Prez Mahama reiterates commitment to appoint 60 Ministers despite being inundated with thousands of CVs
President John Dramani Mahama has reaffirmed his pledge to maintain a lean government with only 60 ministers, even as thousands of hopeful candidates have submitted their CVs for consideration.
Speaking at the Presidential Dinner in Accra on Wednesday, January 8, the President highlighted the challenges of assembling a capable and efficient team amid heightened expectations from Ghanaians.
“I have hit the ground running,” President Mahama stated. “Today, I had several meetings with all our key, multilateral and bilateral partners to try to see how we can kick-start things to make the lives of our people better, to look at issues to do with the economy and all that. And so I expect that all of us who would have a role to play would also be the same.”
He acknowledged the difficulty of selecting a small team of ministers from the overwhelming number of applicants while emphasising the need for a lean and effective government.
“You wouldn’t want to be in my shoes when you’ve promised to appoint only 60 ministers, yet thousands of people are sending in their CVs. Then maybe some people will be disappointed,” he remarked.
Despite the challenges, President Mahama stressed that contributing to the success of his administration goes beyond holding ministerial positions.
“It’s not only by playing the role of a minister, it’s by taking to the senses the many things that we can all do,” he said. “The success of this administration will guarantee us another term, maybe under some other leader. But we need to get this right, so that Ghanaians repose their confidence in us, and give us another opportunity to continue.”
Learning from the past
President Mahama also cautioned his government against repeating the mistakes of the previous administration, citing the reasons why Ghanaians voted the New Patriotic Party (NPP) out of office.
“Ghanaians punished the NPP for arrogance, for incompetence, and just for not listening to what their cries and challenges were,” he said. “There’s no use fighting for political power if we are coming to repeat the same mistakes that the NPP did. And so that’s why I’m a bit concerned.”
The President underscored the importance of working diligently to meet the expectations of the electorate. “All of us must put our shoulders to the wheel, and then work as hard as we can in order to achieve this,” he added.