August 2017,Musah Superior announced at the maiden edition of the Tamale Metro Town Hall meeting that he had lured some investors from his US investment tour to come and give the Centre for National Culture(CNC) a new facelift. This was going to be a partnership with the assembly and the investors.
As part of the deal, the new CNC will have a cinema, eatery, recording studio and some other ancillary facilities that families can enjoy and also create job opportunities for the youth because of the redevelopment. The investors according to Musah Superior were scheduled to arrive in Tamale in November but unfortunately, they never did.
Fast forward to the 2018 Tamale Metro Town Hall Meeting, I asked the coordinating director what had happened to the redevelopment of the CNC and he replied that the then Minister for Tourism, Culture and creative arts said she plans on renovating the place and since she has the power of the place the assembly had to call off their partnership with the investors. This statement by the coordinating director was collaborated by the then deputy information minister, Pius Enam Hadzide. And on several occasions, the sector minister had revealed her plans to redevelop all CNCs in the country.
We are in 2022. The CNC is still in a deplorable state and the minister has never given us any reason for not developing the place before leaving office. I am still trying to understand why the minister would stop Musah Superior from doing his duty when her investors or her funds were not ready.
For years, the place has been left to rot and it is not serving its intended purpose. Musah Superior‘s goal was to resurrect and have it serve the purpose for which it was built. Unfortunately, his dream was denied and that of the many people in Tamale who have been campaigning for the CNC to be revamped.
If Musah Superior was allowed to work on the CNC, this would have been one of the many legacies for the people of Tamale and the entire Northern region. This could have also served as Prez Nana Addo‘s promise of building entertainment theatres in some selected metropolis.