Prof Ransford Gyampo
A POLITICAL science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, has taken a swipe at the NDC Minority MPs on the ad-hoc committee probing the grounds of the censure motion against Finance Minister for their “uninspiring” show last Friday.
According to him, the NDC MPs, after hyping public expectation of them, failed to live up to the challenge, intimating, “Ken Ofori-Atta made them look so incompetent, as he nearly extricated himself from the shallow charges levelled against him.”
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Prof Gyampo said the Finance Minister simply knew how to answer questions without incriminating himself, and “he also knew how to appeal for public sympathy” when he appeared before the committee.
“It appears our Minority group has the penchant for hyping public expectations of them, in their dealings in Parliament, and failing to live up to such expectations when it matters most.
“In their vetting of Ken Ofori-Atta, they made all Ghanaians believe they were going to shoot his nomination down, for various reasons. Yet they couldn’t do this when the man appeared before them. Indeed, apart from one or two of them, on the then vetting committee who abstained, the rest voted to sing the praises of Ken Ofori-Atta, and approved his nomination as minister,” he stated.
Prof. Gyampo asserted that the NDC MPs were at it again in their recent probe of the Finance Minister, saying, “They were simply uninspiring, and it appears many of the charges they chose to level against the man, were more propagandistic.”
“The kind of things to say, and the charges to level in censoring a minister, are not like political party rally talk, that are usually not subjected to strict proof. You cannot censor a minister and set the kind of precedent we want to set in our drive towards democratic maturity, without being well grounded, detailed, thorough and water-tight in your charges,” he contended.
He, however, stated that regardless of the things that transpired, the Finance Minister ought to go, at least for the “optics of good governance.”
“The law, and using it in the defense of one’s self is only minimum, but conscience is the uppermost. He himself admits that things are hard, and of course, harder in Ghana than elsewhere in Africa. His own party people know why they have passed a vote of no confidence against him in their hearts,” he said.
The political science lecturer argued that there certainly should be better managers of the Ghanaian economy among the echelons of the NPP, and “the indubitable truism that, Ghana and the management of our economy would not grind to a halt when Ken is no longer in charge, should point to the dispensability of all human beings, including the minister.”
“The fresh experience and innovations introduced in managing the STC by Nana Akomea, and in governing Accra, by Henry Quartey, should be a great lesson that must guide anyone who is anti-reshuffle,” he submitted.
For him, Ghana cannot be run like spiritual churches, whose activities hover around their leadership, and die when their leaders are no more.
“The impression being insinuated that, there can be no successful management of our economy without the current minister, is unproductive and only serves to dissipate our scarce brains, talents and Human Resources that must be brought on board to help,” he pinned.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu