KB Asante angry over Opuni's dismissal

The tone of the dismissal letter of the Chief Executive of Cocobod issued by the Executive Secretary to the President is appalling, retired diplomat K.B Asante has said.

The letter signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo gave Dr Opuni up to the end of Friday, 13 January, to leave office.

According to the letter, dated Thursday, January 12, Dr Opuni “ceases to hold office as CEO of Cocobod upon assumption of office of President Nana Akufo-Addo”.

He is, therefore, expected to hand over office documents and property by the stipulated date.

However, Mr Asante, who was Secretary to Ghana's First President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, holds the view that “the letter is not polite. It is not nice…I don’t like the tone of the letter and those who wrote it should know better…it is not Ghanaian”.

He told Kwadwo Asare Barfour Acheampong (KABA) on Asempa FM's 'Ekosi Sen' talk show on Friday, January 13 that even if the Cocobod boss belongs to another political party, he has served the nation for so long, and, so, “there should be a letter thanking him for his work,” which would also state that in view of the change in government, he should vacate office by “such and such time and that he should hand over to this officer”.

He explained that in the Ghanaian culture, even if one wants to insult an official, you do that in a nice way.

“It should be a nice letter. …When we were asked by Nkrumah to do things, we did it as Ghanaian custom demanded”.