The Federal Government will begin early preparations for the 2026 edition of Nigeria’s year-end celebrations, popularly known as Detty December, starting in March, Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa has announced.

Musawa disclosed this on Saturday while reviewing the 2025 festive season during an interview on MIC ON, a podcast hosted by Seun Okinbaloye.

She said that although the last Detty December delivered strong economic and tourism gains, it also exposed structural gaps that must be addressed to sustain Nigeria’s growing appeal as a global holiday destination.

According to the minister, the overall impact of the season was positive, especially in terms of tourist inflow and spending, but challenges such as inadequate accommodation, inflated pricing by service providers and traffic congestion threatened to undermine the experience.

“Presently, we are doing an interrogation of the 2025 Detty December. I would say more positives than the negatives. For the negatives, the lack of accommodation and overpricing of the vendors, which I think is the major issue on the table that we are looking at.

“We are going to start the push for this year’s Detty December in March. The paper that is going to go out to the Federal Executive Council, to bring in all the necessary interdependencies that will help in delivering a fantastic festive season in Lagos, is something that is going to start in March,” she said.

Detty December refers to the flurry of concerts, festivals, parties and cultural events that dominate Nigeria’s social calendar towards the end of the year, with Lagos serving as the main hub for both local and foreign visitors.

Musawa said Lagos has now become synonymous with December tourism globally, but stressed the need to deliberately expand festivities to other parts of the country.

She stated, “Obviously, when you talk about December now anywhere in the world, Lagos is really the choice destination for anyone to come. 

“We are, however, hoping to expand this by creating more activities and content across the country. For instance, during December, you have the Calabar Festival, as well as several activities in Enugu, Plateau, and other parts of the South East.

“These are some of the areas we hope that in the coming December, we will have more content to attract people to experience other parts of Nigeria.”

She explained that the Federal Government intends to provide stronger support to Lagos and the creative sector through targeted funding and infrastructure development, including an endowment fund aimed at boosting creative output.

“But we as a Federal Government have to support Lagos more in terms of you know the funding the the finances that come in for even just the creatives in the in the in the in the industry to give them more support.

“The endowment fund that we’re hoping to present will allow them to do that. And of course, the infrastructure is really not there. Bring in more hotels, more five-star hotels and more upper-class hotels,” she added.

Musawa also expressed optimism that ongoing airport upgrades in Lagos would improve the arrival experience for visitors by the end of the year.

She added that while efforts are being made by the Ministry of Works and the Lagos State Government to ease traffic through new roads and flyovers, unchecked pricing could still damage Nigeria’s competitiveness.

“The government has to come in to bring some sanity in terms of the pricing so that people can come into Nigeria, and we do not lose the effect of Nigeria being the place to come in December,” the minister stated.

The United States military is ramping up the provision of equipment and intelligence support to Nigeria as part of a wider effort to collaborate with African forces in combating Islamic State-linked militants, according to Lt. Gen. John Brennan, Deputy Commander of US Africa Command.

Brennan disclosed this in an interview with AFP on the sidelines of a US–Nigeria security meeting held in Abuja last week.

According to Brennan, Washington has adopted a more forceful approach in targeting IS-linked groups across the continent.

“Under the Trump administration, we’ve gotten a lot more aggressive and are working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS,” he said.

“From Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected. So we’re trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need.”

He added that the US was focusing on enabling partners by providing equipment and operational capabilities with fewer restrictions.

“It’s been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful,” Brennan said.

The inaugural US–Nigeria Joint Working Group meeting came about a month after the United States carried out surprise Christmas Day air strikes on IS-linked targets in northwestern Nigeria.

Brennan said American support going forward would prioritise intelligence sharing to support Nigerian air operations in both the northwest and the northeast, where insurgency by Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province, has persisted since 2009.

He described ISWAP as “our most concerning group”.

The renewed military cooperation comes amid diplomatic pressure from Washington over claims of mass killings of Christians in Nigeria.

Abuja and several independent analysts have rejected that framing, arguing that Nigeria’s security crises are complex and affect communities across religious lines.

The issue surfaced at the Joint Working Group meeting, where US State Department official Allison Hooker urged Nigeria to protect Christians in a speech that did not mention Muslim victims.

Brennan, however, told AFP that US intelligence support would not be limited to protecting Christians.

Analysts have tracked increased US intelligence flights over Nigeria in recent months but have questioned whether air support alone can weaken militant groups operating in areas plagued by poverty and weak state presence.

The initial US strikes reportedly targeted fighters linked to Islamic State Sahel Province, a group more commonly active in neighbouring Niger.

Brennan warned that the spread of IS-linked groups from the Sahel into coastal West African countries, including Nigeria, was a growing concern.

The impact of the strikes remains unclear, with journalists unable to independently verify militant casualties.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, said last week that the operation was “still a work in progress”.

Brennan also said the US has maintained communication with the militaries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, despite the countries being ruled by military juntas and having curtailed formal cooperation with Western partners.

“We still collaborate,” he said, adding that intelligence had been shared with some of the countries to target terrorist groups.

“We still talk to our military partners across the Sahelian states, even though it’s not official,” Brennan noted.

Brennan stressed that Washington was not seeking to establish new military bases in West Africa following the closure of its drone base in Agadez, Niger.

“We’re not in the market to create a drone base anywhere,” he said.

“We are much more focused on getting capability to the right place at the right time and then leaving. We don’t seek long-term basing in any of the West African countries.”