Loyalty is not enough for a leader, reshuffle when necessary – Kufuor fumes

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said loyalty alone is not enough for a good leader in assessing his appointees.

The leader should be able to reshuffle his appointees when the need be, Mr Kufuor said.

Speaking when the leadership of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) called on him, former President Kufuor said during his tenure as president, “I didn’t reshuffle just for the frequency of it. No.”

He was responding to a question on what he makes of reshuffles by presidents.

Mr Kufuor used the late Gladys Asmah as an example and said she was loyal to him [Kufuor] such that “she helped me so much when I was canvassing for president.”

“But along the way, I saw that she was not pulling the support the way I expected from the ladies, the women.

“So I said, perhaps, Mrs Asmah will be more effective going to the Fisheries [Ministry] to open the fish hub for us [government], so that is how I did the reshuffle.”

The late Gladys Asmah was Minister of Women and Children Affairs and was later reshuffled to the Fisheries Ministry by former President Kufuor during his era.

Clarifying, Mr Kufuor added, “So I didn’t reshuffle just for the frequency of it; no.”

“The president’s role is like the coach; not just a team leader.

“You have to know what your ministers are doing, whether they are being positive or whether they’re just being average when you expect more from them, and you should have the courage to say you don’t belong here, go there, or perhaps sit aside.

“That is how I did mine and that thing should not be seasonal, it should be continuous.”