Comments on gender dynamics: Akufo-Addo caught off guard – Dafeamekpor

General News of Saturday, June 8, 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

2019-06-08

South Dayi Member of Parliament Rockson Dafeamekpor said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's words about the dynamism of gender equality in Africa and Ghana had been formulated because he was "unprepared" and taken by surprise.

Mr. Dafeamekpor believes that the policy badysts and ministers with whom he was accompanied did not adequately inform the president and were not thrilled with his discussions.

At a recent conference in Canada, the president suggested that women were not moving enough to occupy key positions in governance; and although 30% of her office is women, they do not see enough dynamism and activism on the part of women.

This comment, however, has aroused strong criticism from its political opponents and some activists who believe that the president has presented a negative image of women.
Despite some defenses built by members of his government and women appointed by him; most of those who claim that Mr. Akufo-Addo did nothing wrong because he called on women to use their agency to amplify their voice in decision-making, "said the NDC legislator.

He believes that much progress has been made in women's empowerment and dynamism in several African countries, including Ghana.

It was therefore inappropriate, he insists, for the president to portray the picture that very few women manage to emerge in society.
Speaking Saturday on the Joynews Newsfile, he said:

"I think our president was not prepared, he was not briefed properly.They underestimated the effect of the interview because, in all honesty, I do not see why the minister could not represent the country on this panel, where they insist that we want the president to represent as ambbadador for Africa, he should be informed, and his political advisers should provide him with the statistics. Going from the general to the particular, that's what's happening in Africa, the culture, the road traveled, the efforts we're making and what we're doing in Ghana, and we're doing a lot.

That's where I have a problem, apart from the political advisers, there are ministers with whom he has traveled. Back home, great efforts have been made to particularly help women's representation in the justice system.
In the last 10 years, the representation of women in the high courts, the supreme courts, has increased considerably.

Indeed, admissions to universities, which rose from 31% at the end of the millennium to 2015, have increased to 51, with women outnumbering men on university campuses. It is an effort to project them when they leave school and eventually in positions of power. When women have had the opportunity, they have proven themselves and should be given the opportunity.

He needed to say that, for example, Ethiopia, Tanzania, they did, women did, women would have listened, enunciated figures, even with Parliament, but you see, he was caught off guard and the best are the women who, when given the opportunity, jump. "