Author: Kay Codjoe, Market Research Consultant and Volunteer Associate at the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education

Ghanaian politics has developed a fascinating relationship with numbers. In 2018, the nation was informed amid great alarm that President Akufo-Addo had almost 1,000 people at the Presidency.

The figure was 998. The number became a political horror movie. Commentators spoke as though Jubilee House had become a small municipality. The outrage was relentless.

Fast forward. Today, opposition critics are weaponizing the numbers against Felix Ofosu Kwakye. The implication is that he once condemned large staffing figures at the Presidency but is now defending them.

It is a compelling political argument. Unfortunately for its proponents, a careful analysis of the numbers tells a more complicated story. Today, the public has learned that President Mahama has 808 personnel attached to the Presidency.

Suddenly, everyone owns a calculator. Suddenly, everyone is studying definitions. Suddenly, everyone has become an expert in administrative classifications.

The numbers, however, tell a story that politics cannot easily escape. Mahama’s 2013 Presidency reported 678 personnel. But even that figure was not 678 Presidential Staffers.

The breakdown included 5 Ministers of State at the Presidency, 9 Presidential Staffers, 4 Presidential Aides, approximately 260 attached public officers and 316 household staff.

The same pattern appears under Akufo-Addo. The 2017 report that generated the famous controversy recorded 998 personnel at the Presidency. Yet the breakdown showed 9 Ministers of State, 27 Presidential Staffers, 256 junior political appointees and 706 public sector employees.

Again, the overwhelming majority were not Presidential Staffers. By 2022, the total had increased to 1,048 personnel, comprising 44 Senior Presidential Staffers, 361 political appointees and 687 public sector employees.

Now consider the current figures. Mahama’s 2025 report records 808 personnel at the Presidency. The breakdown shows 4 Ministers of State, 39 political staffers, 190 other political appointees, 390 civil service staff and 185 public officers on attachment.

Combined, that produces 233 political appointees and 575 civil and public service personnel.This distinction matters. Because the public debate often creates the impression that every person attached to the Presidency is a Presidential Staffer.

The official records show otherwise. In every administration, the total figure consists of a mixture of Presidential Staffers, political appointees, civil servants, technical staff, support personnel and officers assigned from other public institutions.

Those are the numbers. If we compare total personnel, Mahama’s current figure is 190 lower than Akufo-Addo’s 2017 figure and 240 lower than Akufo-Addo’s 2022 figure. If we compare political appointees, the gap becomes even more interesting. Akufo-Addo’s 2022 report showed 361 political appointees.

Mahama’s 2025 report shows 233. That is 128 fewer political appointees. Mahama’s reported staffing numbers are lower than the comparable figures reported under Akufo-Addo in both 2017 and 2022.

The staffing figures are lower. The political appointee figures are lower. The total personnel figures are lower. Whether one supports Mahama or not, those are the reported facts.

The numbers are public. The calculations are straightforward. The comparisons are available to everyone. Anything else is not analysis. It is selective arithmetic.

The numbers do not prove perfection. They do not prove policy success. They do not prove administrative brilliance. What they do provide is a factual basis for comparison.

On the figures currently available, the Presidency of 808 is smaller than the Presidencies of 998 and 1,048. That is what the reported numbers show. Arithmetic has reached its verdict. The rest is politics.