Ministerial reshuffle will energise Government - Dr Oduro Osae

A governance expert, Dr Eric Oduro Osae, has said that, the Ministerial reshuffle would energise the Akufo-Addo-led government to deliver the electoral promises made to Ghanaians, as election 2020 approaches.

He believed the vacancy created at the Energy Ministry, as a result of the dismissal of Mr Boakye Agyarko, might have necessitated the early release of the reshuffled list by the President.

Dr Oduro Osae told the Ghana News Agency on Friday that, the list released might be phase-one of the reshuffle and that Ghanaians should expect more ministers to be re-assigned to different ministries in the second phase.

He said the re-assigning of Mr John Peter Amewu, the outgoing Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to the Energy Ministry was in the right direction, since Mr Amewu had worked in the energy sector in his professional career and would, therefore, not experience much difficulty managing the Ministry.

However, Dr Oduro Osae said, the risk Mr Amewu might face was how he would work harmoniously with Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the current Deputy Energy Minister, who served under Mr Boakye Agyarko.

A press statement from the Office of the Presidency on Thursday, August 9, and signed by Mr Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications, announced a shake-up in the ruling government.

Some ministers were re-assigned to different ministries while others were elevated. For instance, a Deputy Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, was elevated to the position of Information Minister designate.

Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the outgoing Minister of Information has been re-assigned to the Inner City and Zongo Development, which was occupied by Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique, who has been re-assigned to the Office of the Vice President as a Minister of State.

Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, the outgoing Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection has been re-assigned Ambassador-designate to Italy.

Madam Cynthia Morrison, Member of Parliament for Agona West is now Minister-designate to the Gender, Children and Social Protection Ministry.

Meanwhile, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister-designate, giving insight into the ministerial reshuffle, told the media that, the reshuffle would help the government to deliver on its mandate.

He said the role of an Information Minister was to give accurate and timely information from the government machinery to the most remote part of the country and receive feedback from the public to guide decision-making.

Touching on new thing he would bring on-board, he said the Ministry had been implementing a government strategy for the past 20 months in ensuring proactive and responsive information-sharing, and would continue in that manner.