BY FRANK MEKE.
In a piece I wrote a few days after Hannatu Musa Musawa swept away about eleven heads of parastatals under the newly created ministry of arts, culture, and creative economy, I had stated that the process” could speedily bring about new narratives in those key areas or could take us ten years backwards”.
This was about four weeks ago, and from all indications, Hannatu’s poor understanding of our cultural dynamics is about to consume us.
I won’t be tempted to refresh your memories about the day by day failings of our cultural policy interpretations, which has brought us, i mean our culture to an unfortunate state of inertia by Hannatu Musa Musawa.
For four weeks down the line, the presidency that appointed her is at loss about her fitness for the demanding assignment to transform the culture and creative advantages into an economy.
While other ministers hit the ground running by proactively keying into the government’s new hope agenda through signing of performance metrics and bonds, Hannatu Musa Musawa was on song on her NYSC discharge certificate matter.
Her other many kindergarten infractions are too many for me to waste my ink on. First, it is important to highlight that Hannatu Musa Musawa is not prepared for the job so assigned to her by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Indeed and significantly, while other ministers went deep in research, visited heads of agencies under their ministries to evaluate and learn about their peculiar mandates and delivery metrics, Hannatu was busy running around, painting her face for a beauty queen contest in Abuja.
Her so-called new team was a mixture of learners, naivety, and arrogance on showcase. Honestly, of the entire masquerades, she wants to unleash on a sector critically necessary to structuring our cultural unity in diversity, peace, and security, and also to bring about new sustainable enterprinuel identity, only of one the whole lot she presented for approval could score her 1 over ten in human capacity deliverable. One of the ambitious eaglet she harvested from her garden of ignorance, went to his new office, converted operational vehicles to his long convoy filled with security agents to guide him as the new president , federal Republic of Culture. Please don’t laugh ooo, it’s a serious matter!
While other ministers worked around the presidential focal agenda on economic and social deliverables and operational expectation ecosystems, specifically targeting people centric achievements within specific budget cycles, Hannatu is dead on arrival on keying to the culture and creative arts metrics. She is lost, far away from the expectations of the president who appointed her and including the private sector and people of Nigeria.
Expect a few ministers who, after sharing the presidency deliverable mandates with their subordinates whom they met on the ground and possibly changed a few of such heads who failed to the enthusiasm to implement the new hope agenda of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, no minister except the shimmering grandstanding,and all knowing but all failing Hannatu Musa Musawa, have taken such hasty ignorant steps.
Her counterpart in Tourism, Mrs lola Ade John, is working with the team she met on the ground, patiently understurding their mandates, and also engaging the private sector to find a more workable delivery solutions.
Let me at this point share with you a contribution, a remark made by one my readers after reading the piece on Hannatu, entitled “Hannatu’s Culture Kingdom; Tinubu Eyes On Us ” was published.
My very valuable reader wrote thus: ” This piece got me. It is expected of any leader appointed to first of all take a scoping of his / her territory to understand the needs , interests, and the stakeholders. I very much doubt if she does.
” secondly, she was not in touch with the heads of agencies in a way to really understand the mandates of those agencies. The agencies cannot do anything outside their mandates without the backing of the National Assembly.
” Thirdly, her perspective of culture is pop culture. The rubrics of our communities daily life isn’t in her purview. How to mediate development ( growth, stability, unity) are not her agenda but shimmerism and glamour “.
On major critical critical assessment of the character of selflessness of Hannatu Musa Musawa, my reader again pinned her down for lack of discernment and poor leadership.
He further wrote ” if she ( Hannatu Musa Musawa) honestly periscope the agencies and do due diligence, persons like Otunba Segun Runsewe should be spared for making the culture sector more than vibrant. In fact, Otunba Segun Runsewe is the face of Nigeria’s culture development and promotion and I say this without any regret. No one can take this away from him. His ( Runsewe) sterling qualities are certainly remarkable”.
Do I need to add anything to what this very intelligent contributor and stakeholder had said about the happening in Hannatu’s Culture Kingdom?
I believe Hannatu is an administrative disaster waiting to destroy and set back our gains so far in the culture sector. She is deliberately naive, and had so far failed to understand the rubrics of her assignment, chasing shadows here and there, and like an irrelevant and irritant passenger in our industry vehicle of development, she should be let off( dropped) at the next busstop by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
