Mill’s Man Is A Ghanaian

THE PRESIDENT’S NOMINEE for Mayor of Accra, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, is a Ghanaian despite media reports and arguments put out by some pro-NDC and opposition activists that he is an American citizen and therefore unqualified for holding the mayoral post of Accra, the national capital.

Besides his own admission on radio that he is both American and Ghanaian, which critics have twisted to mean he is not Ghanaian, Gye Nyame Concord can confirm that the 53-year old Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije is a Ghanaian by birth, who holds the dual citizenship of the United States and Ghana.

Consequently, Dr. Vanderpuije is as qualified to hold the mayoral post as any other Ghanaian under the Constitution of Ghana, some legal experts have noted.

Sources close to the long-time AFRC-NDC activist say his nomination has irked some party insiders and drawn the attention of some opposition activists as a result of twisted media reports said to have been occasioned by NDC activists with an eye on the AMA job.

Critics have variously labeled him an unscrupulous American citizen who dipped his hands into the coffers of a US public school and fled the US justice system despite the multiplicity of evidence to the contrary (read the full story on charges brought against Vanderpuije during his tenure as Principal of the William Perry Middle School in South Carolina and his exoneration by the US courts in Wednesday’s edition).

Checks by the Gye Nyame Concord, whose Managing Editor last Thursday publicly urged the President on Peace FM to stand by his nominee if all that his critics have are the misrepresented allegations in the media, prove that Dr Vanderpuije is a beneficiary of the dual citizenship Act passed by the Kufuor-led NPP administration in 2004.

Records show that the nominee duly applied for and was granted dual citizenship in 2004 under Section 16 (5) of the Citizenship Act 200 (Act 591) No 740 of 2004. Consequently, Dr Vanderpuije applied for and was issued a Ghanaian passport number H1540304 on December 9. 2004.

The passport, a photocopy of which this paper managed to secure from sources at the Passport Office (scanned and reproduced elsewhere in this newspaper) is set to expire on December 8, 2014.

In spite of all these evidence and the nominee’s answer to a question by the celebrated Kwami Sefa Kayi, host of Accra-based award winning Peace FM’s Krokrooko programme last week Tuesday that he is a dual national of both the US and Ghana, critics have suggested he should be withdrawn on the allegations that he owes allegiance to the US and is yet to revoke his American citizenship.

Again, contrary to reports that President Mills’ nominee is wanted in the US for allegedly helping himself to the funds of kids at the William Perry Middle School in South Carolina, records available to this paper show that the former head of the NDC in the US has been travelling in and out of the US without a whiff of trouble.

Meantime, members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), have been urged to confirm the President’s nominee when he is presented to them for consideration for endorsement.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday, Mr. Daniel Okai, Chairman of the Odododiodioo Constituency of the NDC, reminded the members of the non-partisan concept underlining the country’s local government administration.

He asked the members to adopt a nationalistic approach to the issue and give the nominee the nod so that the metropolis would have a substantive Mayor to lead in initiating and implementing policies and programmes to tackle the many problems and challenges confronting the nation’s capital.

Mr. Daniel Okai noted that solutions to the daunting problems of sanitation and environmental health and the congestion of the Central Business District of Accra could not wait but had to be confronted immediately to befit the status of the city as the seat of government.

Mr. Okai said that as a member of the panel that vetted candidates for the position of MCE, he was impressed with the commitment and plans of Mr. Vanderpuije to improve the capital, which must be supported and encouraged to make Accra a better place to live in.

Mr. Okai said that he was especially impressed with the President’s nominee because in spite of the fact that he had been a Public School Administrator, in the United States over the past 20 years, he visited home regularly and was actively involved initiatives and activities of the city and was the Youth and Communication Director of the South Ghana Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

He said the nominee also exhibited a high level of knowledge in urban development and town planning, which he noted could especially help solve the sanitation and waste management problems facing the city and create jobs for the youth.

Mr. Okai commended the President for nominating Mr. Vanderpuije and appealed to the other contestants for the position to support his bid to become the Mayor of the city to enable him to improve the management of the nation’s capital.