Deputy Director of Research for the NDC, Kale Caeser
Deputy Director of Research for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kale Caeser, says it was not a prudent step for President Akufo-Addo to have agreed for his wife, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, and Second lady, Samira Bawumia to draw monthly salaries.
The recommendation by the Professor Baidu-Ntiamoah committee was approved by the 7th Parliament, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah noted.
But reacting to the issue on Dwaboase on Power FM, Caeser, a former Deputy Minister for the Upper West Region, decried the posture of Mrs. Akufo-Addo.
He said her demeanor over the years had been admired by many, including himself, so it was unfortunate she refunded the allowances paid her since her husband assumed office in 2017.
On the payment of salaries, Caeser noted that was totally wrong and added the anger Ghanaians met the decision with indicated that the youth are hungry for better lives.
“Ghanaians rejected the idea to pay salaries to Presidential Spouses because of the hardship the government has created in the country, ” he told the host Prince Kwame Minkah.
The NDC top official recounted how Akufo-Addo, then an opposition leader, promised to protect the public purse and reiterated it at his first investiture yet doing the opposite in government.
He said the country’s youth are hungry than Akufo-Addo met them in 2017 because of the lack of decent jobs.
Despite touting an unprecedented industrialization drive, Caeser said the youth remain jobless, thereby posing a security threat to the country.
He further urged the Akufo-Addo government to reminisce what he promised Ghanaians and go back to the drawing table to deliver those promises.