Plateau denies scrapping tourism ministry in cabinet reshuffle

File: Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State.

The Plateau State Government has denied claims that it scrapped the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality in the ongoing cabinet reshuffle by the Governor Caleb Mutfwang administration.

The clarification was made on Sunday by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Policy and Governance, Yiljap Abraham, in an interview with PUNCH Online in Jos.

Abraham maintained that the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality remained key to the Mutfwang administration’s economic diversification agenda, given Plateau’s potential in hospitality, cultural festivals and eco-tourism.

PUNCH Online reports that Mutfwang last Thursday carried out a major cabinet reshuffle aimed at repositioning the government for better service delivery.

The cabinet reshuffle saw many commissioners moved to new ministries, including the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Peter Gai, who was redeployed to the Ministry of Agriculture.

A few commissioners, including Joyce Ramnap and Philip Daffi, SAN, however, retained their portfolios in the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Justice, respectively.

But out of the 20 ministries and their commissioners listed by the government in the new cabinet reshuffle, the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality was conspicuously missing, as no commissioner was assigned to it.

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Since then, there had been speculations that the Tourism Ministry had been scrapped by the government.

But in an interview with PUNCH Online in Jos on Sunday, the governor’s aide dismissed the claim, saying the ministry remained part of the government structure.

“The government has not scrapped the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality. It is still one of the existing ministries under the present administration,” Abraham said.

He explained that the ministry had only been placed under temporary oversight following the reshuffle.

“But for now, the Commissioner for Information will continue to oversee the ministry pending when the governor appoints a substantive commissioner to head that ministry,” Abraham added.

Abraham noted that the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality was key to the Mutfwang administration’s economic diversification agenda, given Plateau’s potential in hospitality, cultural festivals and eco-tourism.

“The appointments into vacant commissioner positions, including that of the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality, will be announced in due course,” the governor’s aide added.