Kwesi Yankah versus Okudzeto-Ablakwa…

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I am not on the ground, as it were, so I cannot presume to second-guess President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s decision to select and appoint up to 110 people as ministerial and deputy ministerial appointees, however alarming this decision may seem (See “Nothing Wrong with Nana Addo’s 110 Ministers – Fritz Baffuor” Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/16/17). I am also quite certain that this decision was not borne out of the fruits of what may be termed as “one-man counsel.” In other words, very likely, the decision was taken after gauging the enormity of the task at hand, or to be performed, by the President and his advisors.

If the foregoing observation has validity, then, of course, as former Information Minister Fritz Baffuor wisely stated recently, in the wake of widespread criticism and downright condemnation of the decision, the most logical thing to do here is for the critics and detractors to give the two-month-old Akufo-Addo government a reasonable space of time to prove either the merits or demerits of this decision. Needless to say, however long it takes to wait, it is quite certain not to exceed the current government’s constitutionally stipulated mandate of 4 years. We also hope that in deciding to stump or stagger the expectations of both his supporters and sympathizers, on the one hand, and critics and detractors, on the other, that Nana Akufo-Addo is well aware of the fact that he doesn’t have forever to prove the wisdom and/or efficacy of his decision.

Even so, it ought to be promptly pointed out that any temptation to compare the 84 cabinet appointees who served under the Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the 110 ministerial appointees selected by President Akufo-Addo, is strikingly akin to a comparison between the proverbial apples and oranges. Such comparison simply does not bear scrutiny, although Nana Akufo-Addo also ought to be reminded about the scathing criticism that he personally unleashed, as an opposition leader, against the supposedly “bloated” cabinet of the Mahama government.

The preceding notwithstanding, even as the well-researched and documented statistical evidence put together and published by Mr. Maurice Ampaw, the renowned lawyer, alarmingly indicated, about 80-percent of all the deputy ministers appointed by former President John Dramani Mahama to serve in his government were graduate students who had to divide their time between attending lectures, at the various university and college campuses across the nation’s capital, and working part-time for full-time salaries at the ministries to which they had been assigned. As to why this flagrant short-changing of the Ghanaian taxpayer had not become prime grist for debate by members of the Parliamentary Appointments Committee (PAC), as well as the Flagstaff House, is anybody’s good guess.

What I am clearly suggesting here is that unlike his more mature and far better focused successor, at least from the present look of things, President Mahama never quite creditably demonstrated that, in fact, he was either qualified for the job which “God in His wisdom” had auspiciously liquidated then-President John Evans Atta-Mills in order to make way for the Gonja petty chieftain, or even half-prepared for the same. There are a legion number of examples that one could cite to shore up the argument that the caliber of appointees selected by President Akufo-Addo, thus far, clearly indicates that unlike his immediate predecessor, the former Justice and Foreign Minister came to the Flagstaff House armed with a great sense of purpose, but I have chosen to highlight just one glaring example. And that example, as the caption of this column indicates, regards the caliber of people that these two Ghanaian leaders fielded for the very critical portfolio of Deputy Minister of Education for Tertiary Affairs.

Put more bluntly, any Akufo-Addo critic who thinks Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa is either the peer or classmate of Prof. Kwesi Yankah had better seek prompt psychiatric examination. I mean, which of these two men is fairly well known to have led the wanton and decadent lifestyle of the proverbial “Gold Digger”? In other words, inasmuch as numbers cannot be wholly discounted when it comes to a salutary discussion of the national purse or kitty, as many a Ghanaian critic or commentator is apt to characterize it, nevertheless, the personal and collective conduct of the personnel appointed to manage the affairs of our beloved nation is more than equally important.

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

March 16, 2017

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs