Alexander Afenyo-Markin
Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has raised concerns about the underrepresentation of women on the list of Ministers appointed by President John Dramani Mahama.
According to him, this is not right and the President must be willing to recognise the hardworking women in his party in light of the Affirmative Action Law which promotes inclusion of women in decision making.
President Mahama has so far appointed 42 out of the 60 Ministers he promised to appoint in the lead to the 2024 Presidential election.
Only seven out this number are women, representing just a little over 16% of the total number of ministers of state appointed by the President.
These seven are Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection; Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts; Emelia Arthur, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture; Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry.
The rest who are regional Ministers are Mrs. Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, Eastern; Linda Ocloo, Greater Accra and Charity Gardiner, Ahafo region.
The Minority Leader speaking on the floor of Parliament called out the President for the neglect of women in the appointments, wondering whether the President was reserving deputy ministerial positions for them.
“Mr. Speaker, we are also disappointed in the choice of the President. There are a lot of women on his side – we’ve had over 30 women being elected to Parliament from the NDC majority side. we have passed the Affirmative Action Law and of all these hardworking women, only a few of them have so far been given substantive Ministerial appointment,” he said.
He wondered whether it is the case that they are marching them for deputy ministerial appointments, stating that that cannot be right.
“Our women cannot be second-class appointees. Mr. President must demonstrate his believe in the capacity, the capability and the competences of our women. He must demonstrate that,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak