The Reshuffle, At Last

 

The man popularly referred to as Addo Show Boy has engaged in the big “show”. President Akufo-Addo has finally reshuffled his Cabinet with some interesting reassignments and exits from the government.

For sometime now, some members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have called on the President to reshuffle his government to give it a new lease of life to prosecute the agenda of breaking the eight. Last year, after the group of almost 100 NPP MPs called for the resignation of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minority did not just support the agitation but followed it up with a motion of censure to put pressure on the President to sack his Finance Minister.

The Majority boycotted the proceedings and it failed to receive the required numbers to carry out the censure motion.

That failure to remove the Finance Minister notwithstanding, the call for a ministerial reshuffle, came from various quarters with the latest coming from the NPP leadership. The pressure has mounted to such an extent that yesterday, on an auspicious occasion such as Valentine’s Day, the President decided to relieve some of his appointees of the jobs and bring in fresh blood to re-energise the regime to deal with the country’s economic challenges.

Many people could feel the reshuffle in the air except the exact date and those to be affected were unknown.

Some surprises have emerged in the names of those exiting and entering the team, described by some especially the NDC as injury time reshuffle.  The NDC has issued a statement to that effect claiming that it wonders whether the changes would fix the seven years of so-called mismanagement.

The NDC knows that nobody has the magic wand to fix all the country’s challenges but in concert some solutions can be found to our economic problems. However, we have always told Ghanaians to be wary of the NDC because its leaders and members are in a parallel line with the truth.

What they preach and the reality on the ground would never align.

If that party and its other leaders who are prepared to sacrifice their firstborns for power appreciate the truth, they would not have issued a statement condemning the President for what it called injury time reshuffle.

If they have forgotten, we want to remind them of a reshuffle the NDC flagbearer carried out in January 2016 as the then President of the Republic.

Mr. James Agyenim Boateng who signed the statement of the Minority in Parliament, we have one question for you.

At that time, did President Mahama commence the game or his term with those ministers including their current General Secretary, Franklin Fifi Fiavi Kwetey who was appointed Minister of Transport? Is that why yesterday, February 14, 2024, President Akufo-Addo’s reshuffle can be said to have happened in injury time?

Every President has the prerogative to realign his appointees for more efficient and effective discharge of his government’s mandate. In the case of the Cabinet of President Akufo-Addo, some may become tired and have no new ideas for their portfolios.

But others have been reshuffled to enable those with new ideas to re-energise the government. It cannot be said to be for want of trying but purely because new hands are needed by the President to execute the rest of his mandate.

Let the critics call it anything, but that includes the prerogative of the President enshrined in our Constitution. Perhaps, the NDC people are also not familiar with what happens on the football pitch.

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