My Dear Appointments Committee
Dear Appointments Committee of Parliament,
We, the citizens (not spectators) of this great country have observed a few things during your sittings.
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Your body language changes anytime one of your own is vetted. We've seen how non-MPs are grilled endlessly. Some of us are body language experts so we know what we are talking about, especially when the sittings are also live on TV.
This letter has been triggered by the attitude exhibited by the nominee for the Agric Ministry, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto. We witnessed how Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Hajia Alima Mahama, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah and others comported themselves during their vetting. We also saw how Mr Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko was grilled.
Dr Akoto had a field day last night when he appeared before you. He was intermittently too cordial, cocky, temperamental, arrogant and dismissive. I am shocked you allowed him to have a tea party at the vetting.
Please note that you are the highest vetting/interviewing body in this country. You are an Appointments Committee and not a Rubber Stamp Committee. Don't fuel perceptions that no matter what, people will be passed.
You must stamp your authority and bring nominees to order. A lot of young professionals are watching you and it is wrong to create the impression that an interviewee can put up any behaviour and get away with it. And the panel members too - looks like some ground rules will do. Some are so passionate in their questioning you think they mean to 'finish' their respondents off. Please tone down and get the job done without incident.
The same goes for members of the public who attend the sittings to observe the vetting. This is not the occasion for partisan rallies and they must be told to leave their emotions at the door. On their way out they can carry it back home. While in there, they are only observers and their interjections cannot bode anything good.
You are yet to vet more nominees and we accordingly look up to you to bring some balance to the table.
Dear Chairman, please allow nominees to answer questions touching on their credibility so long as you allow your colleague MPs to pose the questions in PUBLIC. You didn't serve the interest of Mr Ofori-Atta when you stopped him from answering the question on his offshore account -especially when it is not illegal to have such accounts.
You are also perceived to be biased towards some minority MPs. Please change that perception because I ran a survey on my Facebook wall over your performance so far and the outcome was not the best.
