Akufo-Addo is out of touch with the reality in Ghana – Edem Senanu
President Akufo-Addo’s refusal to reshuffle his Ministers has been a source of worry to stakeholders and political watchers alike and the latest astute figure to join the fray is Prof Stephen Adei, former Rector of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
Professor Adei did not only criticize president Akufo-Addo’s refusal to do a reshuffle but think the number of his Ministers can be trimmed down to 40 and still be able to run the affairs of the country.
Reacting to Professor Stephen Adei’s advice to the government, a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana, Dr John Osae-Kwapong during a discussion on TV3 on 1st November 2022 said “I am not surprised…..because at least on two occasions the President has articulated the reason why he believes he does not need to reshuffles his cabinet”.
Delving further into the situation, Dr Osae-Kwapong stated that “I think one of the reasons he articulated was that he is the appointing authority if he was dissatisfied with their performance that is when he will reshuffle but at this moment he thinks he should not reshuffle for reshuffling sake”.
“I am not surprised that the President continually still sees no need to reshuffle his cabinet as he has articulated that on two occasions.”
Dr Osae-Kwapong then reiterates “so I am not surprised this continues to be the president’s position”.
Joining the discussion, Mr Edem Senanu co-chair for Citizens Movement Against Corruption said “it is not just the optics it is an understanding about how you get systems to perform. Performing systems must have Key Performance Indicators and then you measure against and when they are not meeting target you change”.
Stressing his point, Mr Senanu said, “you change strategy, you deploy new tactics to achieve what the targets are so it makes absolutely no sense”.
To him what the President’s refusal to reshuffle means is that “there is a disconnect between the President, Presidency and the realities on the ground. Either they do not have indicators they need to use an outcome which touches the lives of citizens if they have that in place they will be able to know by now that citizens are dissatisfied with the real issues on the ground”.
“I am surprised at the president’s decision, I was expecting much more. My expectation was high, cannot understand why up to this point this decision has not been taken. I do not know what indicators and metrics he is using but there is a disconnect between what he is looking for and what the citizens are also looking out for,” Mr Senanu noted.
He also expressed worry that “it is strange to know that your President’s key performance indicators may be loyalty or stuff like that and it cannot be said that the president’s own choice of indicators has become the benchmark for the various sectors of the economy”.
Arguing further he indicates that “it ought to be that these sectors have key performance indicators based on a development plan or a sector plan the president ought to be on top of these indicators and worst case scenario it would have to be one of the things picked from the manifesto”.
He also opined that “the President even though that is not the kind of thing we want……we have to use a medium term to long term plan defined by the National Development Planning Commission where any government that comes to place must run with them”.
“He ought to be conversant with these indicators it cannot be the decision of they are doing fine they are loyal etc that is what is going to run us into a ditch.”
Stressing how worrying the situation is Mr Senanu said “the fear, therefore, is that looking the future on has to find out if these individuals who are presidential materials do they have the understanding of what it will take to run a nation and not run us down to a point where we are wondering if they even understand governance architecture as it is necessary to move the country forward”.
