Deputy Minister-designate for Local Government John Bless Oti would be better off as a dog catcher or messenger at the office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) than serving as deputy minister, President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe, has suggested.
Mr Cudjoe has advised that Mr Oti’s appointment be withdrawn immediately following his abysmal performance during his vetting in parliament.
“How can he represent people at the local government level? This is a disaster. Who advised the president to appoint this gentleman in the first place? I do not understand it… Maybe he should be a messenger at the [NDC] party office, he has no identity,” he explained on Citi FM’s The Big Issue, the station’s news analysis and current affairs programme hosted by Umaru Sanda Amadu on Saturday July 23.
The Appointment Committee of Parliament on Friday July 22 advised the deputy minister-designate for local government, John Bless Oti, to go back to Nkwanta Senior High School to procure an original certificate bearing his original name from birth before the committee decides whether to approve his nomination or not.
This became necessary when Mr Oti’s certificates presented to the committee bore different names.
Originally called Kopi Kwabena John, the nominee, presented a sworn affidavit issued on February 2005 with a change of name. He had changed his name from Kopi Kwabena John to John Oti Kwabena Bless. However, his curriculum vitae and certificates he presented to the committee bore the name John Bless Oti.
The nominee insisted Oti was his surname while his other documents, including a sworn affidavit, proved his family name was rather Bless.
Mr Oti explained to the committee that the confusion resulted from the order of his names, promising to work on it.
But the founding president of the think-tank argued that President John Mahama should nominate another person for the position because the minister-designate did not know himself and would not be effective as a deputy minister.
“The Appointments Committee did a thorough job this time. He does not know his name…his certificate bears something else [from what was presented to parliament] so he has been asked to go to Nkwanta Senior High School [to get his certificate certified]. I mean what is this joke? I think the president should just withdraw this guy,” he stressed.
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM
