Mahama not practising nepotism - Apaak

President John Mahama is not practicing nepotism, presidential staffer Dr. Clement Apaak has said.

Responding to a comment by former GIMPA Rector Prof Stephen Adei that “one out of every four public sector appointment comes from the President’s area of origin,” Dr. Apaak told Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Monday, 8 August that: “I was taken aback and rather shocked when my attention was drawn to that statement attributed to Prof Adei. And I know that this is not the first time he has sought to suggest what we are talking about, but if you look at the statistics.

I would have hoped that … he would have put in the public domain the research that he claimed to have conducted which led him to the conclusion that the president is practicing nepotism to the extent that many of his appointees happen to come from his place of origin."

Prof Adei, who was speaking at Prempeh Colleges’ Pearson Osae lectures over the weekend said the practice of nepotism was “totally unacceptable because we are a unified country, we are a country whereby if you take any major group, whether Gas, Ashantis or Ewes, you can form a cabinet from it.”

Dr. Apaak, however, said Prof Adei should provide the evidence to back his accusation. “You Know I am also a young academic, obviously I have not been an academic for as long as he [Prof Adei] has been, but if you are to accuse a president of practicing nepotism, and claiming that your conclusion is based on research, the best or the least you can do is to put out statistics and figures to justify the claim that you are making, other than that the conclusion is that it is mere political talk, seeking to engender public disaffection for the president by those persons in our society who may not come from the president’s place of origin.”

“Be as it may, when you say ‘the president’s place of origin’, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean the Northern Region? Do you mean Bole? Or do you mean from the Gonja Traditional Area? So when you speak like this, it is very clear that it is simply to create disaffection because you may not agree with the president on issues that you fail to make public.

“But look, if you were to take the list of the president’s appointees – and I know we are in excess of 4,000 – and you were to analyse their places of origin, based on ethnic-linguicism, based on geography, based on gender, and even based on ‘tribe’, you cannot draw the conclusion that this president is practicing nepotism. Be as it may, this is a president who has several siblings, and yet not even one of his own siblings holds an appointment in his own government.

“Can you tell me that there is a Region in this country that does not have somebody from that region serving in this president’s government? So, I truly am miffed, shocked and disappointed that a public citizen of the stature of Prof Adei can make such a statement. I think it is most unfortunate.

If there was ever a time for us to be speaking the language of national unity, I would argue that this is the time … rather than speaking language that will divide us and create problems where none exists because it is not true that this president is practicing nepotism,” Dr. Apaak added.