E.T. Mensah, Alban Bagbin And Cletus Avoka Have Not Been Demoted

Member of Parliament (MP)for Odododiodio constituency and a former Presidential staffer, Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye disagrees with all who think the nomination of E.T. Mensah, Alban Bagbin and Cletus Avoka to coordinate for the implementation of Presidential priority projects is a form of �demotion�. Hon. Enoch Teye Mensah, Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, Member of Parliament for Nadowli West and Hon. Cletus Avoka, MP for Zebilla constituency, Upper East Region were appointed by President John Dramani Mahama to coordinate the construction of 200 Senior High Schools, 10 Teacher Training Colleges and One (1) Public University in the Eastern Region as well as the development of ultra-modern Regional and Specialist Hospitals; and the development of new International and Regional Airports. Mr. E.T.Mensah was the former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alban Bagbin, was the Minister of Health, and Hon. Cletus Avoka was the Majority Leader in the fifth Parliament of the fourth Republic. In view of this, some are of the opinion that the new position given to these three are degrading and is an indication that they did not discharge their duties judiciously in their former positions. However, speaking on Metro TV�s Good Morning Ghana, Nii Lantey said �Why would anyone see it as a demotion - demotion from what level to what level? It is just the same function as a minister of state. People can ascribe whatever meaning to it but it won�t matter because we want to achieve what we said we were going to do; it�s about the NDC government working to achieve better results�� The projects in contention are core promises of the ruling government and so there is the need to give it special attention. He said the NDC led administration wants to ensure that they left no stone unturned. �President Kufuor did the presidential special initiatives and he put people responsible to it - it is the same thing but with a different caption. These are wonderful projects and the best thing the president will do is to put it in the hands of competent and experienced people with varied backgrounds so they coordinate and report back to him. A lot of people have complained that we were not able to achieve all our promises in 2012 and so we want to achieve all of them by 2016,� he added.