What were you expecting from a party that denigrated Jane? - Efe Plange

Efe Plange of PepperDem, has asked what Ghanaians were expecting of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the wake of the number of female ministers-designate he has appointed to serve in his second government.

She noted that party of the President denigrated and belittled the female Vice Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang ahead of the elections last year.

“This is the party that sent a known feminist to denigrate and belittle the nomination of Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang’s VP candidacy and sent their female appointees to hold a presser to shade gender activists. Really, what were you expecting?” She asked in a Facebook post in reaction to the president list of ministers-designate he sent to Parliament on Thursday, January 21.

Mr Akufo-Addo has said he will appoint a total of thirty (30) Ministers, and sixteen (16) Regional Ministers, bringing the total number of Ministers to forty-six (46) to serve in his second government.

Eight (8) of this number are women – six (6) Ministers and two (2) Regional Ministers, a statement issued by Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency, has said.

This is the list that will be submitted to Parliament by the President on Thursday, the statement said.

It further said the President has decided that there will be no Deputy Regional Ministers, a statement signed on his behalf by the Acting Director of Communications at the Presidency Mr Eugene Arhin, has said on Thursday, January 21.

The statement further said the President will be working with twenty-eight (28) ministries in his second administration.

This is a fall from the thirty-six (36) ministries he worked with during his first government. He also said he the number of ministers will not exceed eighty-five (85).

This is down from the 120 ministers who served in his previous administration, Furthermore, it said the President intends to appoint a Minister for Public Enterprises, who will be operating directly under the ambit of the Presidency, and not from a Ministry. The Minister will oversee a major restructuring of the entire state-owned enterprises sector to improve the productivity and profitability of the sector.

Mr Akufo-Addo has also realigned Aviation, Business Development, Inner City and Zongo Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, Regional Re-organisation and Development, and Special Development Initiatives, have been realigned.

The President has effected this realignment because virtually all these special-purpose Ministries have achieved the purposes for which they were established.

The Office of the Senior Minister has also been abolished. This will result in a total of twenty-eight (28) Ministries, down from the thirty-six (36) of his first term.

A Minister of State has been nominated, and, if approved, will be assigned to the Ministry of Works and Housing, in addition to the substantive Minister, to give special focus to the critical issue of affordable, mass housing, envisaged as one of the priorities of the President’s second term.

“In all, President Akufo-Addo will appoint a total of thirty (30) Ministers, and sixteen (16) Regional Ministers, bringing the total number of Ministers to forty-six (46). Eight (8) of this number are women – six (6) Ministers and two (2) Regional Ministers. This is the list that will be submitted to Parliament by the President on Thursday.

“Activities of the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry are to be brought under the Presidency, with a Co-ordinator appointed to supervise, as well as exercise oversight responsibility over the Zongo Development Fund. The newly-renamed Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development will be tasked with overseeing the outstanding activities of the erstwhile Regional Re-organisation and Development Ministry. Matters to do with the Special Development Initiatives Ministry will be co-ordinated from the Presidency, as will be those of the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry.

“The Aviation Ministry is to be merged into an enlarged Ministry of Transport, with activities of the Ministry of Planning also being subsumed under the Ministry of Finance. The Business Development Ministry is to be merged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. A new Minister for Energy is to be appointed, who will be assisted by deputy Ministers, one of whom will be an indigene of the Western Region.

“On Wednesday, 20th January, and Thursday, 21st January, President Akufo-Addo held one-on-one meetings with the new Ministers-designate, as well as with his first-term Ministers who will not transition into the new government, to break the news to them.

“To the Ministers-designate, President Akufo-Addo congratulated them on their nominations, and expressed his expectation that they will be promptly approved by Parliament, to allow them to start work forthwith. To the former Ministers, the President assured them of possible roles to be played in the larger governmental structure, and wished them the best of luck in their future endeavours,” the statement said.

It added “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will, on Thursday, 21st January 2021, submit to Parliament the list of proposed Ministers and Regional Ministers of his new government to the Speaker of Parliament for the process of their prior approval for appointment, in accordance with the dictates of the Constitution.

“As has already been correctly indicated, the total number of Ministers to be appointed by President Akufo-Addo will not exceed eighty-five (85), down from the one hundred and twenty-six (126) that characterised his first term in office.”