Felix Kwakye Ofosu, spokesperson for President John Dramani Mahama and Minister-designate for Government Communications, has addressed concerns surrounding the delayed swearing-in of Gender Minister-designate, Agnes Naa Momo.
He attributed the delay to scheduling conflicts and a family emergency on the part of the minister-designate.
Speaking on The KeyPoints on TV3, Kwakye Ofosu said:
[President Mahama] had a heavy schedule [yesterday]…he wanted to approve the whole batch, so he wouldn’t [have to do it later], especially since he would be away for four days. The ministers cannot function fully as they should if they haven’t been sworn in…so we were liaising with Parliament to see, whether they would finish the approval so that we add all of them to the list and then swear them.
He also revealed that while arrangements were being made to swear in the next batch of ministers, Naa Momo informed them of her inability to attend due to a family emergency.
It became apparent that the Parliament could not meet the approval deadline. We reached out to the next batch for approval to see if they could make it. Naa Momo, [who was in that list] truthfully said that a family emergency had taken her out of Accra. We encouraged her to come nonetheless and that if she got the time she would be added. If she could not make it in time, we would do it another time.
Kwakye Ofosu urged the public to empathise with the Gender Minister-designate, emphasising that her absence was unavoidable.
It’s not that she was late, I know her very well; she is a very serious person. We respect public sentiments…if the Ghanaian public had known this, I’m sure they would have tempered with their criticism. They are right, based on what they see and know to make any commentary. But I must plead that it is not the doing of the minister.