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Mr. Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Deputy Minister of Communications, has challenged Prof. Stephen Adei, a former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), to provide proof that President John Mahama is practicing nepotism by appointing person only of Northern extraction into his government, or forever shut up.

According to the Deputy Minister, the statement purported to have been made by the respected professor, was reckless and divisive, to say the least, as the President’s appointees are not from only one particular ethnic group in the country.

Prof. Adei should know better, it is very unfortunate for a man of such caliber to engage in such ethnocentric comments, the president duly follows the constitution in his appointment and has never looked down on any tribe in Ghana.”

“It is backward thinking and we should not encourage this kind of comments, it is a deliberate attempt to undermine the President and his office. The president appoints people because of some skills in such persons and on constitutional requirements of regional balance.”

“The president’s appointees have all gone through vetting and there was no proof that any of his appointees have not merited or deserved it, but was given because of their ethnic origin or background. , there is no only people from Bole, because the president comes from Bole” he stated.

Professor Adei, speaking at a lecture at Prempeh College in Ashanti Region, claimed that, per his research findings one out of every four of the president’s appointments comes from his area of origin.

According to him, the alleged nepotism practice, he believes, would not augur well for national cohesion, especially when Ghana is a unitary state.

He told students during the “persons Osae Lectures,” that “one of the things going on which is totally unacceptable is about why one out of every four public sector appointment comes from the President’s area of origin.

“That is totally unacceptable because we are a unified country, we are a country whereby if you take any major group, whether Gas, Ashanti’s or Ewes you can form a cabinet from it.”