Culture ministry votes N290m for solar streetlights in minister’s LGA

The Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy has earmarked the sum of N290 million for the provision of solar street lights in Musawa LGA, where the current minister, Hannatu Musawa, hails from.

The provision by the ministry, according to a report by Daily Trust, was contained in the ministry’s 2024 budget signed by President Bola Tinubu in January this year.

The ministry also provided N3.7 billion for “research and development”.

Also, some line items in the budget show that the ministry also provided N98 million for a “Nigerian pavilion” at the next Cannes Film Festival that will be held in France.

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Similarly, the sum of N150 million was put aside by the ministry for “art culture information desk” at the Abuja International Airport as well as N26 million for miscellaneous – refreshments and publicity, among others.

Recall that the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy was created by the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to drive the growth in the creative economy.

Meanwhile, in a riposte to the story by Daily Trust, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mr James Sule, said the project was a strategic one.

A report by THE NATIONAL WAVES said industry watchers were miffed that the Permanent Secretary did not disclose the “cultural jobs, culture attractions and thei emerging innovations that the project will contribute to [in terms of] Gross Domestic Product of the nation.”

The online newspaper also quoted a staff member of the ministry to have said: “If all our ministers, agency heads, and legislators now compete to domicile constituency projects exclusively in their local governments, other areas in Nigeria that did not produce ministers would end up with nothing-no roads, lights, railway, hospitals, airports and etc. What a clever way to practise nepotism and misappropriation in the name of budgeting for constituency projects.”