The creation of the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy and Tourism Ministry from the former Ministry of Information and Culture by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in August last year, was seen as welcomed development and celebrated by stakeholders in the cultural tourism sector who over the years have clamoured for a separate ministry for the sector. The stakeholders were united in their call and struggle for the creation of culture and tourism ministry as once existed be- fore 2015 when it was scrapped by former President Muhammadu Buhari during his eight years administration.
Happenings during the eight years of Buhari, with Alhaji Lai Mohammed as the Minister for Information and Culture, with Tourism as an appendage under the ministry, largely justified the agitations for a separate ministry for the sector as the former minister, Lai Mohammed, totally neglected and marginalised the sector but fed fat on the huge budgetary allocations of tourism for eight years. It was not surprising then that a sigh of relief was heaved by the various stake- holders when immediately on assumption of office President Tinubu heeded their call by creating two separate ministries for the sector by making culture operates inde- pendently from tourism. Although the jury is out as to whether having a separate ministry for both culture and tourism is desirable and work- able, however, if what presently obtains in the administration of the two separate ministries is anything to go by, it is obvi- ous that this may turn out to be counter –productive, as it appears not to bode well for the sector because the public operators are yet to define and grasp the fine line of separation between both, if at all any exists. While delineating the issues surrounding the workability of these two ministries is a subject for discussion in the coming days, however, what is more imperative now is the present state of affairs of the two ministries.
While the Arts, Culture and Creative Ministry appears to have off taken off smoothly, investigation, has, however, revealed that the same cannot be said of the Ministry of Tourism, which appears to be struggling to find its footing and if urgent step is not taken by the President and Presidency to address the teething problem of the ministry, which is largely that of funding, for its take-off and operations, it death knell may just be signaled in the coming months, as the new ministry is already a ‘working corpse.’ Going back memory lane, when in 2015 former President Muhammadu Buhari scrapped the Ministry of Culture and Tourism created by former President Olu segun Obasanjo in 1999, the then Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Moham- med, took over completely all the assets and operating equipment of the former ministry, including the office of the then minister, which he turned into his opera- tional base rather operate from the Radio House, which then housed the office and operational base of the Minister of the de- funct Ministry of Information. With the creation of the new separate ministries by Tinubu, the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Industry, Hannatu Musawa, moved her operation to the office of the former Minister of Information and Culture, regarding it as her automatic and assigned asset and operational base while the Tourism Minister, Mrs. Lola Ade-John and her team, were left in the lurch, in search for office space of her own. While Musawa was having a smooth ride of some sort, the opposite was the case with Ade-John. Firstly, shortly after assum- ing office, she took ill and for over three months was out of office and the public space. She only resumed early this year and since then it has been battle of survival for her and her team. Investigation showed that the N8 billion grant approved for the take-off of the ministry when it was created in August 2023 is yet to be released by the Presidency, making it difficult for her to hit the ground running as expected of her by both the Presidency and the stakeholders as well as Nigerians.
This situation, as gathered from investigation, is further compounded by the fact that the office complex that was eventually allocated to her by the Head of Service after much agitation was gutted by fire. Since then the office space is yet to be fixed and no new office complex allocated to her. To prevent her from operating from outer space, investigation revealed that the Director General of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), Alhaji Nura Sani Kangiwa, has to come to her rescue by offering her office space to operate from and other minimal operation- al equipment, including vehicles, in order for her to settle in and carry out her duties. It should be noted that NIHOTOUR and the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) are the only two parastatals under her ministry while her counterpart, Musawa, has over 10 parastatals and also the leisure of a well–established and funded operational base to her advantage. In terms of budget funding for this year, the Budget Office sources revealed that N11.06 billion is allocated for the Tourism Ministry, with recurrent expenditure put at N3.96b and capital expenditure at 7.10b. With the first quarter of the year gone, not a single kobo from the budget has been re- leased to the Tourism Ministry, as investigation disclosed that the federal government is still operating on the budget of last year. This development appeared to have made it impossible for any fund to be released to her office as her ministry was not in existence then and no supplementary or emergency budgetary allocation made available for her operations, leaving her in a very tight position and cap in hand looking for crumbs to enable her and her team hold on. This prevailing development, sources say has made the minister and her team to resort to out-of-pocket funding, when they can afford it to fund the activities of the ministry and most times, had to step down on a number of activities and operations in order to just keep up the façade of operation whereas the ministry is in straitjacket and in urgent need of lifeline. ‘‘The minister does not have an official car; her aides use public transport to work. The entire ministry does not have any operational vehicle to attend or perform official functions,’’ a source stated. In fact, as I speak to you now, some of them have not been paid,” revealed the source closed to the ministry.
The source further disclosed that senators at the country’s National Assembly have created fresh bottlenecks for the struggling ministry with ‘ridiculous’ hurdles laid out for the ministry before accessing funds with which to execute its programmes and activities. Sources further revealed that the minister is not happy with this development, especially the non-release of the take-off grant and the budget allocation to the ministry, which is said to be very poor and among the lowest in the federation. It could be recalled that during the ‘cooking’ of the budget of this year and defence of it last year before the National Assembly, the minister was unavailable due to her ill-health to input into the budget as she would had loved to knowing where the shoes pinches as the one that wears it. However, Ade-John appears not to have allowed this crippling situation hamper her determination to prove her mettle as the right woman for the job. Rather than fold her hand waiting for the Presidency, which appears to looks away from her and tourism, she has soldiered on, doing the best she can to keep up with the semblance of running her beat. She has since resuming early in the year keep up with a number of public engagements, at least she has hosted a number of visitors and groups in her Abuja office, including the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET) and also held an interactive session with the tourism writers’ body in Lagos recently. Ade-Jon has also visited Ekiti State during the Easter celebration where she took time to explore Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort and participate in the Ekiti Hike Safari. She has also visited Lagos where she undertook an exploratory tour of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort.
During her interactive session with ANJET in Lagos, she somehow avoided speaking on the monstrous challenge of funding that she is grappling with, however, she acknowledge that, “We have our challenges as a newly-established ministry. But I must commend the President, Bola Tinubu for his continued belief in us and in tourism as having that potential to lift the Nigerian economy from it over dependence on oil and gas. “In order to effectively address prevailing challenges such as neglect of cultural and tourism sites, my ministry has outlined plans to engage local community leaders in safeguarding and promoting these national treasures. “By fostering partnerships with grass- roots stakeholders, the Ministry aims to enhance conservation efforts and curb encroachments threatening Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage. “Also, and in alignment with the federal government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the Ministry of Tourism is poised to spearhead a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s tourism land- scape. “As the nation embraces diversification strategies, the tourism industry stands as a beacon of opportunity, poised to drive economic growth, foster cultural exchange, and showcase Nigeria’s rich heritage to the world,” the Tourism minister stressed.’’ While she appears to maintain a stoical disposition in handling the challenges confronting her and the ministry, stakeholders in the sector are worried over the situation, as they say that if nothing is done urgently to address this development, tourism ministry may again be seen as a failed enterprise and in no distant time the federal government maybe misled into scrapping it again as was the case during former President Buhari era. While warning against this, the stakeholders clearly put the problem of the ministry and that of the sector on the desk of the Presidency, which they fingered as not having a clear picture of what tourism is, and how best to address it by ensuring that it is the number one sector in the country as the example of other countries which have succeeded with their tourism sector has shown. They called on President Tinubu to urgently release the N8b take-off grant to the minister and provide her with a benefiting office complex and other necessary assets and equipment for the operation of the min- istry, insisting that not until these and other challenges facing the ministry are addressed would the performance of the minister and the ministry be judged by the Presidency, noting that doing so would be unjust to the minister and the stakeholders themselves.