Pollster Ali Imoro believes the men and women newly appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo into his government have what it takes to turn things around.
Contrary to assertions by sections of the public that the decision to make last minute changes to his government is merely aimed at creating opportunities for other members of his party to amass wealth, Ali Imoro says it is a strategic move by the president to redeem his government’s image and boost its chances in the December elections.
“We know largely almost all of them and we know that they can actually perform. So one thing I’m happy about with this list is that it is not necessarily a lost to say ‘it is job for the boys’. And just giving people an opportunity to come and grab ex-gratia and then go away. These are individuals that you know are up to the task and I believe the NPP has strategically put them in place for a purpose,” he stated.
President Akufo-Addo, yesterday, announced a major shakeup in his government since he took over power 7 years ago.
This follows years of public pressure on the president to reshuffle his appointees as many believe most of them have underperformed.
The demand for a reshuffle reached a crescendo during the peak of the economic crisis when Members of Parliament from the governing New Patriotic Party publicly called on the president to relieve the Finance Minister of his duties.
Although there were reports that he had agreed to let the then Finance Minister go after when the country finally struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he failed to do so.
But just months to the end of his tenure, he has announced a major reshuffle of the government.
As many as 9 ministers including Ken Ofori-Atta and 10 deputies have been relieved of their duties and new faces have been nominated to replace them.
But many have raised concerns about the timing of the reshuffle.
For them, it has come a little too late and will make no difference.
But speaking in an interview on Breakfast Today on Dreamz FM, Ali Imoro argues that 10 months is long period enough for the new appointees to make a difference and turn things around for the better.
“I think this is an opportunity for them to come and prove themselves no matter how short it may be. But I think 10 months is still a lot of time to make a difference. Our economic problems happened in less than 10 months when we moved from a single inflation to over 50 percent inflation.
It wasn’t within a 2 or 1 years but it happened within a few months. So I believe that if we can dive deeper into the ditch in less than 3 months, we can actually swim up ashore in less than 10 months”.
