The proposed Municipal Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, Williams Aduum, has sailed through the only round left for him to be confirmed as the 7th political head of the area.
But it did not come without a crunch meeting between leaders of the ruling party- the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – who had to convene to issue what was a last warning to some government appointees to choose between approving the nominee or an outright dismissal.
Until his confirmation at the weekend, Mr. Aduum was among three nominees in the Upper East Region whose hopes of breezing through the confirmation process were crushed at the first round by surprise disapproval from assembly members.
Had 34 of the 50 assembly members who turned out in the first round voted for him, he would have become the region’s first MCE to be confirmed in the Akufo-Addo Government. But he polled 33 votes, representing 66% of the total ballots validly cast.
The reconvening of assembly members Saturday, coming just 3 days after the disappointing first round, saw the nominee clinch 45 (93.75%) of the 48 votes cast. Starr News learnt later that the three people who voted against the nominee were the same appointees the leadership of the ruling party had warned behind closed doors just before the confirmation process got underway.
“We were supposed to dismiss three appointees Saturday morning, but we didn’t do so. We thought we should just call them and talk to them. They were the same three people who voted ‘no’ against the nominee,” an aide in the Office of the Vice President, Latif Solomon, told Starr News.
MP Kofi Adda and “girlfriend” allegations
The new MCE is the second constituency chairman of the NPP to be confirmed after their nominations.
David Afoko, the NPP’s Builsa North Constituency Chairman and cousin to the suspended NPP’s National Chairman, Paul Afoko, defied internal protests and popular predictions Friday with 30 of the 43 votes cast, representing a 69.7% endorsement.
Mr. Aduum’s confirmation session drew such public figures as the President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs who is also the Paramount Chief of Naga, Naba Orlando Ayamga Awini III, and Ghana’s Ambassador-Designate to Italy, Paulina Patience Abayage, among others.
A surprise appearance made by the Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central and Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation, Joseph Kofi Adda, took centre stage when the legislator launched a counteroffensive the audience believed was directed at those who held him responsible for the disappointing first round of the confirmation process.
There had been unsubstantiated reports that the veteran lawmaker did not like the choice of Mr. Aduum as MCE and was scheming for “the mother of his girlfriend” to be nominated. The former Energy Minister banged back but spared names.
“Politics is full of propaganda and lies. I have been politically active since 1969. I have heard the things that were said about all those who have led us before my turn. Things are being said about me. As we speak, I’m sure people here are whispering and saying things about me. If you want, you can come and feel my skin (pressing his left wrist with his fingers). It’s so thick that nothing of that sort can penetrate me.
“Whatever propaganda, whatever lies have been passed around, please, let them pass. I have not consciously done anything against anybody. I’ve not been engaged in wasting resources to do what will not bring progress to us. So, any propaganda, any lie, that has been said here in Navrongo about me, consider it as a joke,” he said.
Rockson Bukari’s frustrations tickle audience
The MDCE confirmation process, conducted in 1 municipality and 7 districts so far, has had several audiences hold handkerchiefs to their eyes with laughter over the reactions of the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari, to the frustrations the confirmation exercise has continued to bring along.
Many, through the confirmation platforms, have come to realise that he is a politician who has no spare room for ‘petty rules’ or formalities that tend to get in his way, especially when the way itself is not clear. What he says, and how he says it, in reaction to such situations is what makes people laugh.
The confirmation process, which started on a frightening footing for him at Talensi where the nominee was rejected, proved to be a tight noose around the minister’s neck. He showed a temper that sparked laughter at Nabdam after he got his first ever DCE to swear in and the endorsed nominee, taking her oath, turned the minister (who was administering the oath) into the one taking the oath by mentioning the words ahead of the minister.
Frustrated, the minister, with his trademark crescent-shaped white beard, punched the air with the white sheets of paper and microphone in his hands, digging for words as he tried to bring the woman to order. The audience had barely finished wiping their tears when the Public Relations Officer of the Regional Coordinating Council reverently bent over the minister’s table at the event and reportedly pointed out what he thought needed a relook in a speech. “Are you the President!” came a reply in the face of the PRO from the fatigued minister who did not want any more ruckus.
When he was about to conduct Saturday’s swearing-in at Navrongo, he told the newly approved nominee in a whisper where to stand as both prepared to descend with elegance from the high table to the floor, with the minister more careful with the tiled steps. But the MCE did the opposite when they arrived there, facing a direction the minister did not like. As expected, he brought him to order with gestures that showed the frustrations of a minister already bombarded with unexplained rejection of some nominees despite profuse pleas.
The minister, in a quick bid to cement the endorsement, read the oaths in a hurry as if a delay could cause something to overturn the confirmation. And, to the amusement of the audience, he had no time to even mention “congratulations” as expected after the reading of the oaths. After concluding the last oath with “So help me God”, he told the new MCE quickly, “Come and sign”, and ‘dragged’ him at once to a table.
So elated after a successful exercise, the relieved-looking minister thanked the gathering of the Kassenas and the Nankanas, whom he called his in-laws in the hall, for doing him proud and President Nana Akufo-Addo an honour by endorsing the nominee. And he could afford to make serious dancing gestures in front of the gathering as he thanked them heavily, holding a microphone in one hand and throwing the other hand in the air amid laughter and cheers from the hall.
