‘Elephant Size Government’: Lecturer counters IMANI Boss

The raging controversy over the size of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government is far from over with various pundits taking various positions.

Whereas the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has made mockery of the 110 appointees making up the new government and shot down government’s defense through the Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid that the number is needed to ‘assist’ the President pursue an ‘ambitious’ development agenda, the IMANI Chief said “If that is the case then we need to add militia men as well and probably give them spoons instead of shovels to dig holes,”

He believes the country requires not less than 30 ministers to execute the work schedule of the 110 that make up the current government less than three months old.

But Mohammed Abass, political scientist with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) disagrees.

Even though he admits the number is overly bloated he described Mr Cudjoe’s analysis as ‘senseless’.

‘Prudency is what we need, you see this number has nothing to do with prudence,… I have listened to Franklin Cudjoe, he was making sense until he was asked about the end justify the means. I am afraid to say he didn’t make sense to me, I really didn’t get what he was up to over there’

‘Sometimes if you are not there, you will not see the enormity of the task. Sometimes the politicians themselves are hypocrites attacking a previous government than the number far higher than what they were having, they themselves give wrong signals to the public,’ he said on Kumasi-based Ultimate Fm.

‘As a political analyst I would say it is a worrying situation, but we should not condemn the government. There is an element of hypocrisy on politicians.

They should be mindful of their utterances when in opposition. Let’s hear from the government. If you go into the literature and the books, its ok.

The real issue is the results, at the end of the day if they achieve the results in line with the promises to move us forward, the number will not be relevant, but the government must listen and come out with more justification,’ he stated.