television programme, Morning Brief, Friday, August 23, looked so worn out from trying to ” be seen ” to be working, priking through munbo jumbo tourism nonsensicals , unbecoming a minister of tourism, one year in office. She is still very true to type in a lot of ways. The only near difference is the boldness to think we can’t remember what she told us yesterday, weeks and months ago!
” What are your five top tourism spots worth marketing? One of the channels anchor team asked, and auntie lola mumbled through it, embarrassingly revealing a mixture of half truths and a make-believe showpiece. No doubt, she came to that program unprepared as she has done at the Ministry of Tourism.
Honestly, if these arrangements of media , particularly television appearances are to sway the reports of poor performance by the two ladies , I must confess it’s a waste of tax payers money and the generous good will and patriotic desire of the Nigerian media to make Nigeria a desirable cultural tourism destination.
Specifically , the desired impact on the appointment of Hannatu Musa Musawa and lola Ade John as ministers of culture and tourism trades respectively is far off the mark. The government official metrics ecosystem says they have failed, so we need to get rid of them before they instigate an open protest and badgovernance irritations against our cultural tourism resources. It same government that employed them, which also mark them down as failures.
The presidential policy coordination and Central Delivery coordination unit has submitted a vote of no confidence on lola Ade John and Hannatu Musa Musawa, and we agree. I, in particular, upvote that decision and sincerely expect a baton change from the two ministries, which, again, should be reverted to one strong entity with tested hands in charge.
Except we are looking for political prisoners, a cantooment, as a government entity, cultural tourism ministry should be seen as a frontline economic importance and not a place for jobs for political girls and boys who begged, lobbied and are rewarded for running moonlight errands. The Cultural driven tourism economy is a serious business, and we need top brains and achievers, not the wait and get microwaved sick and poisoned brains!.