[ 2017-02-10 ]

Afeku, Kyei Mensah Bonsu, 9 others approved as ministers
Parliament has by consensus approved the
nomination of 11 nominees to serve as ministers of
state in the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration.

The 11 nominees include Catherine Afeku, the
nominee for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts,
who also confessed that she did not undertake the
mandatory one year national service, when she
appeared before the Appointments Committee earlier
this week.

The other are, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs,
Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu; Minister for Special
Development Initiative, Mavis Hawa Koomson;
Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture
Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye; Minister of
Inner cities and Zongo Development, Abubakar
Boniface Siddique; Minister of Business
Development, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal; Minister for
Information, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid; Minister of
Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Kofi Dzamesi;
Minister of Aviation, Cecelia Dapaah; Minister of
Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah; Minister for
Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour.

The approval of the nominees was without
reservations from either side of the House,
following a debate on the fourth report of the
Committee.

‘Afeku sails through’

It was suspected that the nominee for Tourism,
Culture and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku, would
be challenged following indications from some
members of the minority that they will take her on
over her failure to do her one-year mandatory
national service.

The National Democratic Member of Parliament for
Sagnarigu, A.B.A. Fuseini, earlier this week
warned that MPs would be eroding Ghana’s
democracy by willfully ignoring the laws to
approve the nominee in spite of her confession of
not doing her national service.

According to Alhaji Fuseini, Madam Afeku was by
that reason not qualified for the job.

“Anybody who has been engaged in infraction of
the law is not qualified to hold public office. It
is clear if you have flouted the law. You have to
go and purge yourself before you come back. As
legislators, we must be the first in line in
defence of the law. If we allow infractions of the
law to get away and we ourselves are involved in
the brazen infraction of the law, then we are
perpetuating something very dangerous for our
democracy,” he said.

A similar concern on National Service enrollment
was raised against the Minister for Gender,
Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba,
after her vetting.

Her situation resulted in a minority boycotting
her approval by abstaining from a vote cast to
determine her approval.

Parliament’s Appointments Committee is expected
to commence vetting of the 10 regional minister
nominees next week.

Source - citifmonline.com

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