A Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana says it is unwise for embattled Ghanaian Ambassador to South Africa to defend his remarks by equalization it with happening in the previous government.
Prof Ransford Gyampo believes George Ayisi-Boateng ought to have known that public servants are expected not to discriminate on party lines in the execution of their duties and their utterances, irrespective of the setting.
The Ambassador in a speech to the Tertiary Students’ Confederacy Network (TESCON) in the Ashanti Region over the weekend, said his first priority as a government appointee is members of the NPP, and that if he had his own way, members of TESCON will be prioritized for various jobs.
“…this government is doing its best to create job opportunities and me for instance, I told my people over there [that], it is because of NPP that I’m here, so the NPP man is my priority. I told them when NDC was in power it was Kwesi Ahwoi who was there, now we are in power, so Ayisi-Boateng is here with you. My topmost priority is the problems of an NPP person before any other Ghanaian, take it or leave it,†he said.
This has drawn widespread criticism from many quarters. Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on Nana Addo to dismiss Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, for stating publicly that his first commitment as a public officer, is to members of the NPP.
In Okudzeto Ablakwa's view, Mr Ayisi-Boateng’s comment is discriminatory and undeserving of a government appointee whose duty is to remain fair in the discharge of his duty.
Responding to the criticism on a Kumasi based radio station, Mr Ayisi-Boateng question why it will be wrong for him to put his party faithful ahead of others. He claimed appointees of the Mahama regime, including Mr Ablakwa, repeatedly assured the youth of the NDC that they will be given job opportunities first.
But Prof Gyampo says the defence is unacceptable and an exhibition of the shallow ambitions of politicians who have time and again demonstrated they are more interested in doing anything that will please a section of the population who claim to be members of their party, instead of making the governance of the country a priority.
He noted these are some of the reasons political vigilantism has taken centre stage in recent times because authority is unable to bring perpetrators to justice due to their political alignments, stressing many issues of society could be resolved if politicians are willing to put the interest of the nation first.
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