Again! Culture Minister, Hanatu Musawa In N290m Street Light Controversy
The Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa is at the center of yet another scandal.This time, she was accused of voting 290 million naira for street lights to be located in her local government.
According to an article published by Daily Trust Newspapers on May 22, 2024, the Ministry of Culture voted 290 million naira for street lights to be located in Minister Hanatu Musa Musawa’s local government.
While reacting to Daily Trust article, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Mr James Sule said the project is a strategic one but industry watchers are peeved that the Perm Sec did not disclose the cultural jobs, culture attractions and the emerging innovations that the project will contribute to gross Domestic productivity of the nation.
The minister was also alleged to have budgeted a whopping sum of three billion naira for culture research and development in her 2024 budget.
Sources squealed that prior to this current crisis rocking the ministry, Musawa had used her appointees to falsely lay claim to culture projects done by the immediate past administration and now have resorted to deploy a tested technocrat like her permanent secretary to accuse Daily Trust of alleged misinformation on the budgeted solar lights to be domiciled her local government.
A staff of the ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity 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 will end up with nothing, no roads, lights, railway, hospitals, airports and etc. What a clever way to practice nepotism and misappropriation in the name of budgeting for constituency projects”
It would be recalled that Musawa was embroiled in NYSC status scandal.
This started about three years ago when Musawa could not provide evidence of national service to senators during the screening for an appointment she was nominated for by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
But the controversy resurfaced when following the confirmation by the management of the NYSC that Ms Musawa, who was inaugurated as Minister by President Bola Tinubu, was still undergoing her national youth service.
