Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Former Deputy Minister of Communication under the erstwhile Mahama administration, has averred that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is filling up state institutions including the courts with his allies in order to protect his interest.
Mr. Kwakye Ofosu believes persons who have gotten appointed by the President recently to Head strategic state institutions are partisans of the President and the appointments driven by a deep-seated quest to capture the state with people who are loyal to him.
He stated in a Facebook post seen by theBBCghana.com that,
“He has packed the courts so that no case, no matter how justified, will pass against him. All other state agencies have been packed to the brim with partisans. Those that he doesn’t control, he shows open hostility to as is the case of both the CHRAJ Commissioner and the Auditor-General”.
The comments by the former Minister comes at the back of recent appointments of four judges to the Supreme Court and the promotion of some high court judges to the appeals court.
While parliament is considering a Public Universities bill brought before it to enable the government to have a firm grip of the management of public tertiary institutions in Ghana, Felix Ofosu Kwakye claimed,
“The Public University Bill is one more example of the extent to which President Akufo-Addo will go to dominate state institutions. Now he seeks to extend his reach to the Public Universities so their governing councils will be helmed by NPP acolytes and have academic freedoms trampled under his feet”.
The bill which is currently before parliament pending approval has been widely opposed by stakeholders in the education sector and a section of parliamentarians.
Though the government has stated its reasons for introducing the bill for passage into law which includes regulation of public universities in a better way and to ensure Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency on a well-structured governance architecture and legal framework, many stakeholders in the education sector have argued that the bill will give way for political interference, take away academic freedom and the autonomy of public universities.
