Greater Accra Region, Deserves Respect

The vetting of ministerial nominees, by the Appointment Committee of Parliament, is a national affair, which draws many people to their radio and television sets to follow the proceedings going on.At the end of each vetting, the people, as stakeholders, will be able to decide whether the nominee can do the job or not.

It therefore beholds that each nominee must be made to come out with what they can do best to move the ministry forward. whatever knowledge he or she has on the ministry to be assigned to them.

It is not in all cases that ministers will be assigned to ministries which they have the technological know-how of how things are operated. There are cases where a military officer was put in the health ministry, and a medical doctor was put in the defense ministry.

When nominated, the nominee would first go that ministry and meet with the chief director and the leadership and get briefed on all relevant information about that ministry. He will know of the progresses been made and problems encountered. With suggestions from the leadership, he could know how to make more progress and resolve the problems.

He will be well prepared to meet the Appointments Committee and satisfy stakeholders that he will be good for the job.

The Appointment Committee members on the other, should be well vested in the going-on of the ministry and come out with strategic and relevant questions that will help bring out the capabilities of the nominee.

Unfortunately, this was not what Ghanaians saw during the vetting of Hon. Linda Ocloo, MP (Shai-Osudoku) and minister-designate for the Greater Accra region. It does not matter if the members of the Committee know how capable, Linda, is. What matters most is for the stakeholders, the almost six million people living in the region, most of whom do not know the minister-designate, to listen to what she has that will change their lives.

It was therefore unacceptable for the members of the Appointment Committee to use 5 minutes and 20 seconds on Linda Ocloo, while Hon. Sam George was grilled for over five hours.

Is it that Greater Accra region is not important for consideration? Were other nominees of the other fifteen regions treated the same way?

All that happened during those 320 seconds, was more of acknowledgement of dignitaries by the chairman, Hon Bernard Ahiafor, and ranking member, Hon. Afenyo-Markin, than for the nominee saying anything of significance to the people of Greater Accra. Afenyo-Markin indicated that he had a few questions that would take two hours, but seeing the army of wisemen around Linda, he felt she was in good hands. Is that all?

If and I say if, Linda faces challenges in her line of duty as minister and the region starts falling apart, will Parliament have the moral right to hurl her before the House and question her? She never indicated what she would do to transform the region, did she? Does Linda have a ‘handicap’ that the Committee is covering up?

She was asked to, in two minutes, say something about herself, she started a litany of praises and acknowledgement of important people in her life. She had to be reminded of what she was asked to do, before she told Ghanaians, who she was.

After that the ranking member, came to acknowledge some dignitaries and would have dismissed the nominee, but he acknowledged that, that was the responsibility of the chairman. Then the chairman also came and acknowledged a few more dignitaries and discharged the nominee, with words, “Hon. Minister nominee, you will surely hear from the Committee. You are hereby discharged.”

Without asking the nominee what she knows about the region and how she was going to improve conditions, it can be concluded that the Appointment Committee showed lack of respect for Greater Accra, the capital region of Ghana.

Accra, the national capital, is saddled with lots of problems: filth, weeds, congestions, poor sanitation, bad roads, water problems and of course power outages (dumsor). The beaches are now garbage dumps, making them unattractive and killing off tourism. Streams and rivers draining the capital are polluted with debris and excreta, to name a few. Reclaiming of the Odor River is only on paper. There are some more issues which need to be addressed before Accra can be said to be a city worth its name. Accra has the potential to rank among other cities of repute.

Regional ministers have come and gone and nothing seems to change. No improvement, just failed promises. So, what the people living in the region want to know is how an in-coming minister would do to at least resolve some of the problems. Unfortunately, the Appointments Committee showed it cared less about the region.

Parliament, we are told, is a master of itself. But the MPs should always know that they are the servants of the people and must always serve the people well. The people of Greater Accra have not been served well, by the way their regional minister designateHon Linda Ocloo was vetted. The region must be respected, it demands respect. This should never happen again.

By Hon. Daniel Dugan

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.

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