A group of National Democratic Congress (NDC) women organizers have descended on President Akufo-Addo for firing his beleaguered Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo.
At a press conference in Tema, Mrs. Joyceline Quansah, Tema East Constituency NDC Women’s Organizer, accused the President of pompous male chauvinism over the sack.
“At a time when the woman is forced to stay in a foreign country to take care of her child because the country that you rule lacks the ability to give the kind of care that the child needs, your response to her difficulty is to sack her. This kind of brash behaviour smacks of nothing but pompous male chauvinism,” Mrs. Joyceline Quansah said.
According to her, “the president’s rash behaviour is patriarchal and archaic and ought not to find expression in modern day society of enlightened human beings.
It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo sacked Sarah Adwoa Safo as the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection over the weekend after Ms Safo’s protracted stay in the United States where she says she is catering for her child with special needs.
According to the announcement, the sack was with immediate effect adding that the Gender Ministry had been given to a care-taker Minister.
“In accordance with Article 81(a) of the Constitution, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has revoked the appointment of Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo, Member of Parliament for Dome- Kwabenya, as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, with immediate effect’” a portion of the statement read.
It added, “the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, will continue to act as the Caretaker Minister, until such a time that President Akufo-Addo appoints a substantive Minister.”
The NDC women noted that the sack was announced in terse language and thus, did not even bother to specify why the mother of two was fired while carrying out her motherly responsibilities towards her child in the US.
Justifying their lambast that President Akufo-Addo acted rashly, the women pointed out that the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, has in contrast postponed a final decision on Adwoa Safo’s seat as the MP for Dome Kwabenya.
“Rt. Hon. Bagbin’s action is what you would expect from a civilized society like Ghana,” Mrs. Quansah said.
She praised the Speaker for being, “a friend to Women’s cause and living up to his reputation as one who defends the rights of women.”
She was flanked on the high table by her deputy, Mrs. Grace Nartey who also accused President Akufo-Addo of acting in character by maltreating Adwoa Safo.
“IS THIS NOT THE SAME President Akufo-Addo who went to a women’s conference in Canada in 2018 and declared that African women have not earned a place at the decision table? We are not surprised,” she said while fielding questions from journalists.
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Adwoa Safo