Former Deputy Transport Minister, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, has said her appointment by ex-President John Mahama cannot be classified as nepotism.

The legal practitioner told Accra-based Class FM that she was fully qualified for the position and even qualified to be a substantive Minister.

She argued she is an able member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who has taken up responsibilities in [her] own constituency at the branch level.

Madam Bawa Mogtari added that her position in the Mahama-led government was not her first national appointment “having served as a board member of the National Lotteries Authority in the John Mills administration.”

The National Communications Officer of the opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC) claims former president John Mahama appointed only one relative when he was in power.

Samuel Gyamfi says the only family the flagbearer of the NDC appointed was Joyce Bawah Mogtari, who is currently his spokesperson. “Apart from Joyce Bawah Mogtari, former president Mahama never appointed any family relative of his into any position,” he told Newsfile host with Samson Lardy Anyenini, Saturday. “If you dispute that, produce evidence and let us discuss that,” he challenged. He justified that Madam Bawah Mogtari was appointed to be Deputy Minister of Transport because she had the requisite certificates and not because of her relationship with Mr Mahama.

 

 

 

 

Her comments come as the issue of nepotism in the incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo administration and the erstwhile government, came up.

The NDC held a press conference and alleged that the President had appointed over 50 relatives and close friends since taking the reins in 2017 despite lambasting Mahama for the same while in opposition.

Speaking to this, Mrs. Mogtari stated that looking at the “current government, I think there’s a good reason why the English language has the word ‘nepotism’.”

She said unlike her appointment by Mr Mahama, “There’s a point where it’s way beyond reasonable, where it defies logic”.

Meanwhile, the NPP has since dismissed the over 50 names cited by the NDC, saying most of the names are not related to the President as alleged.