General News of Saturday, 15 February 2014

Source: peacefmonline.com

It is necessary for Mahama to reshuffle - NDC Chair

Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, has said former President Jerry Rawlings’ call for an immediate reshuffle in the Mahama-led government is laudable.

Ex-President Rawlings suggested that a large number of ministers in the John Mahama government are incompetent and must be reshuffled immediately.

“These changes I believe should have taken place towards the end of last year when Ghanaians had reached their saturation point with what they perceived as the incompetence or the non-performance of some of the appointees, but it didn’t happen. There is a bit of anxiety, some sense of expectation that is where my name becomes a convenient tool to be misused…

“…Of course, a sizeable percentage of them, I don’t think were good enough and they demonstrated it with their time in office. I don’t think this is a matter of opinion really, I think we can all see the result of their work. If they had performed better, things would have been different,” he said on Joy FM.

Speaking on Adom FM, Ade Coker opined that, the reshuffle must be implemented to meet the President’s target.

“President Mahama set up a committee to evaluate the performance of the ministers because he has a target. He ones said he is the coach and the coach can decide to change at any moment in time when it’s necessary. This is very important.

“…As a government, not all things are static. It is very necessary for the president to reshuffle. He must consider the competent ones and know whether some should leave for others to come in and help the situation in the country,” he said.

Nonetheless, Ade Coker admitted that, “recently, Ghana is facing some challenges…and where there are challenges, we must work on that. I agree with what former President Rawlings said”.

He further advised government appointees to boldly tell the President if positions assigned to them are beyond their capabilities to save the nation.

“They should be bold to tell the President that they can’t think out of the box with the position they are assigned to do. They should voice out if they need some assistance from experts to help as well”.