These K4 and JJ reshuffles

amass all the wealth that you could while in office

Ready set go, start cutting deals and giving contracts to cronies and relatives, open an off shore bank account and stash some foreign currency there. Allow your directors and their deputies to run the ministry and recycle speeches of your predecessors to deliver when necessary. But whatever happens, amass all the wealth that you could while in office.

If you do it well and cover your tracks you might be well off when you leave the ministry otherwise, Fast Track court awaits you and maybe Justice Henrietta Abban. Still, that might only occur in a change of regime or if you belonged to a different party serving in the government of the ruling party and you failed to consult properly and got 419ed out of state dollars. Then you might serve your sentence and come out to yell, "vote for the opposition party" and be branded "full of sour grapes."

If these were not the thoughts of the Ghanaian Minister of state when she assumed the position she must be nuts. How else would you survive after the six o’clock announcement when the president decided that he has had enough of the tunale and all the other scent no emanating from his minster and sacks him without end of service benefits or reshuffles him to the upper East region or the Western region, maybe Volta or Ashanti?

President Kuffour beat the ex John to it in cabinet reshuffles

The public Agenda reported that President Kuffour beat the ex John to it in cabinet reshuffles 18 to 17. Before any fan of President Rawlings starts jubilating, backtrack to just two weeks ago when the distinguished statesman reshuffled his cabinet, his team. One newspaper reported that this move followed the shuffling of long time aide Victor Smith via a HIPC call or was it text messaging? See, Owura Smith’s tunale was getting too strong for the old guy’s nostrils.

In this case, the tunale was Victor Smith’s alleged open support of John Mahama as vice presidential candidate over the favorite of President Rawlings, Betty Moulds-Iddrisu, the number two wife of her hubby. And that move by Victor Smith and the consequences seems to be the main totality of the problem with appointments and reshuffles. Disagree, ready set go; agree, ready set stay or go when the president decides to reshuffle.

Senator Clinton may well become Secretary of State in the US.

Across the Atlantic, Senator Clinton may well become Secretary of State in the US. She would give up her senate seat, a safe seat that she could stay in as long as she wished and would only stand for reelection every six years. Yet this young lady who has a lot to offer and has a rich track record of public service would give all up. She would do so knowing her position is guaranteed and would be allowed to operate as she wished albeit within the parameters of her president’s foreign policy. The bitter campaign period of the primaries would be history.
Back in Ghana again some of the major achievements came about in ministries headed by people who really settled in their jobs and had enough time to execute policies and plans that worked for the country. Kwesi Botchway did it in Finance although his petroleum economics was just too foresighted?. Dr. Obed Asamoah heading Foreign Affairs saw a foreign policy that put Ghana on the map exercising its sovereignty as a positively neutral country that did not play to the whims and caprices of the powers that be. Kojo Tsikata played it cool for a long time as the National Security person and the PNDC/NDC itself lasted long enough with a survivor Head of State to force the bitter pill down the throat of Ghanaians. The result, peace democracy, stable economy and freedom that is the envy of the sub-region. NPP government’s Dr. Yaw Osaafo Marfo also achieved economic growth and stability heading the Finance Ministry for more than 4 years and presided over the HIPC pill which reduced Ghana’s debts.

Now if you were appointed to head a ministry, maybe health, by the time you orient yourself with the minstry and the various departments and tour the regions study the plans of your predecessor, the nurses would have given you a welcome baptism of fire by going on strike. The doctors would follow up soon. As you maneuver to settle these issues an outbreak of meningitis gets you scratching your head even as you try to ward off pressure from friends and relatives demanding a piece of you. Maybe you were a good man wanting to do your job and did not succumb to their pressure. Your mistake! Weeks turn into months, then a year as the problems play you like a football. One day you are summoned to the Castle, or rather to the Accra Golden Stool house and told, "fri me fie ko"

The constitution gives the sole right to the president to appoint minsters as he sees fit to work with but this attitude to shuffling and reshuffling, itself needs a reshuffle.