Mahama likely to break his promise to appoint 60 ministers
President-elect John Dramani Mahama, under pressure from his party’s leadership and rank and file, is likely to break his manifesto promise to appoint only 60 ministers having won the presidency, a source familiar with the ongoing selection process has confirmed to Asaase News.
Asaase News sources have also pointed out that Mr Mahama has privately admitted to his close associates that he made a mistake in making the manifesto promise of placing such a ceiling on himself, capping his ministers at 60.
The 1992 constitution, in Article 76, requires the President to appoint a Cabinet consisting of himself, the Vice President, and not less than ten and not more than nineteen ministers of state. Their duty is to assist the president in determining the general policy of the government.
In Article 78 (1 &2), the constitution also gives the President the power to appoint such number of ministers of state as may be necessary for the efficient running of the state without placing any ceiling to the number the president can appoint.
Should Mr. Mahama stick to his promise of 60 ministers, his Cabinet of 19 ministers of state and 16 regional ministers will amount to 35 ministers if he appoints them.
If he decides to appoint deputy ministers only for Cabinet portfolios, that will be an additional 19, bringing the number to 54. The president would be left with just 6 more ministers to appoint to reach his 60-minister ceiling.
In a recent statement at a Church service, Mr Mahama indicated that he has too many Members of Parliament (MPs) elected on the ticket of his party, NDC, and simply does not know what to do with all of them.
He further noted that during his campaign, every paramount chief he visited assured him that they would vote for him, however, they wanted their sons and daughters who would win the parliamentary elections to be appointed as ministers.
Mr Mahama said these demands were of concern to him because he was very much mindful of the promise, he had made to the people of Ghana to appoint only 60 ministers. He ended by stating that he is convinced that God will guide him.
The NDC is almost certain to have about 182 Members of Parliament in the 9th Parliament, with the NPP having about 90 and 4 independent members. Mr Mahama is required to appoint at least half of his ministers from Parliament.
That means that out of the 60, he must choose 30 from Parliament. Even if he decides to choose all his 60 ministers from Parliament, what it means is that about 122 MPs would not serve as ministers.
Perhaps what may serve as consolation for the MPs is that the Mahama government is likely to spread them across boards of various state institutions and agencies to serve mainly as the chairpersons of the board of directors or governing board.