The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has labelled the reshuffling of Ministers of State by government a little too late.
He asserted that Ghanaians have been expecting a reshuffle from the government due to the incompetency of incumbent Ministers of State and got none. He argued that the reshuffle does not offer any change for Ghana’s economy.
“I don’t recall any time in our history that we’ve had to go through financial haircut and Domestic Debt Exchange Programme that we have been declared bankrupt. That all the rating agencies have all downgraded us giving us junk status”.
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The Member of Parliament argued that though Ghana has experienced downgrade from rating agencies like Fitch severally in the past, they were not as low as the current downgrades. He claimed that the incumbent government has defaulted on several loans that it acquired.
Accordingly, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa argued that some ministers should have been dimissed for their non-performance and misdemeanors long before the reshuffle. He asserted that the Fmr. Minister of Finance and the Fmr. Minister of Health should have both been sacked for incompetency and indictment issues respectively.
More so, the Member of Parliament stated that the current state of Ghana’s economy is as a result of incompetent Ministers remaining in office far longer than they should. He opined that had the reshuffling happened a lot earlier government would have been able to salvage the remnants of Ghana’s economy.
Reshuffling: An Impractical Gamble
The Member of Parliament further argued that the reshuffle is impractical and seeks to achieve nothing. He emphasized that the time government has left before the 2024 General Election is so little to get anything done that will be of a positive impact on Ghana’s economy.
“It’s been seven years and more of intransigence, of lack of a conciliatory approach to governance. You’ve heard NPP stewards from Kwame Pianim, Dr. Amoako Baah many of them saying that, look the President is not listening to us. He’s changed. He’s become so impervious”
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Also, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa accused the President, H.E Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and his appointed Ministers of State of reckless spending. He bemoaned the unprecedented level of corruption at the various ministries as he claimed that the President has failed to demand accountability from his Ministers of State.
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s remark followed the recent reshuffle done by the President regarding ministerial positions. The reshuffle has seen the removal of some Ministers of State for reasons of underperformance or corruption allegations leveled against them.
Among the Ministers of State discharged is Mr. Ken Ofori Atta, Minister of Finance, who has received the displeasure of Ghanaians concerning fiscal decisions he made in his term of office.
Conclusively, the decision of the President to reshuffle his Cabinet has met lot of criticism from the public especially the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). The argument of the opposition has been that a reshuffle at this point in time is useless as the President is almost done with his second term in office. The NDC argued that the new Cabinet will achieve nothing with just ten months left for Ghana to go to the polls. Meanwhile, some Ghanaians have as much faith in the new crop of Ministers as they do in the incumbent government to restore Ghana’s economy.
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