Obviously bemused by the barrage of questions from her colleague MPs, during her vetting yesterday, minister nominee for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministry, Mavis Hawa Koomson could not convince Ghanaians that she has a grasp of the issues confronting the Ministry she has been nominated to lead.
The visibly confounded nominee laughed through the session as she was being bombarded with arrange of questions, including one on the infamous gun-firing incident at a polling station in kasoa last year.
She was also asked questions on state of Ghana’s fishing industry, the advantages fishing presents to the country and the management of marine culture. But to most of these questions,
Madam Hawa Koomson promised to consult relevant stakeholders or simply responded “I will do something about it”.
Although the Committee Chair, Mr. Joe Osei-Owusu, intermittently chipped in a word or two to save the nominee from further embarrassment, one such attempt rather landed her in a ditch, when she answered a question on her understanding of the various sectors of the fishing industry.
Having realized that an attempt to hide under the pretext of a supposed police investigation to stop MPs from probing further into the shooting incident, she apologized for her involvement in the event which nearly marred the voter registration process in her constituency on Monday, July 20, 2020.
Meanwhile, Mr Muntaka said the Awutu Senya East MP’s apology lacked sincerity, considering the fact that she is unaware of the ramification of her actions that day. This was in particular reference to the injuries that may have been incurred by her constituents who were caught in the act.
He accused the Minister-designate of only apologizing because she has appeared before the Appointments Committee.
According to the Asawase MP, as a concerned representative of her constituents, Madam Koomson should have taken the pains to probe further into the repercussion of the chaos caused by her actions, such as visiting the victims.
“We are all MPs, incidents do happen in our constituencies, sometimes supporters of your opponents but when you hear people are injured you try to comfort them. To let them know that it was not deliberate. So when you apologies, people will believe that it is sincere.
“But if something of this nature happens in your constituency – with all the news around it – you never find out those who were injured and to visit them, and you come to Appointments Committee and you say ‘O, I am sorry,’ you make it difficult for me to believe the sincerity of the apology,” he said.
However, Madam Koomson, defended herself, denying any knowledge that anyone got injured in the disturbance.
“Well, I read some stories but I never heard about people being injured and blood flowing here and there.
“Mr Chairman, I mentioned that the incident was out of the polling centre. The polling centre was on the compound of a house and the incident happened outside of the compound. So I didn’t see what happened in the compound.
Mr Muntaka further insisted, saying, “So you mean to say when persons have been injured as a result for the fracas that happened at the polling or near the polling station as the MP you never took pain to find out whether some people were injured and others property were destroyed?”
Quizzed on her ill-reputed government cannot construct meaningful dams’ she said she was misunderstood by the writer due to how she communicated her message.
She reaffirmed her position that the government through the One-District-One-Factory initiative constructed dams which are serving the needs of farmers.
”There was a question whether the dams we were constructing were that of the Akosombo dam, and I said no. We are constructing community earth dams, and those dams are dams constructed within the community and for sure we don’t expect big dams and as we all know, English is not a language for all of us.
“So maybe, the way I wanted to put it was……. Well, I said English is not our mother tongue, so what I really meant was not the word I used, and not to say that the dam was not a meaningful dam.”
Ghanaians on social media reacted to Mrs. Koomson’s performance and it appears not many are enthused.