• Lawyer, Martin Kpebu, says the move was a bold one because it was in response to a huge public outcry
• The Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu-led committee that looked into the emoluments of Article 71 officeholders had recommended that spouses of the president and his vice be paid salaries equivalent to cabinet ministers
The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has been praised for her decision to not accept the recommendations by the Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu-led committee for spouses of the president and his vice be entitled to the payment of salaries equivalent to a cabinet minister.
According to the lawyer, public outcry on the matter pushed her to make such a decision, one that he has lauded her for.
He also described the step the First Lady took as an exhibition of good leadership, and one that would save the country excessive spending especially in the particularly difficult times that the country is in, owing to the coronavirus, reports myjoyonline.com.
“She’s done marvelously by returning the money; that is the mark of very high emotional intelligence because the facts on the ground show that millions of Ghanaians are suffering…So I mean it is very easy to understand why they will be mad at the First Lady being paid such a huge sum of money when in the first place everything that they enjoy at home is paid for by the taxpayer.”
Rebecca Akufo-Addo, after announcing her disinterest in accepting the new arrangement, stated that she would return the total of some GH¢899,097.84 paid to her as allowance from 2017 to date, and to which she did this past Tuesday.
The Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu-led committee’s recommendations would have meant that even after exiting office, the spouse of the president who served a full term in office, would be entitled to a salary equivalent to 80 per cent of the salary of a Minister of State and an MP.
For spouses who serve two full terms, their benefits would be 100 per cent of the salary of a Minister of State and an MP.
In the case of the vice presidents’ spouses, they will be entitled to payment of salary equivalent to a cabinet minister but who is not an MP, the reported said.
However, the private legal practitioner agreed that the judgment of the committee was poor.
Martin Kpebu explained that despite the duties of the spouses in assisting with various public roles, it was not enough for them to be offered such huge payments.
Martin Kpebu has lauded the First Lady for returning the monies paid to her since 2017