Author, literary coach, and poet Philip Boakye Dua Oyinka, better known as Nana Asaase says he would reform the departments and units within the Tourism Ministry if he was the President of the country.

He feels that there is excessive duplication of roles at the ministry, and if elected president, he would abolish all these roles and reorganise them to avert this duplication.

Speaking in a yet-to-be-aired interview with Sarah Amelley Djosu on Celeb Biz, he said, “If I were president, I would enter parliament and see how we would be able to draw all the curtains down, freeze all of them, take your time, and put one body together.”

“If it’s the Ministry of Tourism, let’s have the Ministry of Tourism. If it’s the Ministry of Arts and Culture or Cultural Affairs, let’s put that together so they can be two separate entities. There is too much replication of roles when the system can be so fluid.”

According to him, the tourism sector and the art and culture sectors must be intertwined in order for the two to thrive.

Furthermore, he stated that the tourism sector would largely surpass art and culture if the two industries did not collaborate. He urged that both entities work together.

Asked if anything would change if he is unable to make it to the presidency but ends up as the minister for tourism, and what he would do to improve the sector, he said; “I would see to it that I would make promises and keep them. I’ll set realistic targets. As a poet, I tell you that I have a show on this day, and I’ll deliver, which simply means I made a promise and I’ve kept it. Now, I’d go back and look at indigenous ways of architecture, for instance; set up a fantastic academy, and people from different parts of the world would come to the centre of the world to learn”.

The poet is of the view that art holds the basis for science and other sectors, including architecture. He has therefore entreated the Tourism Ministry to concentrate on fixing the depleting roads leading to some of Ghana’s famous sites, while the other sectors also focus on their areas.

Watch the full interview this Saturday, November 18, at exactly 5 p.m. on Joy Prime and get more insights about poetry and Nana Asaase’s opinion concerning issues within the creative art industry.