Who is the Information Minister?

The crisis and confusion that have characterised the government's information machinery ever since the Mills-Mahama administration assumed the reins of office in 2009 has been evident in a series of goofs and misinformation that has been churned out by the government's information machinery.

From 2009 to date, five persons have been appointed as either Ministers or Deputy Ministers of State at the Ministry of Information.

Zita Okaikoi and James Agyenim Boateng were axed from their positions as Minister and deputy Minister of Information respectively for reasons widely known to the public.

Zita Okaikoi was axed as Information Minister in 2010 because according to her own party man, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, Member of Parliament for Kpone Katamanso, she had failed to defend government's position on issues of national concern and as such had given critics of the government a field day to deceive the electorate about government policies and programmes

Zita and James were subsequently replaced by John Tia and NDC firebrand Baba Jamal respectively.

However, one man has remained an ever present figure in the ministry as he is regarded by many within the inner circles of the NDC as a “Mills' boy”.

During the tenure of Zita Okaikoi, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was ever present across the media landscape seemingly trying to defend government's position on every issue, relegating the Minister and his fellow deputy to the background.

The scenario which panned out during the era of Zita Okaikoi is repeating itself once again, déjà vu as some may call it.

John Tia has been a relatively laid back Minister of Information and is rarely seen or contacted by media houses to defend or articulate government's position on matters that have arisen in the country during his tenure as information Minister.

Be it the STX housing deal, the purchase of the Embraer 190 aircraft or the controversial $3 billion Chinese loan facility acquired by the Mills' administration, his voice has not been heard on these issues.

In the last month perhaps the only time John Tia was heard was when he was defending the relevance of the Information Ministry and took the opportunity to slam critics who called for the scrapping of the Information Ministry.

Fellow newcomer at the Ministry, Baba Jamal's appointment was hailed as a step in the right direction by NDC sympathisers because of his apparent forceful and abrasive nature on the media front in the run-up to the 2008 elections.

However, a series of goofs beginning with the purchase of aircrafts for the military, which he said was to be used to “chase armed robbers”, and the emergence of a voice, alleged to be Baba Jamal's, in a tape was the beginning of his demise in the Ministry.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the sheep-to-cow-transformation agenda, a brain child of Baba Jamal, which was exposed.

After this sequence of events, Baba Jamal has hardly been heard defending government's position on any issue whatsoever.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has, however, remained ever present and still remains the voice of the information ministry. Has the Minister of Information, John Tia, been sacked?