Dr. Mustapha Hamid, the Minister of Information has been replaced with his deputy, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. However, his reassigned portfolio, the Ministry of Zongos and Inner Cities isn't a cabinet one.
Communications Director at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, yesterday, released a statement announcing a reshuffle involving fifteen (15) ministers in the Akufo-Addo government.
The changes ushered in two new entrants into government and the swapping of roles for others. It also elevated some Ministers as well totally booting out some Ministers from cabinet.
A cabinet is a body of high ranking officials or ministers of the executive branch in a democratic dispensation. In Ghana, it simply means the top Ministers and officials that head portfolios that shapes the President's agenda.
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Though President Akufo-Addo has 110 Ministers in his government, only a handful are considered as cabinet Ministers.
And yesterday's reshuffle saw the elimination of two Ministers from cabinet portfolios to non-cabinet ones.
The Ministries of Information and Women, Children and Gender are part of the portfolios that makes Nana Addo's cabinet.
Dr. Mustapha Hamid, the Minister of Information has been replaced with his deputy, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. However, his reassigned portfolio, the Ministry of Zongos and Inner Cities isn't a cabinet one.
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This moves comes as a little shock to political pundits since Hamid has been Akufo-Addo's spokesperson while in opposition for 8 years.
The Minister of Women, Children and Gender, Otiko Afisa Djaba also lost her position as a cabinet member in the reshuffle. Unlike Hamid who got another ministerial appointment, Afisa Djaba has been sent away to be the Ghanaian Ambassador to Italy.
She will be replaced with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West in the Central Region, Cynthia Morrison.
Otiko's new position is seen as a total demotion of the former Women’s Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
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The shake up also sees Cecilia Dapaah who formerly headed the Aviation Ministry, as the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, with a major task of cleaning the filth in the major capitals.
Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Kofi Adda, who was recently in the news for ‘doling out’ 30,000 cedis of his MP’s Common Fund to a church in his constituency, has been asked to head the Aviation Ministry.
Peter Amewu will have a responsibility to bring some calmness at the Energy Ministry which has suffered a lot of heat over the last few days.
Also, Pius Enam Hadzide, former deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, has been moved to the Information Ministry as a deputy.
While, Perry Curtis Okudzeto, former deputy Minister for Information, is now Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports.