By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
January 12, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]
Having deservedly run themselves onto the margins of opposition politics by their arrogant and reckless exhibition of gross incompetence, the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), at least those who were painfully lucky to retain their parliamentary seats, have sheepishly resorted to nitpicking at the ministerial labels given his cabinet appointees by President Akufo-Addo. The latest of the cabinet portfolios to be gratuitously pounced upon is that of former Finance and Sports Minister Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo (See “Senior Minister Role Unconstitutional – Mahama Ayariga” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/11/17).
This time, the nitpicker is Mr. Mahama Ayariga, the former Minister for the Environment, Science and Technology, who is also the incumbent National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Bawku-Central. According to Mr. Ayariga, the country’s Fourth-Republican Constitution does not allow for the ministerial designation of “Senior Minister.” Big deal! That may well be so; but the fact of the matter is that the cabinet portfolio of Senior Minister has precedent. Mr. Osafo-Maafo is not the very first person to be named to this portfolio. The first person to be so named was Mr. J. H. Mensah, the internationally distinguished economist and brother-in-law of former President John Agyekum-Kufuor. And this was in 2001, some 16 years ago.
There is absolutely no evidence in the record books of Mr. Ayariga’s having raised the issue of constitutionality at the time. And so it is nothing short of pure and abject hypocrisy for the Harvard-educated NDC-MP to be raising Caine at this time. The fact of the matter is that a precedent was set once Mr. Mensah was so named without any virulent objections being raised by the extant parliamentary minority at the time, or any parliamentary group or faction, for that matter. And even if any objection had been raised and been promptly vetoed by the parliamentary majority at the time, that effectively puts the matter to rest. I am also quite certain that ex-President John Dramani Mahama had the chance to make cabinet designations that may not have necessarily gibed with the strictest reading of the Constitution.
But what is also quite fascinating to observe here is that Mr. Ayariga does not seem to have raised this issue on the basis of principle or out of conviction. Rather, he appears not to have been pleased with the fact that President Akufo-Addo would be forthright and/or forthcoming with his designation of Mr. Osafo-Maafo as his Senior Minister. He would rather the President had only presented the administrative function of the appointee to Parliament devoid of the label of “Senior Minister,” which title could then have been officially conferred on Mr. Osafo-Maafo, once the august House had approved of the same. But that would have been rather scandalous, devious and tantamount to gross disrespect for the Members of the House, an act that would have been far more egregious than the sort of constitutional breach that the Bawku-Central MP is talking about.
Ironically, it was precisely this sort of devious political dealings that got Mr. Ayariga and his boss and colleagues evicted from the Jubilee-Flagstaff House. And you bet President Akufo-Addo is not in the patently untenable business of replicating the sins and crimes of the Mahama Posse. At any rate, Mr. Osafo-Maafo’s appointment as Senior Minister is far more constructive and “value-for-money-wise” than the boondoggle Council-of-State, “constitutionally” constituted by Mr. Mahama and cavalierly used to override landmark decisions handed down by the Wood Supreme Court, thereby effectively stultifying the constitutional checks and balances that ought to exist among the three arms of government, namely, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.
Refreshingly, Speaker Ocquaye is reported to have overruled Mr. Ayariga’s petition, which was also promptly dismissed by the Parliamentary Appointments Committee as an arrant nuisance. Maybe we need not be too hard on Mr. Ayariga, who may well have only been trying to prove himself to be worthy of every pesewa of his fat paycheck.
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