NPP is not anti-Ewe - Women's Organiser

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is not against Ewes, Obaa Yaa Afrifa, National Women's Organiser of the party has said.

She said the fact that not many Ewes have been appointed to high positions in the government has to do with the number available for consideration and not a deliberate policy to sideline them.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the weekend, Madam Afrifa explained that politics is a game of alliances and loyalty.

She said since Ewes largely did not support the NPP, there were just a few of them in the pool, who could be regarded as having the necessary degree of loyalty and could, therefore, be considered for jobs in the government.

Again the government is constrained to appoint the majority of ministers from Parliament but out of the 19 parliamentary seats in the Volta Region the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 17 with the remaining two going to Independent candidates.

Mr. Victor Gbeho, former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Independent Member of Parliament (MP) for the Anlo Constituency, is considered an NDC sympathiser.

Mr. Rasheed Bawa, who won the Akan Constituency, has been nominated as the Deputy Minister of Education designate.

Madam Afrifa, who is a government appointee for the Ketu District Assembly, said the NPP would not fail in its responsibility to the people of the Volta Region because it is a government for the whole country.

She said she supports the call for the exhumation of the bodies of the seven senior army officers executed by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) Junta for reburial.

She, however, said she does not think it is necessary to look for those responsible for the executions to punish.

"The harm has already been caused, we are only calling for a fitting reburial as the reasons for their execution has been undermined by the worst things we see in Ghana today," she stated.

Madam Afrifa said the NPP government would be non-partisan in its dealings with all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including the 31st December Women's Movement.

She noted that the formation of the Ministry of Women's Affairs is to harness all available facilities for the eradication of poverty among women so as to raise their status in society.