‘How long can a minister be on leave?' – Kwaku Azar asks

Adwoa Safo has been absent from Parliament

She has been on official leave since last year

In her absence, Cecilia Dapaah is acting

Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, is asking how long can a minister of state can go on official leave.

This is in reaction to the absence of the Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Sarah Adwoa Safo, who has been on leave with the Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah, acting on her behalf.

The continuous absence of the Minister has generated a lot of comments on social media, especially when videos of the Minister, who doubles as MP for Dome-Kwabenya, has recently been recirculated across social media.

In a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb, Kwaku Azar wrote: "I saw a video of the gender minister dancing. I know she has been on leave for a while. Is she still on leave and if so how long can a minister of state be on leave?

"#SALL is the cardinal sin of the 8th Parliament."

Sarah Adwoa Safo, has been out of Parliament for a while now. Many of her colleagues including her former partner, Kennedy Agyapong, believes she is holding government to ransom.

Speaking on GBC’s Breakfast Show on Monday, February 21, 2022, Agyapong said, “You don’t come to Parliament and you are on Tik Tok dancing…Adwoa used my kids, the kids were calling 'Daddy please you have to support Mommy...she should go and contest on Tik Tok."

A Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Michael Kofi Okyere Baafi, said her continuous absence in Parliament was making government business in the chamber difficult.

This is against the backdrop of the government’s attempts to pass the controversial E-Levy bill.

The bill has stiff opposition from the Minority, who have just one less seat in Parliament than the Majority group.

She has, however, received support from the Africa Centre for Women in Politics, which criticised what it termed vitriolic attacks on her.

The group in a statement stated that the comments made against the MP over her continuous absence in Parliament were in bad taste and attempt to drag her name into disrepute.

Find below Kwaku Azar’s post.