Stick to Charlotte to succeed – Franklin Cudjoe to Jean Mensa

The Executive Secretary of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) who has been appointed as the new Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, must constantly liaise with her predecessor, Charlotte Osei, in order for her to succeed in her new assignment, Franklin Cudjoe, founding president of Imani Ghana has said.

According to him, the EC is made up of hawks who are ready to frustrate the new appointees if things do not go their way. For this reason, Mr Cudjoe said Mrs Mensa will need some advice from Mrs Osei.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme on Tuesday, 24 July about the new appointments made at the elections management body by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Mr Cudjoe said: “She is positively stern, she is no-nonsense, she demands her work to be done …

“Jean is a positive brain, she will go far if she sticks closely with Charlotte Osei. Don’t forget what got Charlotte out of the EC is a combination of what I call ‘devious politics’ and a bit of hawkish culture at an institution where they were not going to treat kindly anybody who came from outside.

“Some of her [Mrs Osei] infractions, obviously, were because she needed to protect her own professional integrity and Jean needs to walk that road very meticulously.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo, on Monday 23 July 2018, named the Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Jean Mensa as the new Chair to replace Mrs Charlotte Osei, whom he sacked along with her two deputies Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah, over procurement breaches and incompetence, per the recommendations of a committee set up by Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo to probe the three commissioners.

Apart from Mrs Mensa, the newly-appointed deputies are a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Eric Asare Bossman; and Samuel Tettey, Director of Electoral services in charge of elections at the Electoral Commission.

Also Ms Adjoa Esuama Abrefa, a corporate legal practitioner with specialisation in land property acquisition, was named as a member of the commissioner.