Akufo-Addo's 'no reshuffle' will not affect NPP's chances in 2024 - Ben Ephson

The New Patriotic Party, NPP, will not be adversely affected in the 2024 polls because of the continued refusal of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to conduct a reshuffle.

This is the view of veteran journalist and pollster, Ben Ephson, who has stated that the group of people known as 'swing voters,' make decisions on more concrete variables than a

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Speaking on the August 11 edition of Joy FM’s 'Top Story' programme, Mr. Ephson said, “it is the bread and butter issues that will make the swing voters decide to vote for party A or B, not his inability to agree to calls for him to reshuffle.

“I disagree … each person going to vote in 2024 is going to vote (based on) whether his life has improved since 2020, he is going to vote on whether he thinks that of the two parties, whose policies will benefit him?,” he stated.

Ephson was reacting to comments by a former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, who on another programme backed calls for a reshuffle on the grounds that it could help government with fresh ideas to deal with prevailing economic challenges and also its electoral fortunes in the long term.

A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, however held a different view to that of the pollster.

He cited principally how reshuffles introduce fresh energy and ideas, adding: “at the end of the day people are going to judge you through the work that you did. Let us remember that election is nothing but the contest of ideas and work done by ministers.”

The President, on August 8, whiles speaking in an exclusive interview on Tamale-based North Star radio, during an official tour of the region; defended the output his ministers have put in so far, stating: “many of them for me have done outstanding work. Their output has been considerable, and that is what I look at.

“If the output measures expectations, then I don’t have any strong reasons to heed the call,” President Akufo-Addo added.

Calls for a ministerial reshuffle has heightened in recent weeks on the back of an economic downturn that has forced the government to seek an economic rescue programme from the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

Even though the calls have come from the opposition, there have been rising calls from within calling for a reshuffle. The President’s only reshuffle since coming into office in 2017 was in August 2018.

SARA