Tears @ Tourism Ministry Over Zita’s Exit

The Tourism Ministry in Accra as at 9:00 am to 4:00 pm yesterday was filled with silence and wailings as the workers sent signals to one another over how some of them might lose their jobs, following the exit of Zita Okaikoi, the sector minister after this week’s cabinet reshuffle by President John Evans Atta Mills.

However, some of the workers in an interview said although they might be given ‘red cards’ to go home, they were also much concerned about some of the works, Zita had been compelled to leave uncompleted. One of the workers recalled that Mrs. Okaikoi recently cut a sod for the construction of a 1.2 million dollar project called Accra Visitors and Tourist Information Centre (AVIC), which was funded by the Japanese Government, to provide information to travelers, tourists, donors, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and the general public.

To buttress some of her achievements, she also recently inaugurated 25 tourism clubs drawn from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions mainly from the Greater Accra Region, to promote domestic tourism in the country.

Not all, Mrs. Okaikoi, in her early tenure in office did not only commence the construction of a tourist reception facility centre at Axim in the Western Region, but also took the initiative in the establishment of a tourist reception facility at Agotime-Kpetoe, a tourist site in the Volta Region, to fill the tourism information gap in the area. The facilities comprised of museums, libraries, information offices, toilets, car parking spaces, and areas for private sector development.

Zita, under the theme; “Building A Better Ghana Through Tourism,” held a mid-year review meeting at Akosombo in the Eastern Region to review the performance of the ministry for the first half of the year. The meeting was also aimed at accessing the performance of other prominent agencies in the ministry, particularly the Ghana Tourist Board and the Ghana Tourism Development Agency, as well as other outstanding activities and projects that had been designed to commence this year.

Zita’s office was also intended to establish tourism foreign mission offices for the promotion of tourism activities in other countries, as well as preparing for this year’s Panafest and Emancipation Day celebrations and marketing of Ghana’s tourism potentials on the international market.

However, information reaching the office of The New Crusading Guide newspaper has indicated that some other organizations that saw “life” in Zita’s administration had begun bracing up to appeal to government to reinstate her Zita.

One of such organizations is the Tour Guide Association of Ghana, under the leadership of Mr. Kwaku Passah, who according to him, was seriously filing an ultimatum to government for the reinstatement of the former tourism minister.