President’s reshuffle signifes elevation of ‘mate’ to ‘driver’ status – Dr. Osei-Kufuor avers

A Senior Research Fellow with the Department of Peace Studies, School for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Dr. Patrick Osei-Kufuor has avered that, the current reshuffle by President Akufo-Addo signifies the elevation of the Vice President.

He describes the reshuffle as the elevation of the ‘mate’ to the ‘driver’ status.

In a telephone conversation on GBC Radio Central’s ‘Wɔnfrɛ Yie’ show, Saturday February 17, 2024 and analysing President Akufo-Addo’s current reshuffle, he said the reshuffle places the Veep in the steering wheel to steer the affairs of state as he leads the New Patriotic Party.

Again, “the reshuffle is communicating the setting aside of Nana loyalist and perceived Bawumia lotalist stepping in. Also, those who Bawumia would need in other capacities to help his campaign have also been relieved of their position by the president”, shared the Senior Research Fellow.

According to Dr. Osei-Kufuor, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam is a known close associate of Dr. Bawumia and this is telling us that, the President of the Republic is giving him some powers and opportunities to his mate (Veep) to be in the driving seat as he tries to lead the nation.

“In real life, a mate is allowed to move and pack a car ones in a while as part of the learning processes and the reshuffle is what I see Nana Akufo-Addo doing for Bawumia”, he highlited.

Touching on the impact of the reshuffle, the Vice Dean, School For Development Studies however agreed that much cannot be achieved in this short time, underscoring “I expect to see some few changes and the implementation of the some of the vision as outlined by Dr. Bawumia recently”, stated him.

All these in the view of Dr. Osei-Kufuor is to present Bawumia as someone who means what intends to do and based on that he can achieve what hid desired goals. “Also the Akyem mafia tag is no more. Two Akyems, ie Ofori-Atta and Amoako Atta have been step aside and all these signifies that Bawumia wants to reduce that perception too. These are signs that Nana Akufo-Addo want to give power to Bawumia, the mate”, he stated.

Examining how auspicious the timing of the reshuffle was, the
Conflict Management, Security Management and Development expect argued that the party had a lot issues to deal with and they felt they wanted to solve all those differences before the reshuffle.

“Though the reshuffle was expected, there was a lot of turbulence because the party was going through its primaries and it was only expedient for them to wait to implement such a major reshuffle after the primaries.

“People have also been calling upon the Veep to assert himself and to be in charge and the reshuffle is asserting Bawumia and putting him in charge. It’s too late though but it’s for a better course which might fit into their strategy”, he avered.