The Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has downplayed the value in the choice of Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as Running Mate to Former President John Dramani Mahama on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the December 2020 elections.
According to the Majority Leader, the Learned Professor who is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and a former Minister of Education is not fit to be President in the absence of John Mahama and therefore surmises that she does not bring any value to the Presidential ticket.
“You ask yourself, what value is this woman going to add to that ticket? And that is where I find it extremely difficult. I mean the woman, a calm woman, a woman of poise and balance. She speaks good English, yes but is it good enough to satisfy the ticket to ensure quality improvement in the governance?
“…let’s assume that John becomes the President, let me emphasize the point, perish that thought, and the next day, he is no longer, is this woman capable of being described as the President of this country?” he quizzed.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further observed that, there were other well placed women in the NDC who could have better perfected the ticket for the party rather than the choice of Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang who does not have a legal nor a governance background.
“The President, if he wanted a woman, when they were mentioning some women, I honestly thought that we have some women of some demonstrable competence who have risen through this House to establish themselves firmly in the firmament. One such person could be Hannah Tetteh. She has been a Member of Parliament, she was a Foreign Affairs Minister and some other area. So she has learnt the rules, a former Member of Parliament, of course she could have complemented the President’s ticket.
“Another person, a former Attorney General, Marrietta Brew Appiah Oppong, a solid person and I thought she was coming up strongly. If he wanted women, even the previous Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, she has some skeletons relating to Woyome, other than that she is also solid,” he suggested.
The Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for the Suame constituency in the Ashanti region argued that, as far as he is concerned, the two major problem areas which should capture the attention of any Presidential team for which they must necessarily have some amount of competences in are: fashioning out real quality governance architecture which will add value to the lives of the people; and growing the economy such that it impacts positively on the lives of the people and on the natural environment.
“So if you are looking for a ticket, President Mahama is a Communicator. So you want maybe a person who is a law maker or a lawyer who would add value to the governance architecture. He himself has been a Member of Parliament before, so one could, to be fair, say that he has acquired that experience from Parliament. But in terms of the economy, how are you going to impact on the economy? This is where you may need an economist to be with you,” he observed.
He added that he thought the Former President and Flagbearer would have chosen some of the renowned economists and finance persons who had played some role in the previous government of the NDC.
“When I first heard I thought he was going to settle on either Dr. Duffuor or Nii Moi because they are economics or finance experts of considerable standing. I thought to complement the ticket, either of them could have done,” he said.
Source: Clement Akoloh || africanewsradio.com