Sulemana Braimah, the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has applauded President John Dramani Mahama’s appointments of thirteen Deputy Minister nominees.

The thirteen-name Deputy Ministers appointments list released by the Office of the President and signed by the Hon. Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the Acting Spokesperson to the President is pending vetting and approval by Parliament.

Despite the mixed reaction of the public, Sulemana Braimah, in a statement commended the profoundness of the deputy ministerial appointments as one that proves the President took into consideration qualification, experience, and expertise of the nominees on one hand and the need to establish balance on the other.

“As I mentioned earlier, in terms of qualification, experience, expertise, there are a few that you can talk about. But to a large extent for, you know, a number of them is essentially about, basically having to appoint people”
Sulemana Braimah, the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)

To this effect, Sulemana Braimah expressed positive skepticism at the appointment of Hon. Akanvariva Lydia Lamisi, a nurse and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tempane as the Minister of State, Public Sector Reforms, referencing his little knowledge of her expertise and experience for the office.

He shared a similar view on the appointment of Hon. Thomas Nyarko Ampem as the Deputy Minister for Finance. “I don’t find that his credentials and background and experience and all of that is really, really strong” he said “particularly at a time when our economy is in crisis and you need finance wizards to really help the situation”.

Though Thomas Nyarko Ampem has served as a “one time” Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) in the Asuogyaman district, a Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of parliament and the finance person for the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralization (IMCCoD), Sulemana Braimah believes it’s not enough qualification for the office of the Deputy Finance Minister.

Yet, according to him, President Mahama seems to have done the best he could under the constitutional limitations any president of Ghana is subject to when it comes to these appointments.

The fact that a majority of ministerial appointments have to come from parliament, coupled with the mandate to achieve regional balance in the total and final representation gave the president just about enough room to do what he did.

“And let’s remember that the constitution somehow ties the hands of the president and any president for that matter by requiring that you appoint the majority of your ministers from parliament. And the president has no choice, but to do that. The other limitation is that you have to look at the regional balance”
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)

Despite his reservations about the appointment of the “youthful” Hon. Yussif Issaka Jajah as the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts because of his indeterminable experience, Sulemana hopes that the “people; technocrats in that sector” would be able to help him.

MFWA, President Mahama — President John Dramani Mahama

Banking on his statement about the list being the best that President Mahama could do, he expressed that its brilliance rests in the careful combinations that it seeks to establish between the substantive ministers and their designated deputies as a way to overcome the obstacles that the limitations pose.

“And so even if you have as many people competent and qualified in certain areas, but all coming from the same region, it becomes difficult for you to do that. So if you look at it, I think there is some bit of permutation also”
“So you take roads and highways, for example, and I don’t think that Hon. Suhuyini, our former colleague journalist and a good friend, isn’t somebody that we would say has expertise in roads and highways or engineering or anything. But his minister Kwame Agbodza is an architect and has experience in that sector. And so you would say that, well, there will be some complementarity”
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).

The above explanation about Hon. Kwame Agbodza the Minister for Roads and Highways and Hon. Alhassan Suhuyini as his deputy designate, is one of many appointments Sulemana pointed out as strategic and intentional for “complementarity”.

“Suhuyini may bring some background, but the substantive minister is an architect and therefore, that is his area” he further stated.

Next he spotlighted the appointment of consultant architect and former member of the Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing Hon. Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui to the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing as a very effective one.

Sulemana Braimah pointed out that the Awutu Senya West MP’s nomination would undoubtedly provide the technical knowledge and skills that the substantive minister for that ministry Hon. Kenneth Gilbert Adjei might lack since it is not exactly his area of expertise.

Other key appointments that received praise from Sulemana Braimah are that of Dr Justice Srem-Sai as the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Hon. Clement Apaak as Deputy Minister for Education.

On Dr Justice Srem Sai, Mr Braimah expressed hopes in his competence, saying “now, you take, of course, Justice Srem-Sai, really, I mean, that’s his field and you cannot take away anything from him”

The latter, Hon. Clement Apaak whom he described as “very vociferous in the education sector”, he listed his qualifications, achievements and experience which make him “very well qualified” to support the substantive minister of education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu as a deputy.

Sulemana’s overall assessment commended the presence of competence and expertise in some deputies, while charging the appointment of some others who seemingly lacked these qualities to the discretion of the president, who has worked with them and knows firsthand their “managerial skills” and thus ability to perform in the sectors that they have been assigned.