Catherine Afeku maintains, there is no tradition in the party that must be followed to ensure that all descendants of founding fathers must take their turn to serve the party making way for a Dombo to be the next flag bearer.

According to Madam Afeku, the widely trumpeted Dankwah-Busia-Dombo tradition recently translated to mean Dr Bawumia is next to lead the NPP is a misconception.

She argues that Dr Bawumia is not of the Dombo tradition and there is no descendant of Dombo in the contest.

She spoke in an interview with Luv FM’s Nana Boakye Yiadom in Kumasi.

The Former MP is, however, staging a comeback to win the Evalue Agomoro Gwire seat from the incumbent NDC MP, Kofi Arko Nokoe, whose first term in parliament she describes as a “waste of four years”.

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Mr Chaie has decried the MCs, Catherine Afeku and Lord Commey’s attitudes, describing them as destructive in conduct thereby not allowing the conference to run smoothly smoothly.

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He said the duo deliberately spoke as the NDC delivered her solidarity message.

Mr Tetteh Chaie who was speaking as guest on Adom TV’s Badwam show also described the participation of the NPP’s supporters in the occasion as “not encouraging”.

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“The sort of excitement, participation and morale you expect at such events were not there due to apathy amongst Ghanaians,” he noted.

The event, which took place at the Trade Fair Centre, La in Accra was addressed by President Akufo-Addo and other Stalwarts of the party with goodwill messages from other political parties.

According to her, the rejuvenated HOTCATT will aid in the transformation of Ghana’s tourism and hospitality industry, as well as building stronger socio-economic development.

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In an interview on Adom TV’s Badwam show Thursday, Madam Afeku revealed that the restoration of the institute after a long period of desertion is aimed at providing an enabling environment for the training of personnel for the hospitality industry.

“It’s true we have hospitality departments in universities in Ghana but we want to create a separate strong institution specifically for the training of skilled and certified personnel. This, I believe, will help to improve our service delivery which is the greatest challenge of the industry,” she announced.

Madam Afeku also mentioned the need for hospitality and tourism institutions to meet the requirements of the World Bank to create a strong tourism enabling environment.

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This, he said was aimed at addressing the problems of training, skills development, aviation, entry visa policy, branding and marketing in the Ghana tourism industry

“The industry received 40 million dollars from the World Bank of which 33% constitutes grants to revamp the Ghana tourism industry which they stated has caught their attention,” she revealed.

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Named Centre of the world Tower, it will be in the class of France’s Eiffel Tower and that of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa both of which are master pieces that has raked in millions for their countries.

The Burj Khalifa recorded $1.43 billion dollars in 2016 alone while the Eiffel Tower makes as much as €344 billion Euros for the French economy.

Comparing these figures made by these towers, CEO of Ghana Tourism Company, Kojo Antwi is optimistic that Ghana could make similar profits.

According to him, investors are already showing interest in the project with talks ongoing to get it kick started.

Mr Antwi made this known in commemoration of World Tourism day which is being marked in Tamale.

Meanwhile, other major projects are underway to also boost tourism sites in the nation while promoting our food, fabrics and culture and the creative arts industry to the outside world.

Catherine Afeku told Members of Parliament Tuesday investigations conducted show the tourist site was operated by the Municipal Assembly during the fatal accident that killed some 20 students of the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School and the School of Mines and Natural Resources at Fiapre.

“A day after, [the incident] my team, the Vice President of this country and other stakeholders visited the site. We did not see any illegal occupation of the site… No one was able to corroborate the story of illegal occupants…” she said.

But Mr Ablakwa in a rebuttal said the comment by the Tourism Minister is part of a grand scheme to protect the pro-New Patriotic Party’s inexperienced Invisible Forces, who manned as the place December elections.

“If the minister said the municipal assembly was in charge and doesn’t know about the forces then she has insulted our intelligence. They were not trained personnel. We in the minority are not satisfied with her response…” he said to Okay FM.

In addition, Mr Ablakwa recalled how the Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahen and the Chief of Kyeremankoma, where the site is located, alleged that the group evicted all tour guides after the NPP won the 2016 elections, in the weeks leading up to the March 2017 disaster which claimed 18 lives.

It is with this that, the minority MP said the precious lives that were lost at the tourist grounds don’t correspond with the response the minister gave to parliament as such she should stop defending the forces.

“The chief and Nana Obiri Boahen said invisible forces have taken over and the invisible forces taking over weren’t wrong. We also listened to 9 invisible force members who claim they collect monies from tourists and share with the regional executives of the NPP, we have the tape…” he explained.

He however added that, “The young people who lost their lives were more than 20. Human’s lives are precious for such a response from her. It isn’t good to cover things up. This kind of shielding of the conduct of the forces will encourage them to keep up with the assaults…”

According to Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa, any family member of the victim who files against the state in the law court will render the state a lot of trouble hence the government should award them the compensations they deserve duly.

“Any family member who takes a legal matter against the state will render the state a lot of trouble. If this is the way they will continue shielding them then people will join and think they can get away with things. Covering party vigilante groups won’t help. The government should compensate the families…” He said.

The Cabinet is constituted in conformity with Article 76 (1) of the 1992 constitution. The Constitution enjoins the President to have a Cabinet of not less than 10 and not more than 19 ministers.

Find below the full list of Cabinet ministers:

Minister of Trade and Industry – Alan Kyeremanten

Minister of Finance – Ken Ofori-Atta

Minister of Defence – Dominic Nitiwul

Minister of Interior – Ambrose Dery

Minister of Energy – Dr. Boakye Agyarko

Attorney General – Gloria Akuffo

Minister of Foreign Affairs – Shirley Ayorkor Botchway

Minister of Agriculture – Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto

Minister of Education – Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh

Minister of Health – Kwaku Agyemang-Manu

Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation – Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei

Ministry of Regional Reorganization and Development – Dan Kweku Botwe

Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources – John Peter Amewu

Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources – Joseph Kofi Adda

Ministry of Railway Development – Joe Ghartey

Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations – Ignatius Bafuor Awuah

Ministry of Transport – Kweku Ofori Asiamah

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture – Catherine Afeku *

Ministry of Special Development Initiative – Mavis Hawa Koomson

The inclusion of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to the Cabinet will be good news to the creative sector. For the past years, stakeholders of this sector have bemoaned the woes of their industry to what they call ‘relegation-to-the-back’ by successive governments.

Being part of the Cabinet therefore implies that the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, would have the rare opportunity join the top echelon of the executive in making decisions for the country.

Consequently, this inclusion is expected to bring some positive change in the creative arts and tourism sectors.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show “Dwaso Nsem” Tuesday, Mrs Afeku said the non-existence of specific Tourism Legislation has led to the unnecessary takeovers by party Foot Soldiers such the Invisible Forces taking over the Kintampo Water Falls.

This development follows accusation by the Kyeremankomahene of Kintampo, Nana Effah Guakro blaming the cause of the recent disaster on the takeover of the Kintampo Falls by the Invisible Forces.

The students, from the Wenchi Methodist Senior High School and the University of Energy and Natural Resources, were bathing in the pond beneath the waterfall during a heavy rain storm on Sunday when a tree along the banks broke, crashing them to death.

Following the incident, the chief of the town disclosed that immediately after the 2016 general elections, the Kintampo sect of pro-NPP vigilante group, Invincible Forces, chased away operators of the facility and took over

But Mrs Afeku says the Legislative Instrument (LI) will bring an end to such mishaps.