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General News of Friday, 29 February 2008

Source: Daily Guide

NDC rejects Anane's nomination

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken exception to the Appointments Committee of Parliament's recommendation that former Minister of Transportation, Dr. Richard Anane should be reinstated, asking the House to reject the presidential nominee.

The NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, in a press statement issued in Accra yesterday said his party finds the unanimous recommendation of Dr. Anane's appointment very disturbing and has called on Parliament to reject the recommendations of the Appointments Committee in order to restore public confidence in its ability to hold public officers to a high standard of moral and ethical values.

The NDC says it "believes that if Parliament goes ahead to endorse the recommendations of the Appointments Committee, it would have failed gravely in its duty of upholding the dignity of good governance."

The statement of Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, also indicted the President for nominating Dr. Anane to the ministerial position and described it as "a stab in the back of the quest for good governance, morality and dignity in public life."

"He said the decision to nominate Dr. Anane was an unfortunate one and that there are some substantive issues against him which can be resurrected through the correct procedure.

"The decision of the Supreme Court dealt with procedural issues and not the substantive matters. The reality of Dr. Anane's position is that the substantive issues can be resurrected through the correct procedure. A President who really stood for 'zero tolerance for corruption' and 'good governance' would have decided to deal with it in one of two ways."

"He would have sought to ensure that the correct procedure was initiated to deal with the procedural defect. Alternatively, he simply would not have nominated Dr. Anane. What he has done speaks for itself," the statement added.

This development has not gone down well with the Deputy Minister for Tourism and a member of the Appointments Committee, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, who has threatened to drag the NDC chief scribe before the Privileges Committee of Parliament for him to prove where the Committee erred in its vetting of Dr. Anane Osei-Ameyaw said General Mosquito, being a former MP, ought to have conducted himself better than casting aspersions on the integrity of the Committee.

The furious Asuogyaman MP described the behaviour of the NDC General Secretary as pure indiscipline, and insisted on hauling him before the Privileges Committee.

He said the NDC guru had no right to criticize the committee, particularly when he failed to raise any issue prior to the vetting of the nominee as the public was invited to submit memoranda on the nominee.

In a sharp response, NDC National Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei has dared any person to drag his general secretary to the Privileges Committee.

Dr Adjei said the fact that the statement was signed by Asiedu Nketia did not mean he was representing his personal view, thus the NDC as a party would be ready to follow its General Secrecary wherever any person would want to invite him.