The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Oil and Gas, Moses Asaga, has said it was a blessing in disguise that he missed out on a ministerial appointment under the Atta Mills-led administration.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, the former deputy finance minister under the JJ Rawlings government confessed that it was his wish to become the finance minister of Ghana when the NDC won the 2008 elections, but whatever happened was good.
In 2009, Asaga was withdrawn as water resources, works and housing minister-designate for ordering the payment of the controversial ex-gratia awards without recourse to his colleagues in Parliament or the transition team of the new government then led by President Mills.
He said he is now playing a more strategic role behind the scene than he would have done should he have been appointed a minister.
�Everybody becomes a strategic player; I�m like Roger Milla [retired footballer], so when Cameroon is in some kind of trouble they bring him in,� Asaga said. �I play the most crucial roles�That is quite unfortunate [on ministerial appointment]. �
�I have always thought that I will be one of the key ministers. But since it is the president who can appoint and disappoint I think I will go by his wishes,� the NDC MP for Nabdam in the Upper East region told host Bernard Avle.
Asaga, who has been a legislator since 1997, said he harbours no ill feelings against the president and rather thanked him for placing him in a more strategic position to revive the economy.
�I don�t feel bitter because I have a complementary job in parliament, which is mines and energy, oil and gas. There are so much in oil and gas and once I put my expertise in there I�m creating something new.
�May be with ministry of finance I would have still continued what I already knew and what value would I have added. Under the oil and gas I have done so much you won�t believe it. For example, all the laws on oil I go through them, so if I create good laws one day they will say it,� he added.
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