Member of Parliament (MP) for Bodi in the Western North Region and a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samson Ahi has expressed his displeasure over President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo neglecting the Western Region in his ministerial reshuffle.
According to him,he felt sad realizing there was no representatives from his region in the recent ministerial appointments following the removal of Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation.
Mr. Ahi argued that this omission is unconstitutional, as the constitution mandates the appointment of ministers from all regions.
On Wednesday, February 14, President Akufo-Addo reshuffled his ministers. The reshuffle affected a total of 13 ministers of state, including 10 cabinet ministers and two regional ministers.
Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, the outgoing Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, who hails from the Western North region, was also relieved of his duties.
In a press conference held in Accra on Wednesday February 14. Ahi voiced his dissatisfaction with the situation, stating that it has ignited dissatisfaction among traditional leaders and residents of the Western North Region while urging the President to rectify the situation urgently.
“Over the years, cabinet appointments, ministerial appointments reflect the various regions that we have in the country and therefore under the constitution, it is stated clearly that presidents, even though they have the power to appoint, they should consider regional balance…We have 16 regions in the country. If you read through the existing Ministers and the new ones and the deputy ministers, there is none from the Western North region.
We had only one Minister. Even though we were not happy, we consoled ourselves with Dr. Kwaku Afriyie as Minister for Environment and Science. He was sacked by the president.”
“So as a region, we were expecting that they replace Dr. Kwaku Afriyie. But that didn’t happen. So as we speak, there is nobody representing Western North in the cabinet now.
Even the deputy ministers…And so it is strange to us that the president will not consider anybody from the region to be part of the government.
So we are not happy. The chiefs, the people of the region are not happy at all. And they are struggling to understand why the president will do this to the region. There are some regions that have seven ministers, eight ministers… We want to believe that this is an oversight, and we are calling on the president to rectify the anomaly, to do the right thing in making sure that the cabinet that he is constituting will have all the regions. Because we also contribute immensely to the development of the country,” he stated.
