Should Nana Addo follow President Ouattara's example by reducing the number of his Ministers?

The Ghanaian economy is struggling, and it is an open secret. The President has urged the citizenry to have hope in the government and that there are better days ahead. This has been received well, but many are saying we don’t even have an option other than to trod along with no matter the consequence.

While we are trying

Read full articleto build that hope in a state of soaring prices where our salaries and incomes seem to be losing the battle over these daily price hikes, many are looking for steps the government can take to help the situation. They say there is a good example that one of our neighbors is taking and we can take it to help the situation.

This is the step Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is taking. He has given an indication that he is going to reduce his ministers.

"I have decided to reduce the number of government ministers in order to strengthen government effectiveness and bearing in mind the current world economic situation," Ouattara said.

"It is crucial to reduce state spending and steer it towards social and security resilience," he added. The government of Ivory Coast is seeking to reduce its ministers to around 30 from the current 41, with new appointments to be made next week to govern the world's top cocoa producer. If the government of Ivory Coast has 41 Ministers with a population of 26.38 million people, then our government must follow their steps and substantially reduce our Ministers.

The President told us that he needed a huge government because he was in a hurry to fix the country. Five years down the lane, we don’t know if we have still not gotten to our destination and still need this number of Ministers. The government showed an example by asking its appointees to take a salary cut, but they can still scale things up by reducing the size of the government.

While we look up expectations for that future of hope, we must note that the hopefulness or hopelessness of the future depends on our current steps. That step must be bold, and it must include a reduction in the size of government.