An appointment well-deserved—Hon Dr Hafiz Bin Salih

The second tenure of the administration of H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and his New Patriotic Party government is about to take off in earnest with the appointment of the various Regional and Sector Ministers who a very crucial role as far as the vision of the President and the government is concerned.

This second term is in fulfillment of the achievement of our first term and we cannot fail the people of Ghana as we look forward to having the NPP in government beyond 2024.

After two weeks of intense lobbying, consultation and scrutiny, the President clothed with powers from article 78 of the 1992 constitution has settled on some 46 men and women out of the lot to help him steer the ship to promised land within the four-year mandate given him by the Ghanaian electorate. It is no mean achievement for these forty-six men and women as there are so many other qualified and competent Ghanaians within the NPP fold who could have equally made it into the list.

I want to thank the President for heeding to the call of Ghanaians to downsize his government to reduce the pressure on the public purse and to further thank him for appointing men and women of valor capable of standing up to the expectations of the party and government to deliver on the mandate given him by the electorate.

As a foot soldier from the Upper West Region, I am particularly elated and excited by the appointment of Hon. Dr Hafiz Bin Salih as the Upper West Regional Minister-Designate. The President has demonstrated by this appointment that he is a man of character and made of steel who understands the peculiar geo-political dynamics of the Upper West Region and as such is never moved by sentimentalism and lamentations ; one of the important traits of a leader.

It is a truism that the New Patriotic Party in the Upper West Region continues to fall behind the National Democratic Congress in terms of popularity and support-base as evidenced in the results of each presidential and parliamentary election. In spite of the fact that the NPP, an offshoot of the Dombo-Danquah-Busia has founding fathers from the Upper West Region, the NDC for unexplained reasons commands a larger following in the region which cannot be tolerated and accepted by followers of the Dombo-Danquah-Busia tradition.

To stem the tide and to grow the party in the region,the party needs political appointees who understand, believe and have lived through the attributes and the traits of the political tradition of the New Patriotic Party. Such appointees must be able to break the barriers to build and grow the party across the length and breadth of the region.

In order to do this, the appointees need to have garnered considerable experience working for the party, they need to be politically-knowledgeable, they need to be have built enormous social capital and command some significant influence prior to their appointment.

In view of the above-stated attributes, I doff my hat off to the president for settling on Dr Hafiz Bin Salih to hold the forte as the Regional Minister for the Upper West Region against all odds in the supreme interest of the party, government and the good people of the Upper West Region.

At a time that the President has decided not to appoint Deputy Regional Ministers, there is the need to appoint Regional Ministers who can stand up to the task of discharging their duties as political heads of the Regional Co-ordinating Councils as well as attending to the needs of the party as the president’s representative in the region. And this is where Dr Hafiz Bin Salih comes in handy. He prioritizes the welfare of party members as much as he cherishes the progress and development of the Upper West Region.

This is a young man who has distinguished himself as a unifier with a plain heart and tries at all material moments to build bridges across political, religious and ethnic considerations. He strives to evenly spread the goodies of the state across the entirety of the region to make everyone have a feel of the extraordinary performance of the Nana Akufo Addo government. Indeed, he has a large and sacrificial heart.

As I thank the President for the huge honour done by the Regional Minister-Designate, I implore him to work his heart out to leave a legacy whenever he leaves the position of a Regional Minister to vindicate the overwhelming and unbridled confidence reposed in him by His Excellency the President. This appointment is an indication of the satisfaction that the president gained from his less than two years of performance in the same role prior to the 2020 elections. CONGRATULATIONS to you, Hon Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih as we await your vetting and approval to keep serving your party, government, and the good people of our dear Upper West Region.

MUJEEB-RAHMAN ABUBAKAR aka Osei

(FORMER WA CENTRAL CONSTITUENCY SECRETARY)