The Member of Parliament for Pusiga Constituency in the Upper Eastern Region who has come under the scrutiny of social media audiences monitoring the ongoing vetting of ministerial nominees, has responded to her critics.

Hon. Laadi Ayii Ayamba has on a few occasions been heard merely congratulating ministerial nominees and wishing them goodbye without asking questions about their portfolios.

This has led to reactions on social media with many teasing and criticizing her for not doing a good job as a member of the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

Hon. Laadi Ayii Ayamba, who was given the first opportunity to question the minister nominee for health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh on Friday, January 31, had this to say: Thank you Mr Chairman and thank you for the opportunity. As for the congratulations, I will always make sure I congratulate my people. And when I say ‘bye-bye, bye-bye’ it is for the best.”

Her initial comments drew laughter from some members of the Appointments Committee who had ostensibly taken note of the trend.

Unlike other times where she only ended at that, Hon. Laadi Ayii Ayamba went ahead to ask the health nominee one question about the sector he was heading to.

He congratulated the nominee again and said she had been in the chamber with him for not less than twelve years and could attest to his passion and competence.

“I have watched and observed your activities and I know how hard you have worked, and I know how far you have gone. I am not surprised that as Ranking Member for Health, you have been nominated. There’s nothing better than working and being rewarded, you deserve it”.

She asked the nominee about the backlog of nearly 20,000 Allied Health nurses who have not been employed, and also about 60,000 nurses waiting to be engaged, and what he would do to ensure that they're employed.

After asking her question, she congratulated the nominee once again and wished him all the best. But this time she omitted the ‘bye-bye’ from her conclusion.

However, some committee members shouted ‘bye-bye’, an incident that elicited a response from the MP, who said “The ‘bye-bye’ is worrying you” amidst laughter from colleagues on the committee.

More about Laadi Ayi Ayamba

Laadi Ayi Ayamba, a native of Pusiga in the Upper East Region is a trained teacher. She later went to the University of Education, Winneba where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Basic Education.

She started her professional career as a teacher from 1981 to 1991. She was then a head teacher until 2000 when she was reappointed as Officer in charge of Day Nursery Schools by the Ghana Education Service.

Ayamba is a member of the National Democratic Congress and she took her seat in parliament for the Pusiga Constituency from 2012 till date. In 2021, Laadi together with Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, Abdul-Aziz Ayaba Musah, Johnson Kwaku Adu and Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah were sworn in during the Extraordinary Session 2021 of the Parliament of the ECOWAS which happened in Freetown in Sierra Leone.

She served as the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children, and represented Ghana in Geneva, Switzerland at the 59th session of UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to contribute to Ghana's efforts to ensuring the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.