Ministerial Reshuffle Expected

President Kufuor is expected to embark on another ministerial reshuffle sometime next week. Rumors of the reshuffle have been around since late last year, but the resignation of two ministers has added some legitimacy to the gossip.

The president’s immediate task is to appoint a new minister for Interior and one for the northern region. According to the “daily dispatch”, the new minister is expected to come from one of the three northern regions, for the sake of ethnic balance in Cabinet. The former Interior Minister, Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu was the only Cabinet minister from the three northern regions.

Kufuor will either choose one of the current ministers of state for the national security position or pick an outsider. He will also have to decide on the ethnic background of the new northern regional minister, with the odds that the person will NOT be a northerner.

The impending ministerial reshuffle is likely to affect some of the deputy ministers of state, balancing their effectiveness as deputy ministers and the need for those who lost in the 2000 Parliamentary election, to rethink their strategies to start campaigning for the constituencies they lost in.

Although the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has always rebuffed arguments that the nearly 75 ministers of state were too many, there are credible indications that a few of the deputy ministerial positions would be merged, in an attempt to reduce the total number of ministers.

Whilst it is true that the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) had over 85 ministers of state, some political analysts expected the NPP government to limit its number to around 60, given the vehement criticisms of the NPP then in the opposition, to the number of ministers of state in the then NDC government.

“A source close to the presidency told the Dispatch; president Kufuor may appear gentle but he definitely knows what he is about even though his government is still popular, he recognizes that the buck starts and stops with him. He very decisive when it comes to taking appropriate decision and I think that those of us close to him do not doubt his ability to do that.”

Works and Housing Minister To Take Over Interior Ministry

Works and Housing Minister, Yaw Barimah has been tipped for Interior Minister following the resignation of Alhaji Malik Alhassan over the Yendi crisis. Mr Barimah who was elevated last year from Deputy Interior Minister to his current position is reported to be the President’s favourite. The Heritage newspaper quotes sources at the Castle as saying that Mr Barimah is one of the President’s trusted buddies and sending him to the a sensitive Ministry as the Interior Ministry is a matter of course.

The decision to send him there is however being delayed because the President has not considered a replacement for his current position yet. “It is unlikely that Mr Kwamena Bartels, MP for Ablekuma North and current Minister of Private Sector Development will go back to where he left months ago,” the Heritage quotes an insider as saying.