Professor Ransford Gyampo, a lecturer at the University of Ghana
• Professor Ken Attafuah is under attack for saying that the NIA will not hire members of the NPP
• Professor Gyampo says Professor Ken Attafuah should not be made to apologise
• He however believes that he should not have disclosed the conversation he had with President Akufo-Addo
Professor Ransford Gyampo, a lecturer at the University of Ghana has challenged the New Patriotic Party to find a way of turning the controversy around Professor Ken Attafuah’s statement into their favour.
Attafuah incurred the anger of some members of the NPP after making a revelation that he has been instructed not to engage any known member of the party at the National Identification Authority.
“The President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has charged me that I should make sure no party executives are hired in the process,” Attafuah told Kumasi-based Angel FM.
He added, “He does not want to leave a legacy of employing his party members and packing them into a particular sector. No.”
Speaking as a panelist on Asaase radio’s morning show, Professor Gyampo said that Professor Attafuah should not be compelled to apologise for something that serves the interest of the country.
Though Gyampo would have wished that Professor Attafuah did not make his conversation with the President public, he believes that he deserves commendations for making steps to sanitize the NIA and rid it of partisan politics.
But reacting to the development, Gyampo said “Our battle against poverty and underdevelopment has been fought and lost partly because, oftentimes, we have recruited square pegs into round holes in our appointments.
“Appointments over the years…have been driven by partisan considerations. I’ve had the opportunity to engage with appointees and you ask yourself so how did this person land this particular appointment or this job because they demonstrate quite a shallowness and lack of depth in their grasp over the issues. So some of us have always been saying that appointment to ministries, departments and agencies must always be driven by meritocracy.”
He said, “I was pleased to hear that Professor Attafuah said the president had given him those marching orders not be making appointments on partisan consideration. I thought it was something good that the president said. If for nothing at all, the president wants to leave a certain legacy.
“My position is that the president may have given those instructions to Attafuah, in my view, he should have just implemented these instructions on the quiet. But coming out publicly to make these pronouncements would also necessarily infuriate those through whose support you got your job. So that is how come he is suffering this kind of backlash. I think that he shouldn’t be made to apologise.”