Mills Must Be Reshuffled!

LAWYER OWUSU Afriyie, an aspirant for the position of General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that if there is any reshuffle to be made, then President Professor John Atta Mills needs to be reshuffled first, because he is the epitome of incompetence in as far as the governance of the nation is concerned!

He has also described the first year of the Mills-led administration as a total disaster, which has left a bitter taste in the mouths of all Ghanaians.

Lawyer Owusu Afriyie, who is popularly called Sir John, made these assertions in an interview with the Daily Searchlight yesterday. He stressed that Ghanaians were facing so many difficulties as a result of the incompetence of National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

“If you look at the past one year that Professor Mills has been the leader of this country, things are moving backwards over one hundred and eighty (180) degrees and the man is asleep, he cannot move and he is static and nothing in this country is moving,” he stated.

According to him, the epoch where one could get up early in the morning and hope for something better in the day were over, and this is due to the pitiless economic decisions by the government.

“Again in one year, businesses have collapsed, unemployment has risen, petroleum prices have been quadrupled and everything is not moving well,” he observed.

Ghanaians he said have regretted voting for the NDC and are yearning to see the return of the NPP back to power in 2012.

“This is a cosmetic reshuffle that he has done and the most important thing is that the man is asleep and very slow also. The President should wake up or either Ghanaians will show him the exit,” he said.

“Even President Rawlings has said there is pain in the chest of some people and also there is nothing new in the reshuffle. He is just reshuffling for the sake of it,” he claimed.

Lawyer Owusu Afriyie noted that it was obvious that the first year reign of the Professor Mills-led government has brought the nation to the brink, with sharp divisions in the society, a situation that is created by a government into whose bosom the good people of Ghana have invested their destinies.

He however expressed optimism and hopes that life under the NPP would restore confidence in Ghanaians and urged party faithful to ‘plan strategically’ and get involved in the ‘ongoing restructuring’ of the party.

Meanwhile in parliament, the New Patriotic Party MP for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, who describes Mr. Bagbin as a “heavyweight” in parliamentary affairs, said he is yet to come to terms with what informed the President’s decision to move the Majority Leader to the Works, Housing and Water Resources ministry.

“They are the most experienced Members of Parliament that you can have at any given point in time,” he said.

“I don’t [think] that it is a deliberate ploy to weaken Parliament as an institution but it is unfortunate that they are taking all three of them and other experienced Members of Parliament to the Executive side… Parliament will be very, very week.”

However National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Mfantseman West, Aquinas Quansah, has expressed different concerns.

He is unhappy that most of the MPs were not consulted before the changes to their leadership were made.

“Just consult us so that, at least, we’ll be in the know. We just don’t wake up and the following day we know we are coming to meet a new leader,” he indicated.

But another NDC MP disagrees. Dominic Azumah, MP for Garu Timpani believes the appointments will not create any vacuum in Parliament.

He said the current leadership of the House has shown that they are capable of handling affairs.