Former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, says he is certain Parliament’s Appointments Committee will not reject any ministerial nominee selected by President Nana Akufo-Addo to assist in the second term of his administration.
This, according to him, is because all the nominees were assessed by the President before being nominated to head their respective portfolios.
“I have my doubts they will be rejected. Not a single person because all I hear are people talking about the fact that somebody has not been able to speak good English or somebody does not understand the portfolio he has been given.
“But you must not take it away from the President that he had a minimum assessment of the capacity of his nominees to deliver on his policies and that is why he nominated them in the first place,” he added.
The comment by the former Ranking Member on the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament follows assertions by the Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil that the Appointments Committee will reject nominees that are unfit for their position.
The lawyer, who was speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, told Samson Lardy Anyenini that he is hopeful any nominee who failed to impress the Ghanaian public during vetting will not be approved.
“I have a hope that some of the nominees, who do not show they are fit for the job, will be rejected by the panel members because that is their job.
“It has happened before in our history.
“There are people I have not been very impressed with and there are people I have been impressed with. And there are many situations I feel some persons must be made to come back to answer certain questions before they are approved.
“Qualification is not an issue, but if the people are unqualified, they should reject them,” he explained.
This stance resonates with earlier appeals by a cross-section of the public after the vetting of some ministers-designate.
With about 18 nominees already vetted, the likes of the Minister-designate for Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister-designate for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, Minister-designate for Gender, Adwoa Safo, and Minister-designate for Fisheries, Hawa Koomson have all received negative reviews on social media.
While some key civil society actors have expressed their disappointment after the vetting of Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, the Ghana Tuna Association has petitioned Parliament to reject the nomination of Mrs Koomson.
But disputing these views, the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources under the erstwhile John Mahama administration insists all the nominees will qualify for their role.
“The members of the Committee have a responsibility to ensure that all persons appearing before them satisfy the minimum qualification criteria in the constitution.
“So credit the President with some modicum of intelligence in putting people in places to be able to push through his programmes and policies.
“Now Parliament then has the responsibility to ensure that they throw light on what they believe is the inadequacies of the nominee. Then it is up to the President to withdraw or if he fails to meet the legal requirements in the constitution then Parliament will vote to reject on the basis that he failed to meet the requirements stated.”