Outspoken political scientist Professor Ransford Gyampo has reacted furiously to a request from the Office of the President that all people in senior management positions in all government agencies submit their curriculum vitae (CV) to the Presidency, accusing the President of trying to interfere in independence. institutions such as the Ghana Electoral Commission (EC).
Professor Gyampo chided the president for his poor performance in protecting the independence of state agencies such as the Electoral Commission.
Sharing a memo from the Election Commission that requires all senior managers to submit their resumes as requested by the Office of the President, Mr. Gyampo described the request as unnecessary and urged the president to abandon his attempt to interfere in the affairs of the commission and deprive it of its independence.
“Dear President Akufo Addo,
Why would you want to do this to an Independent Commission? It seems that under his rule he is doing everything possible to decimate the independence of all independent institutions, but to what end?
The history of the Fourth Republic of Ghana shows that you are currently the worst president to promote the sanctity of the independent Electoral Commission.
Unfortunately, there are no brave people around you to tell you to back down from your attempts to annex the Electoral Commission. In the past, Dan Botwe, as NPP Secretary General, could boldly tell President Kufuor to his face to back down from his attempt to usurp the Election Commission’s procurement powers and the President had no choice but to listen.
Step down and leave intact the sanctity of our independent institutions. This is not a practice worth emulating or repeating, sir. This demand is unnecessary and its optics for the search to face the deficit of independence of the Electoral Board is bad.
But neither should the Electoral Commission be seen as swallowing everything that the President throws at them with hook, line and sinker. As an independent Commission, it is backed by law to resist any attempt to subjugate the Commission under the Executive President,” he wrote on social media.
