Human Rights advocate, Professor Ken Attafuah has said the reluctance of governments to appoint people from other political persuasions is a sign of political intolerance. He says the situation is also an indication that political leaders are not willing to accommodate people who do not share their views. Professor Attafuah who was delivering a lecture at a forum organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the current administration seems unwilling to offer public office to persons other than those from the ruling party. The Criminologist said the situation was not peculiar to the National Democratic Congress government though. Prof Attafuah told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show that there was too much contest politics in the country and commended Joy FM for empanelling leading member of the NPP, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby and Deputy Information Minister, James Agyenim Boateng to host the Founders’ Day edition of the Super Morning Show. “All past Executive Presidents under constitutional rule in this country have played the zero-sum game. When they have brought political opponents into their inclusive governments – and I use inclusive in inverted commas – they have often kept them on the peripheries of cabinet and ensured that those invited politicians meet one or more of [a set] criteria,” he stated. Spelling out the criteria, Prof Attafuah said opposition politicians invited to be part of governments are humbled by the experience of crossing the carpet, or that they are a spent force politically, “and number three, that they are perceived to be inconsequential to political underlings.” He argued that presidents Kwame Nkrumah and Jerry John Rawlings “embraced politicians of the first and second kind while president Kufuor included in his government politicians of the last kind.” “So far, to my mind,” he continued, “President Mills has not shown any inclination of bringing political opponents whether from within or outside the NDC into his government.” This tendency, according to him, does “not bode well for nation building, political integration and for the social development of this country.” But the NDC government argues that it has given public office jobs to politicians from other parties. The Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Office of the President, Dr Tony Aidoo accused Prof Attafuah of doing insufficient research and tackling the issue sentimentally. Prof Attafuah was the Executive Director of the National Identification Authority and was relieved of his post when the NDC government came into power. And Dr Tony Aidoo believes that decision influenced the Criminologist’s views and reminds him that he Prof Attafuah, is not the sine-qua-non of public servants in the country. He said comparing what obtains under the Mills administration to that of former President Kufuor, “there is a multi-faceted structure today as opposed to the Kufuor era.” “During the Kufuor era, the sheer preponderance of Akan names within the top-executive positions in the public service was unthinkable – 99 per cent of public sector CEOs etc had Akan names. How could that be?" Dr Aidoo claimed. He said that was not the situation in the pre-Kufuor era and is certainly not the case under President Mills. Play the attached audio and listen to Prof Attafuah and Dr Tony Aidoo. Source: Joy News/Ghana