Former Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Joyce Bawa Mogtari has said she is more than qualified to have been a substantial minister in the erstwhile administration of Mr John Mahama, to whom she has familial ties.
In the lawyer’s view, her appointment by President John Mahama at the time cannot be described as nepotism contrary to what the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been saying.
“My father was a very distinguished member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a party he served for many years. I was a member of the party myself. I had actually taken up responsibilities in my own constituency at the branch level where my uncle actually, was one of the oldest members of the party”, she told Felicity Nelson on Class91.3FM’s Straight Talk on Thursday.
According to her, “I actually never thought about it [family-and-friends issue] until it came up for public discussion”. “And I’ve asked people: Am I not well-qualified, am I not competent, am I not deserving of the office?”
“I would be remiss”, she said, “and any other person would be under a certain deceptive view if they thought for any reason that the only reason why President Mahama thought it wise at the time to appoint me to the position of Deputy Transport Minister was just because I was his relative”.
“It would be very unfortunate”, she noted, adding: “But when you come to speaking about the current government, I think there’s a good reason why the English language has the word nepotism”.
She said unlike her appointment by Mr Mahama, “There’s a point where it’s way beyond reasonable, where it defies logic”.
“So”, she explained, “If, for example, a President comes into office and there are various party members, members of parliament, all categories of them and it just happens that maybe two or three happen to be his relative or maybe close friends or classmates who are well-deserving, I’m sure you and I will probably overlook it, but when you have an opposition party that took advantage of a young person who had hitherto been a member of the political party whose relative happens to have become a president – note that under Prof Mills, I was actually serving as a board member of the National Lotteries Authority – and, so, it was not as if I hadn’t served in any capacity in terms of my politics”.
Former Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Joyce Bawa Mogtari has said she is more than qualified to have been a substantial minister in the erstwhile administration of Mr John Mahama, to whom she has familial ties.
In the lawyer’s view, her appointment by President John Mahama at the time cannot be described as nepotism contrary to what the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been saying.
“My father was a very distinguished member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a party he served for many years. I was a member of the party myself. I had actually taken up responsibilities in my own constituency at the branch level where my uncle actually, was one of the oldest members of the party”, she told Felicity Nelson on Class91.3FM’s Straight Talk on Thursday.
According to her, “I actually never thought about it [family-and-friends issue] until it came up for public discussion”. “And I’ve asked people: Am I not well-qualified, am I not competent, am I not deserving of the office?”
“I would be remiss”, she said, “and any other person would be under a certain deceptive view if they thought for any reason that the only reason why President Mahama thought it wise at the time to appoint me to the position of Deputy Transport Minister was just because I was his relative”.
“It would be very unfortunate”, she noted, adding: “But when you come to speaking about the current government, I think there’s a good reason why the English language has the word nepotism”.
She said unlike her appointment by Mr Mahama, “There’s a point where it’s way beyond reasonable, where it defies logic”.
“So”, she explained, “If, for example, a President comes into office and there are various party members, members of parliament, all categories of them and it just happens that maybe two or three happen to be his relative or maybe close friends or classmates who are well-deserving, I’m sure you and I will probably overlook it, but when you have an opposition party that took advantage of a young person who had hitherto been a member of the political party whose relative happens to have become a president – note that under Prof Mills, I was actually serving as a board member of the National Lotteries Authority – and, so, it was not as if I hadn’t served in any capacity in terms of my politics”.
She said: “President Mahama knows I’ll survive anywhere. … I’m smart, I’m hardworking, I know what I’m about. I believe that he doesn’t think that if Joyce were not my Deputy Minister, she won’t survive anywhere else and I’m sure people who have encountered me look beyond that quota about family-and-friends but when you have a government that is practising nepotism, that is totally different from where, accidentally, my niece or my relative happens to be a member of the party … so, naturally, there would be a certain extent that you would have [relatives].
“I’m not President Mahama’s daughter, I’m not his immediate son … and I’m already a member of the party anyway, so, naturally, of course, if I became a member of parliament today and we need women in Parliament, we need great examples of females who are able to set great examples for young females like yourself [host] and President Mahama felt, OK: let me make Joyce an ambassador for women, will that be wrong because I’m his relative? But if he took 20 of us from his family and gave us all these portfolios, then certainly there’s a problem”, she added.
Source: classfmonline.com