I was never against ‘family and friends’ in Mahama’s govt – Gabby

An influential member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has said that he never spoke against nepotism or family and friends when John Dramani Mahama was in power as President.

The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the government of running a family and friends government presenting close to 50 names of persons with close ties with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who are serving in various capacities in the current administration

According to the NDC, over fifty members of the President’s family and friends have been handed juicy key positions in economically viable institutions in the country.

They add that apart from the President, the Vice President and other leading members of the NPP have taken influential positions for their families and friends and these individuals are siphoning monies to enrich themselves at the expense of the average Ghanaian.

However, while in opposition, the NPP accused the NDC and the John Mahama led administration of running a family and friends government and promised not to repeat the same if voted into power.

NPP Policy Advisor Boakye Agyarko, who addressed a press conference at the party headquarters in Accra on Monday, September 19, condemning the nepotistic government run by John Dramani Maham indicated: “Even members of his [Mr Mahama’s] own party recognize that the president’s ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ has been for the benefit of only his family and friends.”

But speaking in an interview with Accra-based Citi TV monitored by MyNewsGh.com, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko said he never spoke against nepotism and cronyism in the Mahama led administration.

To him, if you do not appoint people who you know can deliver the results, them who are you going to appoint to help run the affairs of government when elected into power.

“You are asking the wrong person because I never spoke against John Mahama’s government and cronyism, go look at all my posts, I had no interest in that and I had no interest for a very good reason. I want to look at the President, you’ve been given the mandate, you have the right to choose the people that you think can deliver for you. Are they delivering or not?"

“You mention a list of fifty and the list of fifty include friends and people you know. First of all, I’m not going to appoint my enemies or my opponents into my government. And you know, if you’re not going to if you can’t appoint your friends or people that you know…If I say friends maybe I’m simplifying it. If you can’t appoint people that you know can help you deliver then who can you appoint?"

He noted that Ghanaians over the years have not been fair to his family because it has been a family that has dedicated its life to serving the people of Ghana in different spheres and not only in public service and they need to be given recognition for that.

“But you know and I think sometimes society is also unfair to my family and I will say so because it is not uncommon for societies to have some families that have historically dedicated a big chunk of their lives to serving the public good in public service and the rest of it and my family happens to be that. They fought against even the colonial masters, the big six you can find about three of them in there. Even they opposed Nkrumah’s government, Nkrumah’s Finance Minister was an Uncle so when you look at it from that point of view almost every government has had them because that’s what they do.

Gabby intimated that it will be unfair to say they are reaping from benefits and gains from their forefathers because they offer themselves for public service saying “even though my granddad had over 100 children and educated all of them and when you look at it it’s not just politics. I mean you go to Dr Susan Ofori Attah, there are so many of them across, you know and even now we are benefitting from some of them. The chap at Noguchi is a cousin and he’s never been in politics but somehow his job has brought him into the public domain. Was he appointed by the President?”

He debunked the assertion that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko is the Defacto Prime Minister of the Akufo-Addo led government indicating that neither does he go to the cabinet nor call Ministers to instruct them on what to do and who to give contracts to.