Mahama's '60 ministers' claim is not realistic - Lawyer

Private legal practitioner, Kwame Adofo, has said that claims by the former president and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, that he will be running an administration with just 60 ministers is not realistic.

His comments come on the back of claims by the flagbearer, John Mahama during his acceptance speech after a landslide win in the presidential and parliamentary primaries of the NDC.

He was speaking on Kumasi-based Hello FM and was monitored by GhanaWeb.

According to Lawyer Adofo, running an administration with less than 80 ministers will be challenging for the former president. But then again, the claim didn’t come as a manifesto promise but rather an acceptance speech.

“Currently there are 86 ministers, 27 of them are cabinet ministers, 16 are regional ministers and 17 are other ministers, a sum of it all makes up to 86. So, now if you look closely at the claim by the former president, Mahama, that he was going to run an administration with just 60 ministers. Out of the 60, when you subtract 16 which is automatic, 27 cabinet ministers which also remains automatic, when you do the subtraction, you will be left with just a few ministers. It will be interesting to see what will happen because if you look at the composition, once you come under 80, you will have problems. It will be left with just 17 ministers, all other ministries have not been included yet,” he said.

The lawyer further stated that former President Mahama may come up with a more feasible figure in his manifesto after careful recalculation of the number of ministers they will need to run their administration if they should win.

“So, it is true about what he said but let’s wait on his manifesto. When we see it in the manifesto, then we can be serious about discussing it. At this stage, there is no manifesto, he only gave an acceptance speech. Maybe after their calculations, they will come up with realistic numbers because as we speak even the 60 is not realistic. So, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that the campaign has now begun,” he added.

Background:

Mr Mahama delivering an acceptance speech following his victory in the NDC’s Primaries at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Monday, May 15, 2023, pledged his commitment to run a government with fewer officials and appointees as compared to the current Akufo-Addo-led administration.

“I am committed to operating an effective government with not more than sixty (60) ministers. These Ministers together with other appointees of the government will not be entitled to ex-gratia payments after their tenure, as they will commit to that undertaking even before the necessary constitutional amendments, including a review of the controversial Article 71,” Mr Mahama stated.

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