Ms Lola Ade-John, the new Minister of Tourism
‘Bring your vast experience to bear in running new Tourism ministry,’ ITPN tasks Ade-John
National President of the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN), Chief Abiodun Odusanwo, has tasked the newly-appointed Ministry of Tourism, Ms Lola Ade-John to bring her vast and wealth of experience in the ICT, banking and resource management fields to bear in administering the new Ministry of Tourism.
The ITPN boss, while congratulating President Bola Tinubu for establishing the Ministry of Tourism after years of clamouring by stakeholders and operators alike, also urged the new minister, Ms Ade-John, to ‘see her appointment as a clarion call to grow and develop the country’s tourism resources via the creative application of modern technology which is capable of generating great revenue, creating job opportunities, fighting poverty and revamping the ailing national economy.’
According to Odusanwo, ‘while the private sector operators are the orchestra in their respective fields of callings, government remains the conductor providing the sense of vision, coordinating competitive marketing intelligence, the executional insights and the ability to bring members of the orchestra together to achieve the desired national goals that the tourism industry stands to offer.’
Reacting to Wednesday’s unveiling of the new cabinet by President Tinubu in which the Ministry of Tourism was announced, the ITPN chief, in a personally signed statement, Thursday, expressed gratitude to the government for ‘heeding to the calls and aspirations of the Nigerian tourism community in the establishment of a stand-alone Tourism Ministry for the country.’
Odusanwo stressed that the decision remains ‘a very key and strategic move by the government to embrace tourism as a key driver of socio-economic growth of the country.’
While noting that ‘Nigeria is greatly endowed with huge tourism potentials waiting to be tapped,’ Odusanwo disclosed that industry players and critical stakeholders in the sector now ‘look up to the minister to run the affairs of the ministry with that ‘orchestra-conductor’ relationship with the objective of re-positioning the ministry as a viable government body for purposeful leadership guidance and direction, functional policy formulations, and implementable high-tech solutions that will create the enabling environment for operators of the industry at both public and private sector levels to thrive.’
“The call for a stand-alone tourism ministry has been on for a very long time now, but coming to the rescue with the creation of the Tourism Ministry by the administration of President Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, it is hoped that the Renewed Hope Agenda of his Government will truly breathe a renewed hope in the Nigerian tourism industry for better performance in the nation’s socio-economic facet,” the ITPN President stressed.
He assured that the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria ‘as the nation’s premier professional awarding body in tourism, hospitality and related trades, will continue to ensure high level of competent professional practices in the industry as well as put in check the wanton and unwholesome infiltration and practices of quacks within the professional folds of the industry.’
Odusanwo, however, rallied ‘all critical stakeholders and key players in the industry to instill professional competence in their operations and diligently support the new Minister in the successful administration of the ministry that will ensure better results and greater outcome for the industry and for the good of the country.’
