<<Print>>President Nana Akufo-Addo missed a fine opportunity to send a strong signal to his appointees on his “robustness”, when he failed to take the first step in getting the deputy minister for agriculture out of office, A.B.A. Fuseini assessed.
Mr. William Quaitoo whom until Tuesday evening was the deputy minister for agriculture resigned following incessant pressure on him to do so. He was accused of insulting people from the north when he called them “difficult people”.
He was responding to farmers’ agitations on the level of destruction caused by the fall armyworms on their farms. He had retracted and apologised for his explosive and ethnocentric comments, but failed to impress his accusers who insisted on his resignation. The presidency confirmed his resignation and announced it was accepted by President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday.
But the Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, in the Northern Region, Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini believes the minister should have been fired instead of resigning. Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini had wanted the minister fired by the president.
The MP was however part of the Minority in Parliament who gave him the first option to resign. Though some persons in government condemned Mr. Quaitoo, there was no official government statement on his unguarded utterance.
Alhaji Fuseini discredited the presidency on that score and told TV3 Tuesday that the gravity of the offence should have attracted a government statement at least. Though he welcomed the deputy minister’s resignation, he said being sacked by the president would have “served a better purpose”.
The president should have “fired him to send a strong signal that public office is not for people to come and showcase their anger” on people. The MP explained that the president should have issued “a very strong statement, to come out and state that [the president] will not take this kind of arrogance from his ministers, appointees”. He commended a presidential staffer Clara Napaga Tia Sulemana who condemned Mr. Quaitoo, asserting that the issue transcends beyond politics. Mr. William Quaitoo is the Member of Parliament of Akim Oda constituency in the Eastern Region.