You told us to judge 120 ministers by the result, why reduce the number? – Braimah asks Akufo-Addo

Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Mr Sulemana Braimah, has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to explain the decision that has resulted in the planned reduction of the number of minsters he will appoint to serve in his second administration.

Mr Akufo-Addo appointed 120 ministers for his first government.

He justified the number when he said in an interview on television in 2017 that “I’m aware that people are concerned about what they see as maybe the cost of this large government."

“It is a necessary investment to make for the rapid transformation of this country,” he said, adding that the ministers “are coming to work, it is not going to be a holiday.”

After being reelected in the 2020 elections, his Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin has served notice that the number of ministers will be reduced.

Mr Arhin in an interview with the Daily Graphic said the President Akufo-Addo has decided to collapse seven of the ministries he created in 2017.

He said, “The list, which would be printed on green sheets in the form of a statement, would contain a mixture of both old and new ministers, but the number would certainly not go beyond 85, as against the 126 in the first term.”

“Over 40 ministers and deputy ministers in the first Akufo-Addo administration who lost their parliamentary seats will not find themselves in the new government.”

Sharing his perspectives on this development in a tweet, the MFWA boss, Mr Sulemana Braimah said “Why not over 120 again? We were told to judge not the numbers but the delivery and results.

“Why, was the results from the fat size not good? If the numbers led to great outcomes why reduce it?”