A National Executive Member of the ruling National Democratic Congress, speaking under the condition of anonymity, has confessed to the New Statesman that the appointment of Ben Dotse Malor as Special Presidential Advisor on Communications is the clearest proof that President John Dramani Mahama “has lost it and is totally confused.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview on the phone, the National Executive member noted that the appointment of the former BBC presenter and deputy editor, which came without much consultation, betrays the fact that the President still doesn’t understand and know what the main issues facing the country are.

“Today, everyone in the country knows that the problem Ghanaians are facing has nothing to do with communications coming from the government. The biggest threat to the NDC and John Mahama is the tattered economy and the increasing cost of living. So it should be obvious that if the President knows what the time is, the experts he should be appointing are economic and financial experts who can take proper charge of the economy and steer the country out of our difficulties.

“As it stands, it is very clear that our current managers of the economy are lost and this is what has even triggered calls from within the NDC that the Finance Minister should be sacked. For the President not to realize this, it is quite surprising”, he added.

The NDC NEC member from the Volta Region revealed that, after winning the 2012 election, the President in a meeting with the National Executives of the party explained that to streamline the communications coming from the government, he was not going to appoint a spokesperson or communications director but would leave all communications in the hands of the Information Ministry, “something which justified the rebranding of the Ministry to include Media Relations.”

He further disclosed that this reasoning of the President was well accepted by members of the NEC who were all witnesses to some of the issues that arose with having several outlets of information.

“We are all wondering therefore why the President has suddenly had a change of mind, just after a year and now wants to introduce the same set up he described as chaotic barely a year ago. What is worse is why the President would go ahead to introduce this without any consultations with the Party. Every day and every action of the President seem to prove that the President is drawing himself farther away from the Party”, he lamented.

The NDC man was of the view that Mr Dotse Malor’s appointment would be of no significant benefit to the President or the Party, adding that it was more likely that this appointment would introduce new problems for communication from the government.

“Indeed, assuming there was a problem with the communications set up, then the best time to have brought this Dotse Malor was last year, which proved to be a very difficult year for the government with the petition and all.

But these young men like Ayariga, Ofosu Kwakye, Stan Dogbe, Murtala etc. stayed the course and worked hard through all the difficulties only for the President to damn all their hard work and without any consultation appoint this man when things are much cooler. So this new appointment is just going to cause a lot of unnecessary friction and add to the fact that the President is so far not doing anything serious to solve the real problems of the economy will only make matters worse for the NDC and the government”, he observed.