How Kufuor served as President and board member of Bui Power Authority

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, a member of the Parliamentary Service Board has recounted how at some point in the country’s history, a sitting president became a board member of a state institution.

This ‘strange’ situation, according to Asiedu Nketia, occurred under the Kufuor administration with Kufuor acting as the Board Chairman of the Bui Power Authority.

He narrates that the board received the approval of Parliament which had the New Patriotic Party as the majority.

“I’m surprised that people like Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu can complain about who can become a board and who cannot. The most interesting board membership this country has had was for President Kufuor to become a board member whiles he was a sitting president.

“He was the first Bui Board Chairman and he was reporting to the Energy Minister who was also then reporting to him as president. It happened in this country. From 2000 to 2004, I was in Parliament then. When the Bui master agreement was being signed, how could board members be appointed even when the project agreement was being signed.

“We approved it in Parliament with NPP majority that President Kufuor should be the first board member for Bui. It was not a mistake and Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was a whip who spoke and supported it. President Kufuor became the first board chairman of the Bui,” he said.

Asiedu Nketia furthered that when he became board chair of the authority under the Mills regime, he made efforts to have President Kufuor provide answers on certain things that happened under his watch as board chair of the Bui Power Authority.

The General Secretary of the NDC says the NPP fought back with allegations that he was the supplier of cement blocks for the construction of the Bui Dam.

“When I became a chairman subsequently, I was trying to get him as a former chairman to come and clarify certain things and their way of fighting back was me selling blocks to the Bui project. They were saying that I made blocks for the project to be constructed, go and look at the project if it was done by blocks.”

Asiedu Nketia was justifying his appointment onto the board of the Parliamentary Service Board.

According to him, he is not the first high-profile political person to serve on the board of any state institutions.