Kufuor is confused - Ayarigah

The Minority Spokesman for Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, and MP for Bawku Central, Hon. Mahama Ayariga has described Kufuor?s NPP government as confused, as it frequently reshuffles ministers and creates new ministries.

Explaining the assertion, he submitted it was unacceptable that a government almost at the end of its constitutional mandated period of eight years of two terms, still could not have the right team to man the ministries as it promised the people of Ghana six years ago.

The NDC?s legal icon, held., ?if after four years of being in government and during the second term of president Kufuor?s administration, the government has not got the structure of his government right, and is still restructuring and doing ministerial arrangement, this goes a long way to tell how confused they are.?

Mr. Ayariga wondered what the newly created ministries like Information and National Orientation, Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations were, and questioned why the government could not come up with a prior notice before announcing them to the public.

According to him, the names were more than confusing and needed to be explained to the public and stated that the whole ministerial outfit itself needed a reorientation.

He said, ?We need to understand what these titles mean, the government?s objective for creating these names and what we intend to pursue as a nation?. He also questioned the rationale behind Aviation Ministry which could simply have been put under the Transport ministry.

Hon Ayarigah expressed his shock at the removal of certain key ministers like Dan Botwe and Yaw Osafo-Maafo for Information and Education and Sports respectively, describing it as unfortunate and ?does not speak well of the president.?

He expressed the view that if the reshuffle was supposed to be used as a tool to ?kick non-performing ministers out of office, then certain names in this particular exercise is nothing to accept, also if it was meant to relieve ministers with presidential ambitions of their ministerial duties, then the list is not complete.

?Although a reshuffle is significantly commendable and a pride of any government to realign, re-shape and sometimes to reduce a swelled up ministerial outfit therefore making it a step in the right direction, this particular reshuffle is questionable,? he added.

On a general assessment of the performance of the NPP government so far Mr. Ayariga said that whether reshuffle or no reshuffle there is nothing the nation can be proud of under the leadership of the Kufuor led administration.

He continued that the state of poverty in the nation, the inequality in the delivery of justice, the rise in social vices, micro economic policies that do not reflect on the lives of the people among the implementation of questionable policies shows that the government has collectively not done well.