Why Jake Resigned -The Inside Story

With the dust almost settling down on President John Agyekum Kufuor’s marching orders to ministers with presidential ambitions to resign or be fired, DAILY GUIDE has stumbled upon information which indicate that Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey’s decision to quit the government immediately the alarm bell sounded was informed by something beyond his boss’ order.

Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the man whose mastery of advertising and marketing skills is largely thought to have served as critical impetus to the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) 2000 campaign machinery, quit to take advantage of the freedom of hitting the road fetterless of public office.

So effective were his campaign gimmicks that he found himself at the centre of affairs in those heady days of NPP efforts at snatching power from the ruling National Democratic Congress administration.

His “moko aya nimoko aba” slogan in Ga demolished others from the rival NDC and it means “others should exit for others to take over”.

Never running short of such gimmicks and slogans, he has thrown another one onto the political landscape; “JAKE MADE JAK”.

For him therefore, if his advertising and marketing skills could positively alter the electoral fortunes of Kufuor and the NPP, the same advantages can be used in his (Jake) favour.

One of the first to bow out of the Kufuor-led government, the former Tourism and Diasporan Relations Minister was the only minister-aspirant not present on Thursday to listen to President Kufuor’s counsel and acceptance of correspondence of exit from his former key cabinet ministers, popularly referred to as G8.

Although his trip out of the country on Wednesday was adduced as reason for his non-attendance of the President Kufuor-demanded meeting with the ambitious G8 ministers, there is no doubt that Jake, as he is fondly called, would have stayed away from the engagement.

He is said to have maintained that since he has quit, there is no point getting involved in matters at that level.

Before clearing his desk and heading for the exit, Jake organised a farewell activity during which he bade adieu to the staff with whom he had worked over the past years after being reshuffled to the Tourism Ministry from the Information Ministry.

With such a symbolic exit from Government, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, son of one of the pioneering figures of the UP tradition- the late Obetsebi-Lamptey- is set not to turn back.

When President Kufuor fired his marching orders, some considered the fiat an ordinary exhortation with no bite, but when there was a repeat, those who sought to trivialize it sat up to prevent a humiliation that could come with a presidential ejection order.

Such a possible humiliation was also one of the factors, though remotely, which informed Jake’s decision to quit.

The peculiar feature of Jake’s exit is that unlike his colleagues, he has so cleared his desk that he does not operate any longer in that office.

Others are tarrying a while until Parliament approves the nominees of the President for ministerial positions.

This came to light on Thursday when President Kufuor met on one-on-one basis with the concerned ministers during which he also accepted their resignations.

He urged them to conduct themselves decorously as they seek the nod of the delegates by avoiding untoward behaviour so that “the person who would emerge the victor can count on the support of all NPP supporters and sympathizers”.