Otiko’s rejection of ‘Italian job’ exposes crisis within government - Ablakwa

Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the rejection of her Italian ambassadorial appointment by Madam Otiko A. Djaba exposes a deep crisis inside government.

The 56-year-old former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba explained that her decision to turn town an ambassadorial offer and as well quit politics is to afford her some considerable time to cater for her sick EX husband.

According to her in an interview she granted the Daily Graphic, the husband has been down with a stroke for more than 6 years now indicating that the time is ripe for her to quit and attend to his health needs and that of her family.

“At 56 years, I want to relax and enjoy my family and life and therefore, I am not ready to take up the appointment as Ambassador to Italy”, she said.

Explaining further why she declined the offer, Ms. Djaba said she was bowing out of politics to take care of her former husband who had a stroke for the past six years.

“I am the one who has been taking care of him since he got sick and I cannot abandon him now”, she said.

It would be recalled that in the heat of the confusion between the former National Women’s Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the former Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP, Daniel Bugri Naabu in May last year, the latter accused her of locking up her sick husband and refused to give him food.

“A woman who is married, the husband is a doctor, she is supposed to be called Mrs Tapan but nobody knows that Otiko is married. Whatever she does, she does it without any ‘Mrs’. The husband is sick, she has locked the husband in the house. She doesn’t give him food to eat, the man’s children are angry [and want] to go and prepare food for their father. So such a woman, is she responsible? In Tamale here everybody knows,” Mr Naabu said in an interview.

This was after Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba accused her of extorting money, cows, and goats from people with the promise to secure them appointments in the Akufo-Addo government.



Madam Otiko is finally going to cater for her sick husband to put to rest such accusations.

But Mr Ablakwa thinks otherwise.

Here is his full article:

Learning of Otiko Djaba’s rather abrupt and curious retirement from politics.

While wishing her well in her future endeavours, it does appear that contrary to what they would want us believe, all is not well within the Akufo-Addo Government. This fact is further buttressed by the recent astonishing claims from the Health Minister that some “enemies” within want him sacked. As pundits will most likely conclude; these internal rifts will potentially have far reaching governance consequences for our country.

That said, and while acknowledging that the former Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister deserves some privacy at this juncture, a critical concern ought to be Ghana’s relations with Italy. I do hope this avoidable quagmire will be delicately managed if not late in the day so as not to convey an impression albeit negatively that we are toying with our long standing strategic relations with the Italians. No receiving country is flattered to discover that an envoy so appointed is unwilling – to say the least, and that the appointing authority apparently did little or no homework before announcing such an appointment to the world.



And if I may, perhaps it is time for President Akufo-Addo to seize this opportunity and appoint a career diplomat instead since the current ratio precariously discriminates against career diplomats in favour of political appointees. This flys in the face of the Government’s own 60:40 pledge. It is no longer a secret that this issue is threatening morale amongst our illustrious foreign service staff and already causing much grumbling.