NDC Executive Charges Mahama: Sack these ministers!

The growing demand by some angry Ghanaians for President John Dramani Mahama to dismiss some non-performing ministers has heightened.

The latest to join the fray is the Greater Accra Regional deputy Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC,) Mr. Anthony Nukpenu, who is asking President Mahama to, as a matter of urgency, terminate the appointments of Ministers for Energy and Petroleum and Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Emmanuel Amah Kofi-Buah and Mr. Kwasi Ofosu Oppong respectively.

According to Mr. Nukpenu, who was speaking on First Digital TV's flagship programme “Tough Issues,” the two ministers have failed to deliver to the people of Ghana what they were appointed to do.

He said he cannot understand why the president would still keep the energy minister at post in the face of the continuous energy crisis for almost two years.

“How can he [Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah] be at post, when he seems to have no clue to solving the crisis confronting the nation in the energy sector,” he wondered.

Mr. Nukpenu further asked: “Is the president waiting to see the last factory shutdown before he (the president) will realise that his energy minister is incompetent?

He stressed that if it were any other country, Mr. Kofi-Buah would long have been fired.

The deputy Greater Accra NDC organiser was equally not happy about how relaxed the president was in dealing with ministers he termed as non-performing.

Asked if he knew companies like VRA, GRIDCo and ECG have CEOs and board of directors who should be blamed for the energy crisis, Mr. Nukpenu said the energy minister is the head and if various agencies under his ministry are not performing he must take the blame.

“Why should the minister continue to be at the post... Mr. Kofi-Buah is just bringing dissatisfaction to the NDC government and he must go,” he charged.

For the local Government and Rural Development Minister, Mr. Nukpenu said it was under his stewardship that Metropolitan Municipal District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) nominees in a record high were rejected by the various assemblies.

“…If this is not incompetence, what is it? What background research/checks did Kwasi Oppong Ofosu carry out on the nominees that were rejected? If he did, he would have advised the president accordingly, and all those embarrassments would have been avoided,” Mr. Nukpenu lamented.

He said it is these non-performing ministers who are making President Dramani look as if he is not working, thereby giving “our opponents enough arsenals to be used against us in 2016. What message are we going to tell the electorate in 2016 when these offices and V8 loving ministers are still at their post?” He quizzed.

“Ghanaians are getting agitated and NDC members are getting impatient with you Mr. President, please act now or forget 2016, because winning that election will be difficult for us, the Greater Accra NDC deputy organiser asserted.