• President Akufo-Addo says he wants to appoint the right people

• He maintains that no vacuum has been created since MMDCEs in his first term are still at post

• He hints of a change in narrative by the end of the month

President Nana Addo Danwka Akufo-Addo has justified the delay in announcing his second term Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executive appointments.

With his second term presidency almost at the end of its first year, President Akufo-Addo has yet to announce his list of MMDCEs and this has led to some Ghanaians expressing various misgivings about the development.

But the president said the delay is to offer him the opportunity to scrutinize his list of appointees in order to come out with individuals who would have won his conviction.

“I want to be sure about the people that are going to help me at the local government level to be in place all through the rest of my mandate,” the President stressed.

President Akufo-Addo in his interview with Skyypower monitored by GhanaWeb noted that having instructed MMDCEs of his first term to be at post until the new appointments are announced, it cannot be said that a vacuum has been created by the delay.

“They (MMDCEs) are there already. The impression is being given that there are no MMDCEs in the system, it is false. All the people who were MMDCEs in my first term are still at post. I instructed the Chief of Staff who is the administrator of all of these people to extend their tenure in an acting capacity because the President has that power in the constitution. If there is that vacancy, people can act to fill that vacancy pending the appointment of substantive officeholders. So there is no vacuum in local government in Ghana as we speak today,” he said.

The president, however, expressed that he had originally hoped that plans to amend the constitution to give room for the election of MMDCEs by citizens, would have materialized to give the appointing power to Ghanaians.

He assured that matters surrounding the list and appointment of MMDCEs will be resolved by the end of the month of September.