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Dan Botwe, the Minister of Regional Reorganisation and Development, has postulated that his ministry is not redundant but a justified ministerial portfolio created by the administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and a vital component of governance. He explained that the creation of the new regions was a vision of the party and had to be implemented after taking the reins of governance which was a promise to the people in those regions. Reacting to former President John Mahama’s comment about his ministry that with the creation of the new regions the Ministry of Regional Reorganisation and Development had been rendered redundant, Mr Botwe, who is also the Member of Parliament for Okere in the Eastern Region, in an illustration said, “When the UK wanted to get out of the EU, they appointed a minister for that.
“In our country they would have said this is just how to get out of the EU, why do you need a minister?’ But the UK didn’t do that, they appointed a minister, it’s about the vision that you have.
“Former President Mahama’s “limited vision” did not allow him to “visualise” how to create new regions even though seven petitions were presented to him as president to do what the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration has done, it shows the limited vision he has, and I don’t get it.
“In the first place, he couldn’t do it, the people made representation to him, he couldn’t do it because the capacity to visualise it, put in place mechanism to achieve it, he didn’t have it, he couldn’t do it and his own people made appeals to him, he was not bold enough to do it,” Mr Botwe pointed out. Speaking during closed-door meeting with some disappointed business owners and importers in his office on August 19, 2019, former President Mahama, in reaction to concerns raised about the government’s increasing budget overruns indicated that “there can be no justification for some of the ministerial portfolios created by this administration”.
“Senior Minister, Minister of State in Office of Vice-President, Minister of State in Office of Senior Minister, Ministers of Procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation, Business Development, Special Initiatives, Aviation, Railway Development are unnecessary on public purse and with completion of creation of new regions, the Ministry for Regional Reorganisation and Development has been rendered redundant,” the former president stressed.
