By Eva Irewole
The Nigerian tourism sector and by extension the federal ministry of Tourism can now heave a sigh of relief as the Tourism Minister, Ms. Lola Ade-John, has returned to Nigeria, all set to resume work in Abuja after a long hiatus occasioned by debilitating health crisis.
The Tourism sector had been thrown into anxiety, just few weeks after the Minister’s inauguration, as she was hospitalised for alleged food poisoning.
TCN had reported in September that the minister, who was appointed by President Bola Tinubu along with 44 others in August, had been hospitalised since the third week in September over what insiders described as acute food poisoning.
It was learnt at the time that Ade-John, 60, was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, moments after she started manifesting worrying symptoms.
An online newspaper (not TCN) had alleged that the minister was put on a ventilator to aid her breathing while family members and ministry officials battled to have her transfered to a better- equipped private hospital.
Her condition reportedly worsened in October, which necessitated her transfer to a private hospital and eventually an undiscloses hospital in the United Kingdom, where she was treated and had been recuperating for several weeks before her return to Nigeria last week.
TCN gathered from multiple sources that Ms. Ade-John, who is one of the two ministers from Lagos State, is scheduled to return to work this week after the illness that reportedly affected her memory among other organs.
Her return is good news to both the ministry staff and her associates in the Tourism and allied sectors who had panicked that her prolonged absence was unsettling and had denied the ministry of progress.
Last December when the Minister didn’t return to work after exactly three months on sick bed, many industry players had expressed concern. Some even put up a flier on Tourism whatssap groups and social media for people to pray for the Minister.
The permanent secretary in the ministry, Ngozi Onwudike, had carried on the day-to-day running of the ministry but with little progress while the Minister, an IT expert with banking experience, was away.
Ade-John, who is from from Lagos State, assumed the role of minister in August, after Tourism as well as Art, Culture and Creative Economy ministries were carved out of the old Information, Tourism and Culture ministry.
She had relocated from London, which was her base for several years, to take up the ministerial appointment in August.
In her absence, the Ministry of Information6 and National Orientation has had new Director Generals appointed for its eight agencies.
Ditto for the Ministry of Art, Culture and Creative Economy which also had all new DGs and MDs appointed for the 11 agency under its care.
The new Tourism ministry, which inherited only two parastatals from the 21 agencies of the old Information, Culture and Tourism ministry, still retains its DGs at the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) and the National Institute of Hospitality abd Tourism (NIHOTOUR).
Many stakeholders told TCN that the Minister’s return would now help to recover lost grounds, assemble her own team and deliver based on the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu.
The stakeholders noted that while Ade-John was away, the two other Ministers from the old ministry, Mohammed Idris Malagi (Information and National Orientation) and Hanatu Musawa (Culture & Creative Economy) have had causes to travel abroad with the President and the Vice-President, as the case may be, in addition to several other events to promote their ministry’s activities locally and therefore the Tourism ministry will need to work hard to cover lost grounds.
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