In fulfilment of his promise to run a lean government, one bold decision President John Dramani Mahama must take is to scrap the deputy ministerial positions in most of the sectors.

In my previous article titled ‘10 things Mahama must do in his first year’, while I indicated that President Mahama should appoint someone from the industry or someone who understands the operation and business of the turf as the minister, I also highlighted the need for him not to appoint any deputy minister for tourism, culture and creative arts.

“The President-Elect, John Dramani Mahama should scrap the deputy positions for most of the ministries including our Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. There is enough evidence to show that the deputy ministers are merely titular and perform little or no functions at all. When you hold them accountable, they tell you they are not in charge and that they just assist their bosses.

Truly, they have never been in charge because the constitution does not put them in charge. Our ministry needs just one minister, particularly someone from our industry or someone who really understands the creative economy.

There are directors and CEOs at the various institutions in the ministry who can always work with the minister. Under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture alone, we have the CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority, CEO of Ghana Tourism Development Company, CEO of National Film Authority, Director of National Commission on Culture, Executive Director of National Theatre, Director at National Folklore Board, Director of Creative Arts at the Ministry, Director of Tourism at the Ministry and Executive Secretary of Creative Arts Agency.”

At this point that people are lobbying for positions and party loyalists are looking forward to getting 'compensated' with positions they don't even qualify to hold, the President might be tempted to burden the tax payer by putting square pegs in round holes.

The Deputy Ministerial positions should not be used as a form of tokenism for any minority group of people. The fact that a tourism, culture or creative arts person has served the National Democratic Congress in various ways to win power does not mean, they automatically need to be made ministers. There are various ways such people can still contribute to the growth of the industry. Their services may be needed in the thirteen (13) agencies under the ministry.

Once the substantive ministry has all that it takes to run the sector, the most important thing is to empower the various Chief Executive Officers, Executive Secretaries, and directors of the agencies. That done, they will assist the minister to deliver perfectly.

While I look forward to the appointment of a truly qualified person as minister of the sector, I will be highly disappointed if President Mahama also nominates a deputy minister.

About the author

Kwame Dadzie is an arts and culture journalist with the Multimedia Group Limited (Joy FM). He is the host of the most authoritative entertainment talk show in Ghana, Showbiz A-Z on Joy 99.7FM.