By Frank Meke.
I woke up this morning feeling a bit dejected by happenings in the cultural tourism space in Nigeria. It has all been battles all the way. Government and private sector distraught and misgivings. The lies , or properly put, heavy dosage of propaganda and the systematic introduction shell projects and dirty slogans clearly mocking our intelligence.
Daily I go to bed by 2am, wakes up by 5am , sometimes earlier, meaning I have trained by brain and body to rest for two hours every day. Occasionally, I still snap rest, just I avoided snacks, those stuff horridly incubated and microwaved as breakfast offerings without basic nutritional values.
At 4am, I woke to reports of the visit of Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria ( ftan) leadership to madam minister of culture, tourism, and creative economy. The statements or reports of issues discussed didn’t really matter to me because those were the vexious issues troubling the industry and many more.
My tired eyes were looking out for concrete agreements and commitments by both parties, but noticed that both ftan leadership and the minister, Barrister Hannatu Musa Musawa, were careful not to rock the boat
In the end, some things were said, but nothing else was gained. It was a profitably protocol engagement, with the two parties involved trying carefully to be nice to each other.
Now, something in the pictures from the meeting caught my trained eyes. As a trained journalist with a judicial mind, let’s say with eyes of a Japanese samurai, the Bushido creed influenced me deeply.
I will come to the Bushido code of conduct for the samurai warrior later, but I simply wish to position truth as absolute, and our words must be our bond. Indeed, righteousness ( justice) is important to me and to lots of Nigerians, particularly those practising and operating in this our cultural tourism space.
So, what are the likely interpretative gestures in the pictures of the Honourable Minister and our ftan president, Mr Nkereweum Onung? The pictures, at least the ones I saw, didn’t in any way reflect that two leaders are on the same page and are committed to each other.
Please look at those pictures very, very well oo. There were things unsaid at meeting which weighted heavily on both minds. Ftan president, in particular, was not laughing, no smile, noticeable with a leader who was wrestled to gain victory for his people.
Madam minister Hannatu Musa Musawa is regal, royal beautiful as usual but again, the face was contoured with so many anxieties, possibly suspicions of Federation that is known to fight when it’s ready for the rings.
So, to me, I could clearly smell the application of a dosage of protocol niceties ecosystem, meaning that nothing was given, nothing was gained.
It is just a mere pre boxing contest showpiece, each party studying the strength and weakness of each other, based on possibly pre meeting intelligence,
As a cultural tourism warrior and analyst, using the scales and principles of the Bushido which guides the Japanese samurai warrior, namely Righteousness, loyalty, Honour, Respect, Honesty, courage and consistency, it is apparent that the meeting was short on all these factors. It’s dark in the alley of tourism even though the meeting was at noon.
I don’t really know Madam Minister, Musawa, too closely except through her orchestrated intentional presence to want to dominate the cultural tourism space with bland press releases and scripted television appearances. She is certainly cryptic and no doubt a minister for her kingdom alone, not our kingdom.
Our Federation president, Nkereweum onung, is, however, a man of courage, resilience, and respect. He won’t fight a war without respect to his opponent. Before and after a fight, Nkereweum Onung will still show respect to the coprse of his late enemy( ies), that’s if such an opponent failed to retrace his or her step.
Herein lies the his character most criticised by those who believe they know him and yet don’t know him. Nkereweum Onung is a dragon fly , insisting to parly and be patient with even those who should be shoed out of our tourism space .
His is loyal, unlike our minister, who, in two years, has not convinced us that she is loyal to us, to Nigerian cultural tourism and creative rebirth. A minister who clearly is on a different mission for an industry she clearly does have any iota of respect for. No one loves a person she or he abhors openly even secretly. So that ftan, Musawa Parley is wash. It microwaved in diplomatic niceties, heavily overshadowing it, and the pictures revealed it.
Now to gains inside the basket or thrown over board for the mere emotional excitement of meeting each other officially for the first time. The minister gave no serious commitment to unburdening the sector from premature taxes and levies ejaculations all the country.
In a country where hospitality investors are required to pay tax and levies on security doors and walls to protect their property from the criminal elements, madam minister who ought to throw yeye protocols through the window, failed immediately and proactively to inuagrate and engaged a study committee from industry sectorial brain boxes to evaluate the pains of double taxation on hospitality and tourism trade.
The Senate two days ago indicated readiness to engaged stakeholders on the bill on tax reforms, yet madam minister after the Federation presented an arm of their business needing intervention, just blindly cat walked over it without an energetic response by prodding for an action team of private sector professionals to put up strong memors and position on the tax reform bill.
On Nihotour and ntda conflicting regulatory ecosystems, the minister surely does not understand the dangers and ought to have held an alternative solution or position as a lawyer with centric eyes on the industry. She also glossed over it without assurances or gusto, with a will power to set up a committee of experts to find a solution, or drive a merger of the two institutions for serious bankable and employment deliverables and benefits to the nation.
My brother and friend, Folarin Coker in a recent television appearance, canvassed for legal protection for the industry and players, which actually is an important, considering the ease in which organised crime has infiltrated global tourism trade with shell companies and trades.
Indeed, a well prepared minister of culture, tourism, and creative economy should know that most trade enterprises and businesses are mere trade facades to dupe countries, evade taxation, and launder money. Interestingly, and we shall interrogate soon, the presence of two motherland tourism and culture initiatives, with the minister and her ministry allegedly backing one project ” owner” against the other, must have dipped her feet on ice water while meeting with Federation which had earlier asked her to keep away from the controversial matter.
The Federation suggestion for the return of Presidential Council on Tourism won’t fly with this government. The economy is in bad shape and with pressure from the citizens, the president is only interested in the economic trees that can provide enormous shade ti sleep well at night, not for one with practitioners begging for opportunities to visit and waste his valuable time, quoting nonsensical unattainable and unrealistic statistics, the type our minister had been parroting since two years ago without any evidence in sight.
That shameful abracadabra of statistics some cranks heads looking for who to deceive dubbed detty December, can Only find emotional euphoria with simplistic and pedestrian observers in the sector.
All those who think detty December is uhuru and without pointing to any classics developmental milestones in tourism, should go engage experienced financial analysts with legal minds to open their eyes to detty December rubbish clearly showcased to create opportunities to either justify certain fly by night projects or attract shell IDF funding .
Collaborations and meetings are good and must be encouraged, but any meeting(s) where we can’t speak truth to power and get commitment with actionable and feasible sustainable projects should be avoided.
Two days before the ftan leadership engagement with the minister, the Federation had met with the new nihotour boss, Aare Abisoye Fadage and from reports and other intel gathered from the stakeholders meeting, it’s apparent that the nihotour leader knows where he’s going and how he want to collaborate with the Federation. There was no shadow boxing. He delibraretly sought behind the door understanding with ftan leadership and listened carefully to them but armed with a road map of how to leverage the opportunities in the system to benefit the industry.
How honest is Hannatu’s Musawa to ftan unspoken fears and anxieties? Would she approach ftan demands as the failed meeting with the creative community at the villa two years ago or would she for the first time, show commitment and honesty to a sector looking to make meaningful contributions to the survival of Nigerians but delibraretly burdened by same government appointees who are interested in hearing their own voices?
And for those, who are usually decieved to believe that government appointees must be given time to learn the ropes, I am sure they are aware that auntie Barrister Hannatu Musa Musawa is two years on the executive seat, so how market?
Those who want to wait for eternity for Hannatu Musa Musawa to perform magic will surely have records of her unending foreign trips and hotel bills to share with us if she survives the next years. For me, ooo, the samurai warrior spirit in me would say it as it is. Hannatu Musa Musawa is not our game changer. Period, QED!.
