Alan, Akufo-Addo spared

Two cabinet ministers have been spared from President Kufuor's fiat to all minister-aspirants to resign by close of this week.

The Statesman reported that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alan Kyerematen of the Trade Ministry, who are two leading contestants in the leadership race, are being asked to stay on and spend some more time with their portfolios.

The newspaper said it has learnt that President John Agyekum Kufuor expects to receive by Monday resignation letters from Cabinet Ministers who are vying to be elected as the governing party's presidential candidate in the December contest.

However, the two Ministers are being asked to extend their stay as Ministers because they have two major international events to organise next month, the African Union Summit and the AGOA Forum both to be held in Accra.

It said the Ministers who are expected to resign soon are Kwame Addo-Kufuor (Defence), Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey (Tourism), Felix Owusu-Adjapong (Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader), Papa Owusu-Ankomah (Education & Sports), Mike Oquaye (Communications), and Hackman Owusu-Agyemang (Water Resources, Works & Housing).

The other two Cabinet Ministers should follow suit a week before Parliament rises on Friday, July 27. This should enable their replacements to go through vetting, if needed.

But, a tidier way may still result in all eight resigning on the same day. This could see all eight minister-aspirants presenting their resignation letters to the Castle this Friday, with the resignations taking effect on the same day a month later in July. Sources close to the two exempted Ministers say they would prefer this for its solidarity principle.

A planned crunch meeting this week, featuring all eight minister-aspirants, President Kufuor, Vice President Aliu Mahama, and party leaders Peter Mac Manu and Nana Ohene Ntow may still come on before the close of the week.

The 6th US-Sub Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation, known as the 6th AGOA forum is scheduled to take place from the 16th to 19th July in Accra.

For two years, Mr Kyerematen, according to a senior Castle source, has been working on this forum, which will attract 38 of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which are AGOA beneficiary countries.

The African Union, under the chairmanship of President Kufuor, is holding the 6th AU Summit here in Accra from June 25 - July 3, and the role of Nana Akufo-Addo as Chairman of the Executive Council of the African Union is seen to be crucial to the success of this important one item agenda summit on the grand debate for a union government for Africa.

Incidentally, Nana Akufo-Addo's campaign team had much earlier impressed upon the Minister, who has spent more time abroad this year than at home, to resign from Government after the AU summit to spend more time with his campaign. News from the Castle confirming his resignation has therefore been greeted with some jubilation at the campaign office in Kokomlemle.

Also, some leading members of the Alan team, including one Cabinet colleague, had also been pushing for his resignation before August. Still, the President's move last week Tuesday, demanding their resignations within a week, took everybody by surprise, triggering reactions of dissent even from the Ministers who were planning to tender their resignation letters.

It is recalled that President Kufuor met his minister-aspirants Tuesday, June 12 and advised them to resign within a week to pursue their presidential ambitions. But, another meeting was scheduled when objections were raised by the group. However, The Statesman was reliably informed that the President's mind was made up and that he was not going to back down.

Though the Ministers have all exhibited various forms of unhappiness with the presidential 'counsel', they are all said to be resigned to preparing their handing over notes this week.

Ironically, only about five or six of the nine Cabinet members, including the Vice President, currently campaigning, were expected to file once nominations opened on September 15. But, now all of them may go all the way to the contest, when in fact the party constitution and the President's resignation threat would have been expected to trigger the opposite effect.

This is because to opt to abandon your campaign now to protect your ministerial position in the face of a much-publicised presidential ultimatum to leave government now, could open you up for public ridicule.

As things stand now, all eight known minister-aspirants intend to intensify their campaigns from July. Besides the nine aspirants in Cabinet, there are nine others also campaigning. Top among them are Dan Botwe, former NPP General Secretary; Yaw Osafo-Maafo, former Finance Minister and Kofi Konadu Apraku, former Trade Minister.

Credit: The Statesman