You undermine your boss, you undermine me; I won’t take that – Akufo-Addo to Deputy Ministers

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that he will not tolerate disloyalty of deputy ministers to their bosses.

Swearing in his new ministerial appointees for the six new regions at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, the president said: “I’m confident that the various backgrounds and experiences of all of you will bring value to the governance of our nation and enable us to deliver on the commitments of our manifesto, the sacred compact that ties us in the New Patriotic Party to the Ghanaian people”.

In a word of caution, he said: “I speak here not only to the ministers and deputy ministers of the new regions, but also to the ministers and deputy ministers of established offices: to the new deputy ministers, it is important for you to remember that your basic responsibility is to assist your minister in the performance of his or her functions, loyalty to your minister is the fundamental premise for the success of your work.

“I will not countenance any acts of disloyalty or subversion to your minister, for I’ll take such an act as disloyalty to me personally and by inference disloyalty to the state.

“Any deputy who thinks the route to advancement lies in your ability to subvert or undermine your minister would be mistaken. You would not profit from that conduct under my presidency.

“I want you to work with your minister in all sincerity and transparency. That is the guarantee of your success and of our collective success”, he said.

The president urged the maiden ministers for the new regions to put their best foot forward.

“To the regional ministers for the newly-created regions of Ahafo, Bono East, North East, Savanna, Oti and Western North, you have an onerous responsibility to discharge. The creation of these new regions presents us with new opportunities to serve the better the needs of the people through the effective and efficient reorganisation and distribution of our public services and infrastructure.

“That is why they voted to be part of the new regions. You cannot disappoint them. At the presentation of the respective constitutional instruments to the heads of the respective delegations, I assured that the government which facilitated the creation of the regions, in accordance with the teachings of the Constitution, will help the smooth takeoff and development of each region.

“After the referenda, and prior to your appointments, I constituted the entire 67-member committee chaired by that outstanding minister for regional reorganisation and development, the hon. Dan Botwe, MP, to plan and oversee the rapid development of the region. An amount of GHS20 million has been allocated as seed capital for each of the regions to help in the establishment of the needed infrastructure for the smooth takeoff of each region.

“Your marching orders are to complement the work of the committee, work hand-in-hand with them and help accelerate the growth of your regions. You are on an exciting new journey being involved at the outset in the development of new administrative regions. You are pioneers with all its challenges and prospects. You have a chance to make history, seize it”, he said.

“I shall in the months of April and May begin my annual tours of the country starting with the new regions. I’ll be in Western North, Ahafo and Bono East in April and Oti, Savanna and North East in May. I hope by then you’d have settled in. In conclusion, I say that you are coming aboard a ship at the half-way stage of the voyage, I’m counting on you to add even more vim to the work of the crew so that together, we can deliver on our mandate to the Ghanaian people”.