Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says dressing masquerades could create a thousand jobs per week for Nigerian men.
Speaking at the sectoral debate of the federal house of representative in Abuja on Tuesday, Mohammed said most states in Nigeria have one festival or the other.
“Most states today have more than one festival a year, but the packaging and lack of capacity has not enabled them to make the most out of these festivals,” he said.
“There’s a particular masquerade in the south east, it takes 100 people to dress him, another 100 people to undress him.
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“If this masquerade is well-packaged, it can provide employment in one week for more than 1000 young men. These are some of the untapped potentials.”
Mohammed explained that Nigeria has the oldest forest in the world in terms of biodiversity for tourists to visit, but tourists are discouraged by bribing and insecurity in the country.
“I worked in the airport for 10 years, and I know that if you want your passport stamped as a foreigner, you slip $100 into your passport. No tourist would come back to a country where he has to bribe immigration to enter.
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“No tourist would come to a country where, when he leaves immigration, he enters a ‘one-chance’ taxi or ‘one-chance’ bus. It’s a holistic problem and these are all contained in the national tourism master plan, which I would make available to the house.
“We must make a difference between tourist sites and tourist attractions; what we have in Nigeria are tourist sites. They are not tourist attractions.
“You need infrastructure to convert a tourist site to a tourist attraction. If you don’t have infrastructure, it would always remain a tourist site,
“In Cross Rivers reserve park, Nigeria has the oldest forest in the whole world. It is the oldest in terms of biodiversity, and we have this very rare, white-mane gorilla in that area, but because my people in Cross River have decided to turn them to bush meat, they have now escaped.”
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6 comments
Lai Muhammed has come again. Masquerade dressing to provide 1000 jobs.Now I believe we have entered one chance with APC, these cannot be the jobs Nigerians were promised during their campaign. It’s impossible, someone should please advise this man to stop making public statements carelessly. I haven’t recovered from the one he made regarding the fulani heardsmen, saying that government was working quietly behind the scene to resolve the killings.
I detest is styles as info minister. Can he recommend the job of dressing up masquerade for his son? By the way he & others of his ilk had successfully thru the back door secured CBN job for their son,while canvassing masquerade jobs for others.
Cross Reverians ostracised very rare, white-mane gorilla by converting them to bush meat -Lai Mohamed
I think we should be mindful about our thought and what often write oñ the statement of our leaders,we shouldn’t just lampooned them anyhow they have reasons behind their statements, it is only insensitive person would come on air without comprehensive research.please my fellow Nigerians let us do away with our sentiment, ethnicity, tribalism and religious ego if we real wànt to make Nigeria great again.
yea Ade you are so right about how we should talk about our leaders whether they are right or wrong,we shouldnt speak ill of them. but my brother this is comic.probably you see some reasons behind the idea.but of all options to create job for youths ,its now masqurade dressing. na waaa.even as i write my comment i have not been able to control the laughter
Lai Muhammad’s confession that he worked in Nigeria passport office for 10 years, saw the business of ” you slip $100 into your passport”. Irrespective of jurisdictions, criminal law could cast a net around him being of a character.