By Frank Meke.
On Tuesday, I got a hint of a ” summit” slated for koko Beach. I asked my well-informed and placed informant to explain the word ” summit” since I was clearly lost to what that ” summit ” is all about. My contact at other end carefully ignored by inquiries, and since I have also made up my mind to ignore the many flowery propaganda and shadowy projects dressed up as tourism projects across Nigeria in the past two years, I got my head buried into doing what I know how to do best.
If you must know, the latest national tourism past time since the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu unfortunately appointed Hannatu Musa Musawa to oversee the cultural tourism portfolio after kicking out his ” sister” lola Ade John in minor shake up, the lady from kastina caliphate has introduced MOU signature agenda to Nigeria as our new tourism project. From Abuja to Ekiti and to the United Arab Emirates, this minister has confirmed absolute ignorance on how to glavernise the industry and leave behind an enduring policy development legacy for cultural tourism development in Nigeria .
Hannatu Musa Musawa is not only ceramic and opaque, she mirrors her failure in darkness, passed off light, and with crypticnes of a confused magician. No one, I mean nobody worth his salt and a well prepared plantain pepper soup breakfast, can explain what exactly this controversial lady wants for Nigeria cultural tourism economy and for this government.
To say Hannatu Musa Musawa is a propagandist in tourism is to be kind to her slippery and often energetic dark inspiration to sell dummy skeletons of dead-end cultural tourism projects to us.
Her first well publicised meeting with the movie artists at the presidential villa barely a few weeks after her appointment failed to impress. The key gurus in that arm of the creative economy, led by Richard mofe Damijo, refused to sell their porridge to an up start, unknown to their sector and who clandestinly wish to manipulate her presence to the driver seat of an economy she and even the federal government never accorded any tax rebate or strategic enabling environment.
Nigeria’s vice president, a top notable banker and former governor under whose wings Hannatu Musa Musawa wish to ride into reckoning with the creative community, quickly beat a retreat and apologised to self made movies and entertainment gurus, knowing that the deep pain felt by the industry players cannot be assuaged by mere invitation to the presidential villa to shake hands with the vice president and give a standing ovation to a kindergarten political hired propagandist, masquerading as minister.
The lagos hosting of the ” national tourism summit” is a sham and a shame, and unlike the self-made fearless movies industry advocates and employment boomers, our key industry big wigs were mute and unwilling to join issues with Hannatu Musa Musawa over her tourism propaganda excapesism.
By 4 am Thursday morning, my WhatsApp messages window was awash with enquiries and messages of angry misgivings about a tourism summit to which even key drivers and owners of the business, including the tourism press were not invited and few tersely notified in a muffled tongues in cheek captured as coven message.
I spent three hours between 4 am. and 7am. this morning, sharing insights with many of our top stakeholders on why Hannatu Musa Musawa must pack her miserable bags of confusion and daily chants of poisonous cultural tourism chants and go back to her father’s house.
No doubt, we now have a cultural tourism mamalawo whose daily abracadabra and cultural tourism chants provide Nigerian comedians with creative content to mock our ministry and industry.
In a picture sent to me from the coven summit, I can clearly see my good friend and immediate past Director General of Nigerian Tourism Development Authority ( NTDA, Folarin Coker I think Coker is bored sitting at home after his retirement and Knowing him very, very well, folarin Coker will never wine with Hannatu Musa Musawa on a lagos beach if he is still the DG of ntda. Coker abhor prancing and propaganda, particularly when you interfere with his mandate as ntda boss. So what’s he doing on a Thursday morning at a lagos Beach? Discussing what type of tourism economy?
Another face is the immediate past minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde fashola. He was also a former governor in lagos, and I know quite a bit about him over attempts to improve inland waterways in lagos. On tourism? Can’t really point to any serious tourism legacy. Toke Benson Awoyinka loves the front seat, and expectedly, she is supposed to be the “chief host,” possibly representing the governor or, critically, her ministry. Is she just being nice to a fellow woman, abi na mamalawo? I saw the minister too dressed in beautiful regalia, covering herself from head to the legs. Hmmm , how I wish they invited mamiwater, and indeed I heard the summit is to appease the old lady of the oceans whose domain has been troubled by the coastal roads.
As usual, it’s just for the cameras, and Hannatu Musa Musawa loves the attention. Unfortunately, some people, though masked by the sun ray, looked on at the show of shame with annoying comtempt and disgust. I was wondering what maybe going on through the minds of Coker and Toke Benson Awoyinka, particularly knowing that the mamalawo of cultural tourism is a threat and time waster in a government looking forward to creating and share cultural tourism prosperity to the Nigerian people.
Away in Abuja, Hannatu Musa Musawa Destination 2030 committee broke up in despair and confusion as there was no clear direction on how to engage the mamalawo vision. There were no known industry players, and the rookies she hired to guide the coven 2030 meeting messed up the gathering when they failed to recite properly the chant of the coven, which failed to impress the people invited to shore up the image of the propaganda showpiece.
So today, two coven meetings in lagos and Abuja went down the drain pipe. And until we stop the federal tourism racket, no serious gains will be generated through this propagandist cultural tourism mamalawo. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
