I VOTED FOR AN EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT NOT A LEAN GOVERNMENT

I VOTED FOR AN EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT NOT A LEAN GOVERNMENT

Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes...

I have followed with keen interest and considerable disquiet, the hew and cry from a section of the Ghanaian populace about the size of the Akufo-Addo government. I have heard all the arguments, the legitimate ones and ones driven by political mischief and malevolence. Quite characteristic of me, I wish to also share my perspective on the raging debate, for the second time. My fellow countrymen and women, we must first and foremost, situate this discussion in proper context so that we are fair to all parties and the facts. Our country is not in ordinary times. We are in an extraordinary period, to put it bluntly.

We are in a period where almost all our fundamentals including the economy and social welfare system are unacceptably weak if not completely broken. We are in a period where our President says that he wasn't elected by the Ghanaian people to complain or lament about this legendary crisis but to fix whatever is broken and he is unwaveringly committed to doing just that. More importantly, we are in a period where the government of the day is having to fulfill some seemingly overly ambitious and grandiose electoral promises, upon which premise, it got the overwhelming mandate of the Ghanaian people.

I dare say, NO GOVERNMENT in the history of Ghana right from the proverbial days of Adam till date, has found itself in this ‘unenviable condition’ as the Akufo-Addo government. You should therefore not expect the Akufo-Addo government to do what all governments in our history have been doing, except if you want to be told the same old story. From all indications, President Nana Akufo-Addo is committed to changing the Ghanaian narrative and that is why he has appointed some 110 ministers and deputies to help him achieve his gargantuan transformational agenda for God and country.

I want us to at this juncture, do some number crunching and situate same in proper context for the sake of analysis. President Kufour, who is generally seen as arguably, the best performing president in the forth Republic, used some 93 ministers to achieve all the big things he did for Ghana. President Rawlings and late President Mills had a leaner government as they both did an average of 85. I'm not sure you would want us to compare their records with Kufour's because the difference is perhaps bigger than the Atlantic Ocean. Now here is the shocker, President Mahama had the leanest government, yet he is arguably, the worst performing president in the forth Republic and this is evidenced in his complete rejection and humiliating defeat at the 2016 polls.

Nowhere in Africa or elsewhere has a sitting President lost election by such astronomical margins. This confirms that, instead of efficiency, President Mahama's so called lean government only produced untold hardships, legendary profligacy, arrogance of power, deprivation, economic mismanagement and the looting of the National Kitty through corruption scandals we used to hear almost on daily basis. So you see, claims that the leaner a government, the more efficient it is, cannot be true, at least our own history doesn't support such claims as I have succinctly demonstrated.

Fortunately, those criticizing the President's appointments are not saying that he has appointed incompetent people as Ministers. They only have problem with the so called large size of the government, based on which they conclude that it would automatically balloon the cost of running government machinery. This argument is not only premature but pedestrian and incompetent especially because the government itself, has given the strongest indication yet of its resolve to significantly reduce some of the payments and entitlements to these appointees/ministers.

Remember that, this is the same government whose appointees/representatives on the transition team as well as the Ghana @60 central planning committee decided not to take their allowance for love of country. So the government has that track record. That is why I say, numbers do not really matter in this analysis.

In any case, the NPP never promised to run a lean government and that is a fact. Rather, they promised to run an efficient government and they are committed to doing just that. Also, Ghanaians did not vote for a lean government. Rather, they voted for an efficient government that is committed to fulfilling its promises. Ghanaians voted for the restoration of trainee allowance; restoration of fiscal and monetary discipline; competent management of our economy; free SHS; the scrapping of nuisance taxes like import duties on spare parts and levies on Kayayes; Zongo Development Fund; 1-District-1-Factory; 1-Village-1-Dam; $1 million per each constituency among others.  

Governance is about choices. A leader can chose to have a lean government and be corrupt and inefficient. Another leader can choose to have a "large government" but very industrious and efficient. President Mahama chose the former whereas His Excellency President Nana Addo has chosen the latter. As indicated, President Kufour used a 'large government' to build a solid foundation whereas Mills and Mahama used a 'lean government' to destroy this foundation. So the debate ought not be about the size of a government but its efficiency and that conclusion cannot be reached in advance, except if we want to do the usual petty politics.

My fellow countrymen and women, need I have to remind all of us that we have given an overwhelming mandate to President Nana Akufo-Addo to govern this country for the next 4 years, at least. It is only fair that we allow him space to use his formula or methodology to govern. Our interest should be whether we are getting results and efficiency. So if the President thinks that appointing some 110 Ministers and deputies out of the over 29 million Ghanaians would make him effectively deliver the desired results to the Ghanaian people, then so be it.  After all, at the end of his 4 years, we would have an opportunity to assess him and this would form the basis of our renewal or otherwise of his mandate come 2020. The perspectives of a citizen not a spectator.

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen

#ForGodAndCountry

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