Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party Jake Obetsebi Lamptey is mocking the new reshuffle announced by President John Mills. The president who has declared the year 2011 as an action year announced key changes in his government.
Some of the changes include the dropping of Tourism Minister Zita Okaikoi as well as the Education Minister Alex Tettey Enyo.
Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu has been reassigned to the Education Ministry, with Martin Amidu taking over the Justice and Attorney General’s position. Amidu was formerly at the Interior Ministry, a portfolio taken over by Benjamin Kumbuor.
Member of Parliament for Anlo Hon. Kofi Humado (MP) makes an entry into government assuming responsibility for the Youth and Sports Ministry. The substantive minister, Akua Sena Dansua has been reassigned to the Tourism Ministry.
Few other changes are still expected, with the hope that government will achieve its better Ghana agenda. But the NPP chairman is skeptical anything positive will come out of the reshuffle.
He told Joy News the reshuffle is nothing but musical chairs in which the president has demonstrated his power to rotate one “Team B player from one end of the field to another.” “They were not able to play well in their original position they were in; so really nobody should have any expectation that they will play any better in the new position into which they are being put.”
He said the reshuffle is just a smokescreen to divert attention from the petroleum price hikes, “and now what is going to happen is that the media and all of us are going to be diverted in the discussion about that increase in prices to the discussion of personalities who have been moved from place to place”.
Contrary to government proclamation that the year 2011 is a year of action, the NPP chairman said the 2011 budget on which the action year hinges on promises nothing but disaster to the economy.
“We should have felt within the budget that really and truly we are going to chart a new cause but what did we see in the budget, nothing new about any cause at all. We saw in fact an attack on business; an attack on growth and this attack is continued through the unjustified increment in the price of fuel.”
He dismissed assertions that he is making hasty conclusions saying, the performance of government officials have for the past two years been seen and on the evidence of what is available, nothing new will emerge in the next two years.