The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr says he is puzzled that Ghana has more Ministers in government than the Chinese government vis-à-vis the comparative problems that both countries face.
Pratt argued that the Chinese government was in a better stead to throw in more Ministers into government, on the back of the overwhelming issues that threatens the Chinese state, hence “if China has less Ministers than Ghana, it does raise an important problem that needs to be addressed.”
Speaking on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme Saturday, Pratt said the decision by President Akufo-Addo to settle on more Ministers in history because of Ghana’s problems is unthinkable, and must be condemned.
Enumerating the threats that China faces, Pratt said China is dealing with what you may describe as secession which is openly backed by the West, China is threatened with war over the South China Sea, China is threatened with economic decline; I mean the huge progress that China made and so on is slowing down, Look at the population of China( a quarter of the World’s population, look at the land mass of China and so on), thus on the basis of this, the decision by Akufo-Addo to go for an elephant sized government makes him the worst leader in history.
“…Different leaders at different levels and to varying degrees demonstrated a capacity to manage this pirate mentality. So we can say that President Mills managed this pirate mentality much better than Akufo-Addo is.
It is the extent to which leaders are able to resist pressure in the national interest which shows different qualities.
The pressure that Nana Akufo-Addo is under, President John Mahama came under the same pressure, President Mills came under the same Pressure, President Kufuor came under the same pressure but some managed to manage that pressure better than others. Indeed this is the highest number of Ministers in our history. It therefore means that that pressure which spins out of a pirate mentality, have been worst managed this time.”
President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday nominated 50 deputies and 4 others to serve as Ministers of State at the presidency and ministries.
This brings his total number of ministers to 110, the highest in Ghana’s history.
In a reaction to the criticisms of his “elephant sized government” President Akufo-Addo said, the unprecedented problems confronting Ghana demand a large government to face them.
“I don’t believe that my government in the Fourth Republic has big numbers in view of the swollen challenges,” President Akufo-Addo said in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
“These are the background and the circumstances that were facing my government and the people of Ghana, hence they need a new paradigm shift to solve the problems.
“We have a problem and what is the best way? It is better to have men and women capable of serving the nation’s interests and to work to grow the economy…If I succeed, you will soon find out the brouhaha is nothing compared to the success.”
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