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    Culture and Tourism: One year of painful agony

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    Minister of Tourism, Ade-John Inspects Ongoing Renovation at Obudu Resort

    President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is certainly a strategic thinker. He possibly could pass as the Aristotle of Nigerian politics, and many people wonder at his many socioeconomic and political interventions, some of them begging for interpretations.

    Out of the blue, Mr. President gave us two ministries, Culture, Arts Creative economy, and Tourism. The development, though inspiring, provoked bitter and sweet reactions.

    How could culture, arts and a creative economy that oxygenate tourism be separated from each other? The arguments raged and trust some of our pranting noisemakers who couldn’t see beyond their noses, they premised everyone who called on the President to do a rethink on the separation of the twins as noisemakers and rude to Mr. President.

    The President, who is ever willing to listen, waded into the controversy and explained that he wanted to use the creation of the two ministries to stimulate jobs and offer space for more hands in baking the cake for the Renewed Hope agenda.

    If creating jobs in the cultural tourism industry is the focal expectation of the agenda, then the President has hit the bull’s eyes but on political job offerings for the sake of boys and girls in the political space, then there must be a rethink, considering the huge plundering of the nation by ex-political appointees.

    Unlike 2015, when President Buhari came with sweeping brooms to audit the Ministry of Tourism and found the cupboards empty without any documentation to help his government restructure the economy, which, consequently, led to the renaming the Ministry as Information, Culture and National Orientation, with Tourism, sadly, on a desk profile, Lai Mohammed, who took over the ministry, shadowed tourism as the voice of Jacob to culture.

    Indeed, and in truth, culture played a significant and pivotal role in shaping our tourism space with the National Council of Arts and Culture, under the watch of enigmatic Otunba Segun Runsewe, occupying the Nigerian economic space even beyond the tourism rendition.

    With a proven track record of delivery as Nigeria’ s tourism chief years ago, Runsewe rallied and glavernised all Nigerians, particularly members of the National Assembly and state governors, to buy into the Nigerian cultural landscape. He didn’t wait for any presidential council on tourism or any fancy overhyped cultural policy.

    Matthew Olusegun Runsewe is a man of faith and, within a space of two years in office as Nigeria’s cultural ambassador and marketer, won over the hard doubting minds of Nigerians to value the chains in our cultural economy.

    The President’s economic eggheads didn’t consult the cultural tourism maestro, and it was a grave oversight.

    Ever strategic, futuristic, innovative and authoritative, Runsewe didn’t square in the make-believe gallery of cultural spin doctors but carefully took our cultural products to the owners, the Nigerian people

    And with an abiding faith in Nigerian tourism press in particular and the entire national media landscape, Runsewe launched out with culture as the new oil, rebranded National Festival of Arts and Culture, and brought the world to Nigeria through cultural diplomacy to trade in Nigeria’s biggest cultural market, the International Arts and Crafts market.

    Abuja, in five years, danced like an excited peacock and became the global cornerstone for cultural tourism diversity, which opened doors for all-expenses-paid international cultural invitational trips for some outstanding state cultural troupes to showcase our cultural values to the world. Significantly, INAC became a breeding ground to export our cultural diversity to the world and bring the world to our doorstep. It was counted for Runsewe!

    There were also gains in training opportunities offered by countries such as Turkey and China. Indeed, Nigerian rural communities were targeted beneficiaries of skill acquisitions in arts and crafts, fashion designing, traditional hairmaking, shoemaking, cloth weaving, and so much more. There are living testimonies, no abracadabra!

    At each of the two unfailing calendared cultural events, the youths, particularly the womenfolk, were mentored to acquire skills to reinvent the sector. The records of beneficiaries gave vent to eggheads around the President to rethink and birth an exclusive cultural economy. Unfortunately, they didn’t consult the maestro, and that led to our agonies.

    From Kaduna to Rivers, Plateau, Edo, Ekiti, and Lagos states, Runsewe, in partnership with the governors, delivered on the socioeconomic strength of Nigerian culture and arts economy. For a week’s duration, the festival took place in those states, and it’s evident that both local and international attention were focused on the gains of the iconic festival.

    This report today is to audit the ministries of culture and tourism under Hannatu Musa Musawa and Lola Ade-John, respectively, and to submit with evidence the two beautiful women failed this administration and put to flight our expectations on the renewed gains in the two sectors. My verdict is that they should look for jobs elsewhere or go back to their Egypt.

    Both Hannatu Musawa and Lola Ade-John do not have depth, charisma and the guts to take us across the Jordan to the promised renewed land of hope in Culture and Tourism trade.

    Let me situate that Musawa as Minister of Culture, Arts and Creative Economy amputated the Nigerian cultural movement through her unbelievable swoop on all the 11 heads of parastatals under the newly created ministry of culture, an effort that caused a heart failure of the Nigerian cultural movement.

    Though changes are inevitable in the journey of life, it is sad for a minister to bitterly knife through the souls of the best we have in the system out of mere political shenanigans, certainly showcasing ingenuity in scandalous self-worth.

    Runsewe was not only the big star in our cultural firmament, there were also Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed and Ado Yahuza, who turned around the fortunes of the National Troupe of Nigeria and National Institute for Cultural Orientation ( NICO), respectively, before the coming of Musawa.

    Ahmed literally burnt midnight candles, went round the country, sought out the best creative young persons, and on the flooded planes of Iganmu,lagos office of the agency, breath life back into our moribund National Troupe, set it off on global showcase and insisted that Nigeria must welcome her foreign guests with the best of culture dances and drummings on showcase.

    Hannatu killed that dream, but today, she wished to appropriate the gains as landmarks of her key performance metrics. The case of Ado Yahuza at Nico is equally worth mentioning because we must build on gains and not distractions packaged to deceive the public.

    Nico also rose from the ashes of misplaced and misappropriated priorities. As a tested human resources manager, Ado Yahuza took Nico’s training school out of the lethargy of focal mission, affiliated it with Nassarawa state University, breeding certificated cultural officers for the good of nation and for export to global cultural knowledge market.

    Under Ado Yahuza, Nico tackled headlong the discomforting cultural malaise among Nigerian young persons, took our languages to the barracks, and schools across the country and flourished cultural revival through cultural clubs in secondary schools. Our children become proud again about our way of life.

    Ado Yahuza also worked hard with the encouragement of UNESCO and got Nigerian heritage values , sango festival in oyo State, and our midwifery system listed on UNESCO representative calendar. Nico thematic workshops targeting the academic community and Sundry professional groups produced detailed essays and materials for generic documentation to find solutions to national cultural setbacks. Hannatu again nailed Ado Yahuza on head for outstanding performance but would turn around to document his achievements as one of her great achievements in one year.

    In a recent publication sighted last week in a national newspaper and written by one Dr Deji Ayooola, an anthropologist, his deliberate delivery of what was clearly an attempt to credit Hannatu Musa Musawa with scores of achievements she bitterly repudiated by sacking these patriotic Nigerians , is nauseating. It was an anthropological fallacy written to curate Hannatu as our cultural messiah. It failed to click and register against her failed efforts so far.

    Though Hannatu was quoted to gleefully admit that the remarkable achievements and milestones in the culture space were the handwork of “ her predecessors” in the sector, it is, however, rankling to the mind why Hannatu choose to sack the best, the “ predecessors “ (DGs) and sought their replacement with girls and boy scouts! In a hurry to assert her lordship in the sector, she pulled down pillars unto honour, and she wanted us to clap for her?

    The truth is that Hannatu Musa Musawa has added no values to whatever she met on the ground in the culture space and should be shown the way out of this government. There was no inclusivity in the way she ran the ministry and which evidently ambushed critical ongoing gains before she came.

    Her first stakeholders meeting at Villa ended terribly in chaos when the creative community told her to regard herself as a mere passenger and not as chief pilot in the fast-moving nigerian creative train. The media was awash with the apologies of our amiable vice-president, kashmi shettima, who promised the culture and creative stakeholders that this government will respond positively to their neglect over the years. Hannatu didn’t get the message!

    Hannatu’s effort to reap from the Grammy Awards nominations of some Nigerian acts and whom unfortunately lost out to a South African listed nominee drove nails between the minister and Nigerians when she out of desperation called for an African Grammy Awards replica.

    Certainly, it won’t be out of place that Hannatu’s one year in office attracted most stringent controversies ever apart from the edugate affair. The public opprobrium against her many public missteps is a tail sign that she is surplus to requirement in this administration.

    For want of repeating myself, it’s funny that someone somewhere in present day Nigeria, in our culture space, will deliberately mark up the ongoing refurbishment of National theatre, a private business, owned by the Bankers Committee as one of Hannatu’s pindown achievements. It is a hilarious, unbelievable, desperate movie script written to mock our intelligence.

    Moonlight jobs and GDP sweet songs

    I was gripped with fear on the anthropological submission that about 257, 754 “ new jobs” were harvested by Hannatu in one year and to the Gross National domestic productivity, Hannatu’s classical ingenuity scaled up the GDP by a share of 0. 37 per cent from 1. 3% to a current GDP share of 1. 67%. This abracadabra figures from certainly a heinous research beats my imagination considering the fact that the minister and her new team are struggling on all fronts. She held her first retreat with her team barely three weeks ago, so where did magic figures come from?

    There were other generated statistics from the synagogue of Satan, unbelievably outlandish and programmed to deceive unassuming Nigerians.

    Soft power magic!

    It was again written by our anthropologist that the ministry spearheaded Nigeria cultural influence from 2. 5 % to 46% in the period under review and the brand index perception from 1. 5% to 18%. I dey laugh the devil. What? Under Hannatu’s, the clueless minister of culture? Wonders shall not end with infertile imaginations of some Nigerians. Watch out from this week advertorials, press releases, and paid opinions on the achievements of day dreamers in this government.

    On the stakeholders’ belt, the ministry and minister “organised” successfully about 18 stakeholders’ meetings spread through workshops and public engagements by CEBAAC and Nigerian Gallery of Arts. Really? When and where? Hannatu held a creative sector meeting under the office of the vice president, and just on Friday, May 10th, the Nigerian film and Censors Board, headed now by Dr Shaibu Husseini held a strategic stakeholders meeting in lagos. Two is the number and not 18, as generously and ingeniously claimed by the magical anthropological hand.

    Certainly, the game to justify their appointments is here, and the fear of their removal for poor performance will beyond measure the pushing out conjured figures to the public space. Except for Dr Shaibu Husseini of Nigeria films, movies, and censors Board, nothing good has come out of the Culture House of Hannatu.

    Hannatu sadly is her own problem. She was not circumspect and wise to clearly work with the best she met on the ground, but today, without fear of posterity, has aligned with the achievements of those she pushed under the bus in the desperation to have an absolute grip on the sector.

    We won’t be surprised to see the same fabulous fallacious ecosystem emanating from some of her appointees to just justify their obvious failings. Unfortunately, Hannatu can not save the failures as the blind can not lead the blind.

    In the tourism sector, Lola Ade John should just go and take a deserved rest somewhere. She is not in tourism, not cut out for it, can not interpret her mission, and is too laid back to confront the two monsters under her struggling ministry.

    Madam lola is a victim of her fear. She is feeble, weak, and afraid to effect changes and drive collaborations that can advance the course of the sector. She has walked into a deadly trap, and it’s too late for her to escape the hammer of non performance.

    Her spin doctors are well-known industry buccaneers . They will give you a shoulder to cry on for a fee or reward. Ade John came to seek a sympathetic tourism crowd, and they have been praising her to high heavens and justifying her very grave failings.

    I won’t waste my time because lola Ade John has no technical tourism structure of her own. She is in the wrong place, pretending that she can do the job. Lola Ade John can’t do anything for tourism. That is truth and the only truth. We won’t be surprised to see her Bill Boards all over Abuja, lagos, and Ekiti states, showcasing her soft power in cutting red tapes to declare open grandiose tourism projects primed to confuse the uninitiated.

    I don’t know why people lie openly to justify just a stay in public office, to which they are unfit to run. Is it a crime to throw in the towel if the ring is too hot and unbearable?

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    Opinion

    National Theatre Revival: Can Nigeria’s cultural icon rise again?

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    restoration of the National Theatre Lagos

    The restoration of the National Theatre Lagos signals hope for Nigeria’s creative future—but will this revival be truly sustainable?

    The restoration of the National Theatre Lagos is being hailed as a potential turning point for Nigeria’s cultural and economic rebirth.

    Once a gleaming symbol of artistic ambition and national pride, the theatre’s decline echoed the broader story of Nigeria itself: a country of grand visions too often thwarted by neglect and mismanagement.

    Conceived in the early 1970s, the National Theatre was designed as a hub of African storytelling, performance, and cultural diplomacy. Construction began under General Yakubu Gowon in 1973 and was completed by General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1976.

    Modelled after the Palace of Culture and Sports in Bulgaria, the iconic structure boasted a 5,000-seat main hall, banquet and cinema halls, galleries, and multiple exhibition spaces.

    Its crowning moment came during FESTAC ’77 – the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture – when over 17,000 artists from across Africa and the diaspora gathered in Lagos to celebrate heritage, music, dance, and drama.

    The theatre became a vibrant stage for legends like Wole Soyinka and dramatic works such as Isiburu and Camwood on the Leaves.

    However, by the late 1980s, the once-thriving complex began to decay. Economic downturns, shifting government priorities, and bureaucratic inertia turned it into a shadow of its former self.

    Maintenance stopped. Facilities crumbled. The venue was relegated to weddings and church services, while artists either left or adapted to new digital realities, fuelling a creative brain drain.

    The decline of the National Theatre was symptomatic of deeper issues—chief among them the failure to recognise culture as a strategic economic asset.

    Where countries like Brazil, South Korea, and India leveraged the arts to drive national identity and economic growth, Nigeria lagged behind. Nollywood thrived, but the infrastructure that once nurtured the arts was left to rot.

    Then, in July 2021, a glimmer of hope appeared. The Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee launched a bold N65 billion restoration project. By September 2024, visible progress had been made.

    Key facilities had been restored, the architecture modernised, and crucially, four new creative hubs – focused on fashion, music, film, and IT – had been added to the 44-hectare site.

    The goal is ambitious: transform the theatre from a historic relic into a dynamic engine of Nigeria’s creative economy. With the sector projected to contribute hundreds of billions of naira and generate thousands of jobs, this revival is not just about aesthetics—it’s about sustainable economic diversification in a post-oil era.

    But questions remain. Will the revival endure, or will this be another chapter in Nigeria’s cycle of lofty beginnings and short-lived momentum?

    For lasting impact, experts argue that infrastructure alone is not enough. Nigeria needs strong policy frameworks that position culture as a central pillar of national development. The creative sector must be integrated into economic planning, supported by robust funding mechanisms and public-private partnerships.

    Globally successful cultural institutions thrive on diverse income streams—from ticket sales and philanthropy to international grants and government support. Nigeria must adopt similar models to reduce its reliance on unstable public funds.

    Ultimately, the National Theatre stands not just as a building, but as a mirror. It reflects who we are as a people and what we value. Will Nigeria invest in its creative soul or continue to sideline the arts in favour of short-term gains??

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    Pilgrimage is spiritual, not tourism – NCPC

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    Pilgrimage is spiritual rejuvenation, not tourism

    NCPC Secretary Bishop Stephen Adegbite stresses that pilgrimage is spiritual rejuvenation, not tourism, as Ebonyi pilgrims depart for Israel and Jordan

     

    The **Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Bishop Stephen Adegbite**, has emphasised that **pilgrimage is a spiritual exercise, not a form of tourism**.

    He made this statement during the airlifting of the **8th batch of Christian pilgrims from Ebonyi State** to Israel and Jordan at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

    Speaking through **Clement Nweke**, Federal Commissioner representing the South East on the NCPC Board, Adegbite assured the pilgrims that they would have the opportunity to visit significant **holy sites in Israel and Jordan**. He expressed confidence that they would return spiritually fulfilled.

    “Pilgrimage is not tourism, but a spiritual rejuvenation. You are not going for tourism, but for spiritual rejuvenation,” he reiterated.

    He also commended **Governor Francis Nwifuru** for sponsoring over **300 Christian pilgrims** from Ebonyi State, a move he described as a commitment to faith and spiritual growth.

    Adegbite urged the pilgrims to **pray fervently** in the Holy Land and return with **outstanding testimonies**.

    He also reminded them of **NCPC’s zero-tolerance policy on abscondment**, warning that any defaulter would be identified and dealt with accordingly.

    “Ebonyi has never had any issue of abscondment, and we believe this batch will maintain that record,” he added.

    Rev. Fr. **Godwin Uguru**, Chairman of the **Ebonyi State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board**, encouraged the pilgrims to **pray for the state** during their journey.

    He assured them that the governor had taken all necessary measures to ensure a **hitch-free pilgrimage**.

    He concluded with a prayer for **safe travels and a successful spiritual experience**, hoping the pilgrims would **depart and return in peace**.

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    Stay Safe: SANParks urges tourists to follow wildlife safety rules

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    wildlife safety at Kruger National Park

    Following a fatal elephant encounter at Kruger National Park, SANParks urges visitors to prioritise safety and stay in vehicles during wildlife tours

     

    South African National Parks (SANParks) has reiterated its safety guidelines following a tragic incident at Kruger National Park, where a tourist lost their life during an encounter with an elephant.

    The incident occurred at Malelane Gate, highlighting the critical need for visitors to stay in their vehicles while observing wildlife.

    According to reports, the fatality occurred when a tourist exited their vehicle and was charged by an elephant.

    SANParks officials have expressed their condolences and emphasised the importance of adhering to safety rules designed to protect both visitors and wildlife.

    This tragedy echoes a similar incident last July when a Spanish tourist at Pilanesberg National Park was fatally attacked after leaving their vehicle to photograph an elephant herd.

    Such incidents underscore the risks of stepping outside vehicles in wildlife reserves.

    SANParks has also called on witnesses to refrain from sharing graphic images or videos of the recent event on social media due to their sensitive nature. This appeal aims to respect the victim’s family and prevent further distress.

    Authorities continue to stress that staying inside vehicles is paramount when navigating wildlife areas. “Safety protocols exist not only to protect visitors but also to preserve the natural behaviour of wildlife,” SANParks management stated.

    Kruger National Park remains one of South Africa’s premier tourist destinations, attracting visitors from around the world.

    However, tragedies such as this serve as stark reminders of the need for vigilance and respect for nature’s unpredictability.

    By adhering to these guidelines, tourists can enjoy South Africa’s remarkable wildlife while ensuring their safety and preserving the sanctity of these natural environments.

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