The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as “misplaced” government’s announcement of additional 54 ministers Wednesday.
NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) does not need a huge team to improve the economic fortunes of the country.
Speaking to Gifty Andoh on The Pulse on JOYNEWS, he said the appointment of more ministers’ by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s shows he “doesn’t understand governance.”
“They don’t know what they are talking about. They should proceed to appoint one minister, one district and one minister, one constituency,” he said, mocking the President’s 2016 election campaign’s one district, one factory, and one village, one dam mantra.
The President has announced a list of 50 deputy Ministers and four (4) Ministers of state, bringing the total number of Ministerial appointees in the government to 110.
Some of the Ministries especially Agriculture, Information, Energy and Local Government, have been assigned three (3) deputy Ministers with others having two deputy Ministers.
Sections of Ghanaians have taken to social media to register their displeasure with the decision christening it “the biggest government in the history of the country.”
Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, has explained at a news conference that government considered the “mismanaged” nature of the economy before making the appointments.
He said Ghanaians should prefer a President who will assemble a “huge team of competent people” than the one who will appoint a small number of Ministers who will misapply state funds.
But Mr Asiedu Nketia has said the huge team of ministers appointed by the President will put unnecessary pressure on the public purse.
The additional Ministers, he said would all be given police escorts, land cruisers, salaries and saloon cars which he desribed as needless.
“You don’t come out and say that because there is a problem with the economy so you need more ministers,” he said, cautioning government to cut down the number of appointees.
Mr Asiedu Nketia said it is appropriate for an NDC government to appoint more ministers because it believes in a “bigger government,” but not an NPP government.
“Everybody knows that when you say you are a liberal government then you believe in a smaller government, but not a bigger the government,” he said.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
