Minister-designate of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku has said she never did her national service.
She told Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday, 6 February during her vetting that she was living in Kenya with her parents as of the time she completed her tertiary education and so did not have the opportunity to do her national service.
Mrs Afeku told the committee she will take advantage of any opportunities offered by the law to rectify the anomaly.
She is not the first nominee of President Nana Akufo-Addo to have openly said she did not do her national service. The approval of Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister-designate Otiko Afisa Djaba is still on hold owing to the fact that she did not do her national service.
The National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) has warned that it will be a bad precedent for parliament to approve the nomination of Ms Djaba since she never did her national service.
Ghanaian students who graduate from accredited tertiary institutions are required by law to do a one-year national service to the country.
According to the association, the country risks setting a bad example if lawmakers continue to endorse government appointees who fail to meet constitutional requirements.
The Greater Accra Regional President of the association, Kwadwo Danquah, emphasised in an interview with Class FM’s Jerry Akonnor that “it will serve a very bad precedent” adding: “We wish she will be disapproved.”
Mr Danquah said national service is “mandatory, therefore, if we have people at the helm of affairs going to occupy the highest office of ministerial position and that person has not fulfilled what is required of him or her, it is not the right thing.”
He stated that he would be very “disappointed” in the leadership of parliament if they turned a blind eye to Ms Djaba’s failure to undertake her national service and approve her.
He was of the view that previous approvals of nominees who did not participate in national service “does not mean that it should continue” insisting: “What is wrong is wrong!”
Source: classfmonline.com
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Leave Atiko alone and let her start her national service as a minister. Who says national service has a defined time? Moreover, national service is for poor people or those without connections. How do you expect such a sufiscated lady to live in the ***barred word*** doing national service for that meager salary. This is why I did not do it. P/S I am only writing this to piss people off!
This thing of I didn't do National Service is soooo annoying. Are you people better than many of us who did national service? Where is the "patriotism" in the New "Patriotic" Party? The NPP is gradually becoming a disgrace to the youth who are told to be proud of Ghana. You had many years after you completed school to do national service. The old man who also claim his is the godfather of rule of law must sack these disgraceful minister designates with immediate effect. What a shame!
I think the issue of "I did not do national service" is becoming too much. Is very bad that people do not value the national service but what I think governments can do for example in the case of mrs afeku is to pay her this current national service allowance for 10 months period of not doing service even though she will be working as a minister. By this way the youth of today will get to see the need to do national service.
I can never ever get over the level of hypocrisy and double standards that exist within Ghanaian society and public service. Mr Kwadwo Danquah by his own admission is fully aware of existing parliamentarians and civil servants in high places who never did their national service yet kept mute about these cases WHY? This same Mr Danquah has now all of a sudden found his voice wanting someone else to be made a scapegoat. Somehow it seems that people like him forget that in law once you set a precedence by allowing others to go through without applying the law as it should have, you have then lost the potency of that law and therefore cannot chastise anyone else by applying that same law rigidly.