Mumuni Takes Over Jubilee House

Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni

GOVERNMENT HAS temporarily moved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to the Administration and General Services Wings of the Golden Jubilee House, the Presidential Palace.

According to a release from the Office of the Chief of Staff, as a long-term solution, a new building to house the ministry is to be expeditiously constructed at the repossessed parcel of land at Airport, where the International Student Hostel was located.

Relocation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs became necessary after fire gutted the whole 10-storey building of the ministry recently.

Until the announcement, the Foreign Ministry had been operating from the Accra International Conference Centre, with no space for some of the staff to work.

Minister for Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration, , will now be the first government official to occupy the landmark multi-million dollar presidential villa and imposing edifice built by the Kufuor Administration, which some NDC rabble-rousers said it should be turned into a poultry farm or a hospital.

Mumuni's boss, President John Atta Mills, has failed to move into the Jubilee House as it continues to be an albatross on the necks of officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Recently, the government indicated that it needs $35million to put finishing touches to the edifice before the President moves in.

The President had claimed that the Jubilee House was a misplaced priority.

However, touring the House just recently, a Deputy Minister for Information, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, told journalists that President Mills will definitely move in at the appropriate time, saying the Chief Executive of the land has no choice, as the edifice has already been built with the taxpayers' money.

The Jubilee House was built with support from the Indian government.

By Awudu Mahama