Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the President of Ghana
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo may just go down into Ghana’s history as the only president to have almost never reshuffled his appointees during his presidency.
At the latest count, nearly six years into his presidency, the president has made only a handful of reshufflings since he took office in January
Read full article2017, most of which happened after his first tenure of four years.
While there is no legislative requirement for a president to reshuffle his appointees a number of times or not, the arrangement has always existed as a check and balance on the performance or otherwise of the appointed.
Reshuffling has also served, for the most part, as an avenue for presidents to give the chance to as many of their people as possible - the window of showcasing how competent or qualified they are at leadership.
There have also been arguments that if the appointees are so good at their jobs, there should never be the need for them to be taken off it but not everyone agrees with why President Akufo-Addo has decided not to bring some restructuring to his appointments.
In the most recent examples, one National Democratic Congress (NDC) member, and another member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), have expressed worry over the disinterest of the president to reshuffle his appointees.
The two are the NDC's Nii Kpakpo Samoa and the NPP's Kwabena Agyei Agyapong.
In this GhanaWeb report, we take a look at certain boiling point moments in this country where the actions or otherwise of certain appointees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should have given room for the Head of State to take them off the job, or simply re-assign them.
Here they are:
Ken Ofori-Atta
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, leads this list because of all the appointees of the president since 2017, he remains the most vilified and most called-out.
Known for his soft-talking nature, the minister has come under a lot of fire for his roles in such things as overseeing the COVID-19 expenditure which included some GH¢12m purportedly used to distribute food in Accra and Kumasi; his introduction of the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy); and the most recent one being the fallouts of how badly the country’s economy is, forcing it to go to the IMF.
Sarah Adwoa Safo
Unlike others, many have held the view that the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, should have already been sacked from her position as the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
This is because the MP has been absent from her role and from the country for close to a year, in what has been justified as she taking time off to attend to personal and medical issues.
While away for that long, a situation that has even forced the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to refer her to the Privileges Committee of Parliament for absenteeism, President Akufo-Addo has kept her at the post.
Not even the several calls from party members and many Ghanaians have pushed President Nana Akufo-Addo to take her off the job.
Kwaku Agyeman-Manu:
At the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, made one of the most rush decisions when he played a major role in a botched Sputnik V vaccine procurement for Ghana.
This was after the Ad-hoc Committee of Parliament set up to investigate the unsuccessful procurement of the vaccine by the Ministry of Health, released a report of its findings and recommendations, stating that it discharged its mandate by “diligently” examining the two agreements as well as “written and oral evidence on the subject within the parameters of the seven terms of reference and the timelines given by the house.”
The Committee said it found that the Ministry of Health did not comply with the requirements of Article 181 (5) of the Constitution in respect of its agreement with Dubai-based Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the middleman from whom the government of Ghana tried procuring 300,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
Sheikh Al Maktoum eventually refunded $2,470,000 to Ghana’s coffers after everything but it was not enough for people to let the minister be.
Several calls were made on the president to sack Kwaku Agyeman-Manu and not even mounting pressure from parliament saw this happen.
Instead, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo heaped praises on his appointee, explaining that the latter was rather suffering.
President Akufo-Addo joked that Kwaku Agyeman-Manu is being slapped left and right by Ghanaians.
Speaking in the Bono Region on Tuesday, August 10, 2021, during his two-day tour of the region, President Akufo-Addo said, “There are a lot of people from the Bono Region in my government; including the Minister of Health, who is currently receiving slaps [from Ghanaians]. He is an indigene of Dormaa. He has really suffered in that Health Ministry and is still suffering,” he said amid laughter.
Kwesi Amoako-Atta:
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Atta, courted a lot of enmity when he ordered for all toll booth services across the country be stopped immediately.
This was after the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, indicated the government’s intention to review the status of toll booths in the country during his 2021 presentation of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy to parliament.
Eugene Arhin
The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, got a lot of bashing in 2021 when his former wife filed for a divorce against him.
In the process, it emerged that the young politician had amassed so much wealth in the short period he worked at the presidency, giving rise to many people to call for him to be sacked.
Among other things, the former wife of Eugene Arhin, Gloria Assan, her husband had acquired 32 apartments, 5 houses, a barbering shop, and a number of companies and businesses.
Although there were several calls for him to be sacked, he has remained at the post, serving in his sixth year at present.
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