Reports close to State House have it that President Ernest Bai Koroma may find it extremely difficult if he decided to reshuffle his cabinet amidst speculations that most ministers have failed to live up to expectations.
It could be recalled that the president recently made suspicious comments following an assessment in fulfillment of a performance agreement he signed with ministers on their return from a Bumbuna retreat earlier this year.
Koroma's statement on the BBC that he was going to offload some people, apparently, onboard his governance boat has been attributed to disappointment that could lead to a possible cabinet reshuffle.
Meanwhile, presidential and public affairs minister Alhaji Alpha Kanu has dismissed rumours of imminent cabinet reshuffle saying the president was not in any dilemma to reshuffle his cabinet.
"The president is not even contemplating on reshuffling cabinet as an issue for now," he noted adding the cabinet was not that large whereas the government needs a lot of people to do a lot of work.
However, publicity secretary of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) Mohamed Bangura told Concord Times that he was certain the president is between the devil and the deep blue sea.
He observed that removing certain ministers from the current structure was not possible considering the role they played in the race to State House.
"These ministers are loyal party stalwarts, friends and relatives," he said but advised that "the president consider reducing the size of his cabinet because it was the largest in the sub region." The present economic status in the country, he stated, requires that the cabinet be downsized adding that since their appointment some ministers have been going without official vehicles or residence.
"For the sake of a viable economy one would strongly recommend that the size of the government particularly deputy ministers be reduced considerably," he stressed.
He ended that the President had pledged to have a small cabinet but to the surprise of many Sierra Leoneans every ministry has got a deputy with little money furnish offices apart from other running cost.
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As most of the appointments were made on the basis of financial contribution by the Party members, a reshuffle may not be an easy job.
Kothor Bai Koroma is the leader.He formed his cabinet to work with him based opon a criteria.As president,he is the one and only one who will receive the praise for the goods or the blame for the goofy.If knowing that kothor Bai find himself unable to tell the "grey beard" the truth to make those changes he promised to the country.Well, kothor should think twice,he owes no obligation to any individual but the country and he must be careful because the world is watching and the good Lord is too.This is not to suggest in the least,that kothor Bai should rush to shake up his cabinet when he does not need to do it i:e based upon the media suggesting that he do without good cause.
In our Sierra Leone National Interests, the criteria for retaining any employee within our public sector - including politicos - should PRIMARILY start with mental health, public comportment, CRB(Criminal - and allied - Records Bureau) checks, efficiency, economic, and, cost-effective performances of the office-holder at attaining set objectives/targets and beneficial initiatives within statutory, mandatory, BEST PRACTICES and budgetary constraints. Secondaries should include leadership of relevant beneficial innovations by prioritising needs, evolving pertinent SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)and PEST(Political, Economic, Social, Terotechnological) analyses allied to CPA(Critical Path Analyses) for implementations and monitoring with intermittent re-appraisals for optimisations etc. The President - as national chief executive etc - should courageously cast his net WIDER than hitherto; then seek and fit round and square pegs appropriately. We are blessed with a superfluous abundance of tested and proven Sierra Leoneans who are performing and excelling elsewhere whilst standing on their own two feet without government subsidies and can of course do better than some of the lot he presently surrounds himself with - OUR CONTEMPORANEOUS TRAGEDY. Whilst I appreciate the natural preference for comfort with the familiar, I continue to observe that nationally reduced emotion and sentiment about status quo with attitudinal changes - primarily with and about corruption - should be top-down and not bottoms-up exercises for national services delivery optimisations.