General News of Sunday, 13 January 2013

Source: Efua Idan Osam

No Minister will retain original portfolio – Gen. Mosquito

Ministers who served in the Mills-Mahama administration will not retain their old portfolios in the Mahama government, NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has said.

President John Mahama on Friday sent his first list of Ministerial appointments to Parliament’s Appointments Committee for consideration and approval.

Reports say some within the NDC leadership have expressed concern over some of the persons President Mahama has appointed or nominated so far with some pondering the fate of the Ministers who were appointed by the Late President John Mills.

Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Friday, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia revealed that the President “doesn’t intend to retain anybody in their original Ministerial portfolios.”

He explained saying, “if somebody else has been made to replace you, it doesn’t mean that you are going out by all means but it will mean that you are going to be a product of a reshuffle.”

Mr. Nketia gave the assurance that the senior Ministers who served in the Mills administration are likely to be given a Ministerial appointment in the Mahama government.

According to him, the President has no intention of releasing a “whole list of Ministers at one go so I am sure some of my colleagues who are living on tenterhooks now that is the sacrifice they have to make for this period and the NDC.”

He added that more appointments are yet to be made therefore current Ministers who have not yet been nominated should not think “they have been kicked out.”