Fifty One days after the historic Sunyani Congress, concerns are being raised, behind President Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, about the delay in reshuffling of his ministers and some of his appointees, some of whom are deemed to be performing under par, or are simply not up to scratch.
Some of these concerns, The Herald can reveal, are emanating from the office of the Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama.
One officer in the Veep’s office who spoke to this paper cited, in particular, government’s poor communication strategy in dealing with the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) scheme of throwing a salvo every week against the regime, in a bid to make it unpopular for the media-hyped Nana Akuffo Addo to shine.
After the Sunyani Congress in July to elect the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2012 general elections, the expectations of many were that as President Mills in his acceptance speech after his retention for the 2012 elections promised, there would have been some changes in the cabinet to make the government more effective in carrying out the objectives the NDC had promised Ghanaians.
However, the only major thing that has happened after Sunyani, in terms of making any change in government to ensure the party has a solid ground in the next elections is the President’s announcement to retain Mr. Mahama as his running mate for the 2012 elections.
To many observers the President announcement of his re-nomination of the Veep as his running mate is much ado about nothing when there is a pressing need for change in portfolios to oil the government machinery and render it more effective for the prosecution of the party’s manifesto and the agenda of “Better Ghana”.
They believe that President Mills has gone to sleep on his promise of changes of portfolios, especially ministerial, r failing to take advantage of the overwhelming support he had at the Sunyani Congress, to assert himself positively.
The President’s obvious kid’s glove treatment of his ministers, many think, stems from his attitude of being forgiving to those he thinks are crucial in deciding his present status.
One officer simply put it, “the President doesn’t want to appear ungrateful, but the reshuffle is very crucial.
Because some of the ministers have become tardy whilst others are busily cutting deals, potential scandals will soon be exploding. The changes are important.”
Indeed, there are some ministers who are of the view that ex-President Rawlings’s criticisms of President Mills were justified, because they kept him on his toes, except that the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) was making a big meal out of the insults in the criticisms to the disadvantage of the NDC government.
Many, including NDC Members of Parliament (MPs), believe that the reshuffle is necessary and President Mills should bite the bullet by effecting it now, so that by next year casualties from it would have recovered and be in a position to put their shoulders to the wheel with others, in order to prosecute the retention in power of the NDC.
On the party’s front, there seems to be some kind of lethargy, as opposed to being proactive, and rather a fire-fighting mode of operations is being adopted. Insiders say this is not good enough in dealing with the opposition NPP’s machinations to make the government look incompetent in delivering its mandate.
Whereas the NPP is seen to be well organised in persistently and consistently raising issues that will undermine the NDC government’s credibility before Ghanaians, Dr Kwabena Adjei and Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, Chairman and General Secretary respectively of the NDC, are seen by many as not being alive to their various responsibilities.
The observation is that they are pre-occupied with the urge to make money. Whilst Dr. Adjei is said to be pre-occupied with GETFund contracts, Mr. Nketiah is busily cutting cement blocks for the Bui Dam project of which he is a board member.
These acts, political observers have said could badly hurt the party election 2012.
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