Former President John Mahama has disclosed that one of the toughest decisions he took during his tenure was to reshuffle his ministers.

Giving a lecture at the Academic City College in Accra, he noted that this move cost him a lot of friends, however, this did not deter him from sacrificing personal interest for the good of the country.

“In my time, I reshuffled some ministers and I know they were not very pleased. Of course, nobody is pleased when you drop them from office and so there are few of them who are not my best friends anymore because I dropped them from office,” he said.

His revelation follows various calls on President Akufo-Addo to reshuffle ministers who are not meeting the expectations of the public. The President is yet to heed this call and has on various occasions stressed the need not to.

For him, his ministers have performed beyond expectation, therefore, there was no need for any reshuffle.

Unlike the President who remains resolute in maintaining his appointees, Mr Mahama said some of the government officials who had to suffer this fate are currently at loggerheads with him.

Addressing the students on the theme "Taking Critical Decisions in Decisive Moments As a Leader, " he advised the President to emulate him and reshuffle the ministers since it largely helps them in identifying their potential.

“After a while, take a look at the performance of your ministers and based on their performance you must decide to drop some people and you can also decide to shift some people to other places. They may be probably good but maybe they may not be finding their feet in the ministry you sent them and so after observing them for a year or two you see that this person will do better here because of certain qualities they have.”

He further stated that “sometimes you take decisions to move people because you don’t want them to create kingdoms in the Ministries in which they are. When the staff of the ministry or the agency know that this person is untouchable then it does not bring out the best in them…and that is what is happening today,” he stressed.

Source: The Independent Ghana