OB Amoah echoes Mahama's 'You Have Never Been President Before' in defence of government size

The Minister of State-designate at the Ministry of Local Government, Osei Bonsu Amoah (OB), on Tuesday offered perhaps the most solid defence yet of President Akufo-Addo’s oft-condemned elephant-sized government.

OB says a dispassionate interrogation of the matter is needed rather than subjecting it to partisan treatment.

The Akwapim South MP believes it serves no good to just bandy numbers around and point to which government may have appointed the slimmest staff to prosecute its mandate versus which appointed the most people.

And he laid down his cards with a dig into history, saying 'we have never been in the shoes of a president', echoing a personal touch to former President John Mahama’s famous retort of 'You have never been president before.

Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament to be vetted after his nomination as a Minister of State, OB Amoah was served a variety of questions, with the controversial government size and calls to reduce same coming up a couple of times.

But he argued that the government had already taken steps to collapse or merge a number of ministries, while it has also downsized ministerial appointments from about 126 to 85.

“So it’s not like the president is not doing anything about it and it’s like, the way we put it, sometimes the statements become a bit sweeping,” he said, and pointed out that the President has further issued an edict to cut down on everything for appointees, including MMDCEs.

“So it’s not that the President is not aware of the austerity or nothing has not been done (sic), some may wish to do it in a different way or different style and it’s not that we used to have it so rosy that we could have, let’s say six ministers of state and the famous three wise men, but as the constitution says, the president shall appoint persons to help manage the state, and if at any point in time the president feels that this is the number he can use to manage or run the state"

"sometimes you have to give him the benefit of the doubt especially when we see that efforts have been made to cut down, and who knows, he may still cut down and I don’t think it should really be a major issue every time. Sometimes you get the impression that some people wish we even had only five ministries and that all our problems in Ghana will be solved but, we have never been in the shoes of a president, and in deed as I said, a lot has been done and a lot may still be done.”

In 2016 when John Mahama was president, he faced criticisms for perceived poor performance, he told off then presidential running-mate, Mahamudu Bawumia that he had no idea what competence was about because he had never been president before.