Abdul-Hamid justifies number of ministerial appointees
The Minister of Information, Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has justified the number of ministers and deputy ministers appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying a robust team of appointees is required to confront the challenges of the economy.
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“If we keep doing business as usual, we cannot transform the country in the manner that we envisage,” he said.
While the move by the President might seem to amount to taking a road less travelled, Mr Abdul-Hamid said, leadership was “a willingness to be damned, in the certain knowledge that if you do get to the Promised Land, the same people who damned you will be your praise singers”.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, to throw light on ministerial appointments so far made by the President, the minister said the list presented to Parliament “brings his entire government to 110 ministers of state and deputies”.
A competent team to deliver
Those appointees, he said, would assist the President to deliver on the ambitious programme of national transformation and development which the people of Ghana had charged him to implement.
He said the Akufo-Addo administration inherited the weakest economy, for which reason the President required a strong army to confront those challenges and resolve them in a rapid manner to put the country back on the path of progress and development.
Mr Abdul-Hamid said Article 78 (2) of the 1992 Constitution empowered the President to appoint such number of ministers as might be necessary for the efficient running of government.
The President, he said, was minded by that provision and the ambitious nature of his transformational agenda to put together a government that answered both to the constitutional provision and the need for the rapid transformation of the country.
He said the President would also want to assure the nation that in putting together his government, he had been guided by the competencies and experiences of the people and the legal requirements for making such appointments, without excluding the need for him to be minded by the output that the people of Ghana expected at the end his term.
President needs support of Ghanaians
“The President, therefore, solicits the support of the Ghanaian people in taking the difficult decisions that will ultimately transform our society.
“We wish to assure the Ghanaian people that we shall be mindful of excessive spending which has no productive purposes,” Mr Abdul-Hamid added.
He said part of the President’s determination to get a hold on national expenditure was why he had appointed a Minister of State in his office responsible for public procurement to ensure value for money.
Full complement
He said the President had also named four metropolitan chief executives and was consulting relevant stakeholders to come out with the full complement of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs).
He added that with the Council of State in place, the President was consulting with the members to formalise other appointments that required their consent.
“The President will have the full complement of his government by the end of March, as he stated in his State of the Nation Address,” the information minister said.
