Spin on my cabinet meetings comment unfortunate – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said he never sought to suggest that President Akufo Addo is a better president than ex-President John Mahama simply because he (Akufo Addo) has held more cabinet meetings than his predecessor did.

The Information Minister who doubles as MP revealed that in less than three years, Akufo-Addo government has held more cabinet meetings than the erstwhile Mahama administration did in the entire fours they were in office.

According to him, the President holds his cabinet meetings to ensure that he is meticulously in the know of all major developments in the respective ministries.

He said while the Mahama administration held 48 cabinet meetings in the life of the government, the current one has had 64 already.

“This is the 64th cabinet meeting that is just ended. The president is very keen on the proper functioning of arms of cabinet especially the executive and so he believes that these constitutionally mandated platforms for decision making like cabinet."

“If you compare to the previous administration, in the whole four years they did I think just about 48 in the whole four years. This is getting to the end of year 3 and under the watch of Akufo-Addo we’ve done 64 already,” he told the media at a press encounter in Accra Sunday.

Some critics have taken the Minister on, asking him what makes him think that a President holding 64 cabinet sessions makes him a better leader than his predecessor who convened less.

But Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in an interview with Host of Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM Kwaku Owusu Adjei aka ‘Patoo’ said he never sought to make any such conclusion.

“I think there’s a bit of a spin on what I said and that’s unfortunate. A journalist asked me why the president often holds cabinet meetings and I explained that per the records he’s held about 64 Cabinet meetings and 7 Retreats because he prefers that cabinet takes decision on key issues because he’s focused on that one."

"Every President has his style of doing things, we’ve never said that just because President Akufo Addo has held more meetings than ex-President Mahama did while in office makes him a better leader than Mahama. My statement was in response to that question, the impression created in the reportage suggesting that we’re comparing the number of cabinet meetings to show who’s a better leader is absolutely not right.”