[ 2021-03-02 ]

Stop inciting Minority against Akufo-Addo’s nominees
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mpraeso, Mr.
Davis Opoku Ansah has accused the National
Democratic Congress of inciting its legislators on
the Appointments Committee against President Nana
Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees.

He argued that Ghana’s democracy will be
weakened if political parties are allowed to
control their Members of Parliament.

The NDC MPs on the Committee have unanimously
rejected the approval of some
ministers-designate.

These nominees are Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the
Minister-designate for Information; Hawa Koomson,
Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture
and Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister-designate for
Food and Agriculture.

Besides the three nominees who the NDC members on
the committee have decided not to approve, there
are a few others whose decision is yet to be taken
on their approval or rejection.

Speaking on the Citi TV’s Breakfast daily on
Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the Mpraeso MP urged
Ghanaians to speak up against the action of the
NDC.

“The NDC is doing politics as usual and must be
condemned by all. The party leadership controlling
the Minority MPs is worrying for our democracy and
must be looked at. There is a reason why we all
took the oath during our swearing-in as MPs.”

“The reasons assigned to the rejection of these
MPs are very empty. I think they (Minority)
demanding some further explanations on the other
five is the way to go but the party leadership
issuing the statement and all of that is worrying
and must be condemned because it will weaken
Parliament.”

He subsequently suggested that the NDC is doing
this to court media attention ahead of the Supreme
Court ruling on Thursday.

“You need to look at the timelines again. We are
expecting a major ruling on Thursday from the
Supreme Court, and I am sure the NDC would want a
certain noise to compete with that news.”

Meanwhile, the Appointments Committee will
continue with its work today.

The Minister-designate for Ashanti region, Simon
Osei Mensah, the Minister-designate for Bono
region, Justina Owusu Banahene, and the
Minister-designate for the Bono East region, Adu
Gyan are expected to be vetted.

Why NDC MPs rejected Hawa Koomson, Oppong Nkrumah,
Afriyie Akoto’s nominations
For Mrs. Koomson, the NDC MPs said she
“displayed an alarmingly abysmal lack of
knowledge on the sector she was nominated for.”

The MPs also said she “could not provide
convincing grounds for the shooting incident
during the Voter Registration Exercise in Kasoa on
20th July 2020 even though we acknowledge her
belated apology for her recklessly dangerous
conduct.”

For Mr. Nkrumah, the MPs cited a lack of
sincerity, among others, on issues concerning the
collapse of a microfinance institution he was a
major shareholder in.

“The Minister-designate for Information was not
the least candid with the committee on the
multiple infractions of the law leading to the
Bank of Ghana’s revocation of the license of
Oval Microfinance – a company in which he was
83% majority shareholder.”

The NDC MPs also feel Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto fell
short of standards of truthfulness in some of his
submissions.

“The Minister-designate was particularly
discourteous, downright condescending and
offensively arrogant in his appearance at the
committee which is not the kind of attitude
expected of public servants,” their assessment
of the vetting said.

Source - Citinewsroom

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