Kwabena Donkor’s Red-Herring

He has every inalienable right to express his opinions on any policy decisions made by the key players of the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). What he has absolutely no right to do is to presume to cavalierly lecture the President on the constitutional legitimacy of any of his executive appointees. More so, when Dr. Kwabena Donkor has amply demonstrated his gross incompetence as a Mahama cabinet appointee in charge of Power, who had to be forced to resign and render an unqualified public apology.

You see, just before deciding to fire off this rejoinder, I Googled to find out what his academic and professional credentials were, when the Pru-East’s National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament decided to accept his appointment as Power Minister, which Dr. Donkor had vigorously lobbied for on the floor of the House. The man’s Doctorate is in the disciplinary area of Development Planning. He also holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). And yet, as the evidence clearly shows, Dr. Donkor woefully failed to acquit himself creditably as Chief Executive Officer of BOST, namely, the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company.

And so one begins to wonder precisely what value Ghanaians have gained from his Lancaster University, UK, Business Management degree. That Dr. Donkor is clearly a very poor reflection on the quality of the sort of education provided by that elite British tertiary academy can scarcely be gainsaid. At his BOST post, for example, the man is widely known to have created the corrupt and kleptocratic culture of deliberately causing refined petroleum to be contaminated, so that it could be cheaply sold well below the open-market rates to his political associates and cronies and at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer. Now, that is a Class-One Felony.

In other words, the man ought to have been indicted, prosecuted and placed behind bars for quite a considerable while long ago. But even worse, as a custom-tailored Power Minister, Dr. Donkor signed the most recklessly idiotic energy-supply contract with the Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based middle-man company called AMERI Group. In that contract, a company that did absolutely zilch in the energy-supply equipment chain to the country was widely and scandalously reported to have earned the humongous sinecure of approximately $ 200 million. The AMERI-Deal scam has since had to be renegotiated considerably down, if memory serves me accurately.

In U.S. academic circles, Dr. Donkor’s intellectual level and business acumen would easily be ranked with that of a “Special Education” kid. In other words, practically speaking, the Pru-East’s NDC-MP is a borderline case of a mentally retarded patient. He ought to be receiving long-term treatment in a psychiatric or mental rehabilitation center than presuming to second-guess President Akufo-Addo on the latter’s all-too-savvy appointment of Mr. Sammy Awuku, the New Patriotic Party’s National Youth Organizer, as Board Chairman of the National Youth Employment Agency (YEA). He may have the credentials on his gilt-edged sheepskins, as it were, all right, but in practical terms, Dr. Donkor has absolutely no moral and/or professional credibility and managerial competence to presume to impugn Nana Akufo-Addo’s sense of judgment, where the President’s executive appointments are concerned.

Sammy Awuku clearly has what it takes, in terms of practical experience, to competently manage the affairs of the National Youth Employment Agency. This cannot be said of Mr. Awuku’s most virulent critic on the parliamentary minority side of the aisle.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs