Political analyst at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Jonathan Asante Otchere, has stated that the much-awaited ministerial reshuffle by President Akufo-Addo does not inure to the benefit of the NPP’s presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, going into the December 2024 elections.
Dr Otchere made the assertion in an interview with Alfred Ocansey, host of TV3’s current affairs programme, Ghana Tonight, on Thursday, February 15.
According to Dr Otchere, the President lost an opportunity to cut government expenditures. Civil society organisations and the public have criticised the government for its excessive spending leading to huge borrowing.
“If you keep supplying members of your party to occupy all these positions that have become vacant so to speak, in actual fact, this particular decision by the President will not in any way affect positively the electoral fortunes of Dr Bawumia,” said the political analyst and commentator.
He believed that the Vice President could likely make some political gains on the parliamentary side but not on the presidential side.
Political analyst
He emphasised that the decision to relieve sitting MPs and ministers of state who lost their bids in the NPP parliamentary primaries was in order and would not affect the party negatively.
“Probably if you look at the parliamentary section, you could see that it is very political because those who have lost out and those who did not contest they have nothing to lose so why would they [government] keep them, I think that one makes sense,” he added.
Dr Asante Otchere further underscored the need to support reshuffle exercises with a theoretical framework. He therefore questioned the kind of framework the president was operating under.
“When you are doing a reshuffle, you need to know the theoretical framework that you are operating with. What framework is the President operating?” he quizzed.
“The most important agenda now is breaking ‘eight’, so how does this reshuffle fit into the breaking eight agenda, and that for me, I am of the view that it does not,” he added.
