An election strategist and lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr. Jonathan Asante Otchere, is saying President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial reshuffle will not make any impact on the upcoming elections.
He says the President should have used that as a means to redeem the lost image of the Vice President who is the frontrunner for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming polls.
Speaking Thursday, February 15, 2024 on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, Dr. Otchere averred that the President shouldn’t have replaced Ofori-Atta with Amin Adam who was part of the mess created at the Finance ministry.
“If it is a matter of a strategy for electoral victory I think that it is not going to have any kind of impact.
“Strategy-wise, if you want to appeal to the middle class, this kind of reshuffle should have been situated within the speech that Dr. Bawumia gave. That’s the major changes that he intends to make when he gets the opportunity to govern this country.
“I think this kind of reshuffling, this particular strategy is lost out in the sense that; how do you take away the Finance minister and make Dr. Amin Adam the substantive finance minister when in actual fact, the two and all of them have been part of the mess that they have created,” the lecturer of political science noted.
He explained that the situation should have been an opportunity for the President to bring an outsider who knows nothing about the mess at the ministry to portray a certain posture to Ghanaians to start building some trust in the NPP flag bearer.
“So it should actually have been an opportunity for an outsider to be nominated or appointed to that particular portfolio. Somebody like Dr. Mark Assibey, who has made us understand in the public domain that the state of the Free SHS as it is being implemented now, needs that kind of review,” he admonished.
“So if you put in place the very people who have created the mess, there is that continuity that it makes Dr. Bawumia looks a bit awkward.
“The President could have used this as more of an attempt to gain the credibility that Dr. Bawumia has lost back. The goodwill as far as Ghanaians are concerned back and the level of believability rise,” the UCC lecturer added.
President Akufo-Addo’s only significant reshuffle for his seven years in office has been criticised by many including stalwarts in the NPP who think the timing is wrong, and could spell a potential doom for the electoral fortunes of the party.
Although the NPP has described the move as a bold one, others think otherwise, including a former Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff under the erstwhile John Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani.
Akufo-Addo’s ministerial reshuffle will not make any impact on his gov’t – Kwadwo Mpiani
