Former President John Dramani Mahama has waded into controversies surrounding the payment of salaries for the wives of the President and Vice President.
In an article on his Facebook page, he described as 'problematic' "an attempt to sneak the First and Second Ladies into the article 71 office holders’ group"
According to him, the challenge is that the spouses of the President and Vice President are not captured among Article 71 Office Holders and, therefore, there is no legal or constitutional basis for it.
"It should be noted that the recommended salaries for the Spouses in the Ntiamoa-Baidu report are captured as part of the emoluments of the President and the Vice President. This seems like an attempt to sneak the First and Second Ladies into the article 71 office holders’ group. This is clearly problematic.
"Indeed, the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee rightly makes the case on page 51 of its report as follows: “The Committee notes that neither Article 71 nor any of the provisions in the Constitution bestows benefits on spouses of Presidents and Vice Presidents. Similarly, no legislation mentions what the State should provide for spouses of Presidents and Vice Presidents.”
"The question then is: if the Committee recognises the above, and therefore appreciates that there can be no legal or constitutional basis for seeking to bestow any such benefits on the spouses of the President and Vice President (VP), why then did it proceed to provide for the payment of monthly salaries pegged at the level of a Cabinet Minister to both the First Lady and wife of the VP who served in the period 2017 to 2020, even if it was conveniently enveloped as part of the emoluments of the President and Vice President?
"And why did Parliament also approve, as has been reported, this recommendation without a review?"
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First Lady’s Salary- John Mahama disagrees
The issue of handling spouses of Political office holders is not a new one; it has engaged the attention of all governments since the advent of the 4th Republic.
Under various administrations, considering their sensitive positions, there had to be a consideration of how to support the spouses of the President and the Vice President in fulfilling the roles that our modern democracies expect them to play, such as empowering women, girlchild education, reproductive health issues, teenage pregnancy, assistance to widows, fighting early marriage, preventing mother to child transmission of HIV, STEM for girls, and even as far as the welfare of grandmothers banished to witch camps.
The practice thus far, has been that some expenses of the spouses of the President and Vice President in carrying out their expected roles are funded by the Office of the President. This includes fueling of vehicles, security, clerical staff, stationery, hosting of local and foreign guests and all such expenditures.
The distinction must be made, however, that this is separate from allowances payable to spouses of the President, Vice President, former Presidents, former Vice Presidents and former Heads of State.
In the first Government of the 4th Republic (the Rawlings Administration), some recommendations were made to provide allowances to the spouses of the President and Vice President and additionally, as a gesture of reconciling with our past, the spouses of former Presidents and Heads of State.
Since this convention was established by the Rawlings administration, issues in respect of allowances of the spouses of the President and Vice President and spouses of former Presidents and Heads of State have largely been handled administratively and provided for under the budget of the Office of the President.
This week, a raging issue that has generated passionate debate among many Ghanaians, both on social media and in the traditional media space - TV and Radio – has been in respect of a report, confirmed by Government that the spouses of President Nana Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia are to be placed on a monthly salary at the level of a Cabinet Minister.
We are told that the 7th Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, which was dissolved at midnight of January 6, 2021, approved the recommendation in the Report of the Presidential Committee on Emoluments for Article 71 Office Holders (January 2017 to December 2020), chaired by Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu.
The news, particularly at this time of austerity, has generated some level of outrage among the populace, and I can understand the anger of those opposing the recommendation of the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee and its subsequent approval by parliament.
It should be made clear, also, that the recommendation in respect of spouses in the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee report, which covers the years January 7, 2017 to January 6, 2021, is solely in respect of the Spouses of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia.
The challenge, however, is that the spouses of the President and Vice President are not captured among Article 71 Office Holders and, therefore, there is no legal or constitutional basis for it.
It should be noted that the recommended salaries for the Spouses in the Ntiamoa-Baidu report are captured as part of the emoluments of the President and the Vice President. This seems like an attempt to sneak the First and Second Ladies into the article 71 office holders’ group. This is clearly problematic.
Indeed, the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee rightly makes the case on page 51 of its report as follows: “The Committee notes that neither Article 71 nor any of the provisions in the Constitution bestows benefits on spouses of Presidents and Vice Presidents. Similarly, no legislation mentions what the State should provide for spouses of Presidents and Vice Presidents.”
The question then is: if the Committee recognises the above, and therefore appreciates that there can be no legal or constitutional basis for seeking to bestow any such benefits on the spouses of the President and Vice President (VP), why then did it proceed to provide for the payment of monthly salaries pegged at the level of a Cabinet Minister to both the First Lady and wife of the VP who served in the period 2017 to 2020, even if it was conveniently enveloped as part of the emoluments of the President and Vice President?
And why did Parliament also approve, as has been reported, this recommendation without a review?
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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Just asking, upon what constitutional basis was John Mahama for example paying his wife money from state coffers? The position of a President of a country does not guarantee him the abuse of state coffers. There is no basis for any government official the right to determine who should be paid government money outside those who do work for government ie civil/public servants and contractors/consultants of government. Outside these, how do you pay somebody for doing nothing for government? If he paid any money in the form of allowances or salary to his wife, then he MUST REFUND it with INTEREST to the state. He has NO right to do that. This is abuse of state power. No committee has the write to put people outside government payroll on it for undefined responsibilities. It is wrong to use sympathy as the basis for paying only first ex first ladies in a country. Then rather I suggest there should be a policy in place to take care of other ladies who may also find themselves in similar suffering positions as those ex first ladies Else. This is pure abuse of power and Mahama and those involved must be sanctioned. Such unguarded sympathies have resulted in the abuse of state coffers by leaders of our country. First it was some ex first ladies are having difficult times so they must be helped. What about the ordinary Ghanaian in a more serious situation than the ex first lady you spending our resource on, why shouldn't that person also be helped? We realized that in the course of helping that suffering ex first Lady, the end result was Mahama and co dipping their hands into state coffers for their wives . Now another greedy dude comes to say let's get his wife on the salary of a cabinet minister and put her under article 71 of office holders. We are now grumbling. When Mahama and others started it, why were we quiet? Mahama out of "***barred word***" now wants to claim that his action is the norm. What he did is simply "stealing" from state coffers for his wife. There is no constitutional evidence that paying money from state coffers without any properly defined role is the norm. It is pure STEALING and he should never make that action of his look like the norm.
JM would rather pay Tracey Boakye and Mzbel than paying old widow first ladies. Mzbel is praying for his comeback. I wonder what prayers will these former first ladies be praying.
As usual almost all those opposing these recommendation by the committee are men. I don't know why men start becoming jittery and uncomfortable when it comes to women getting their fair share. We have relegated our women to the background and we expect to develop. A woman who is well resourced uses her resources to look after her children ( off course after their normal shopping ) but most men who are well resourced or well positioned go chasing after other peoples women and wasting those resources on revelry and playing the harlotry. These women also occupy positions are first and second ladies and doing much work to help development. If they are paid well they will do more to help society. As usual the men wants to control the money and put the women under so they can continue their escapades unchallenged. Grown up settled women are known to be better managers of resources than men. Lets pay them something very befitting and stop this macho-ism. If we have nothing to hide then we should not worry 'Mr big men '
Lordina has been taking her allowances for the past five years and John Mahama is aware of it. Why is she running away from what she's been enjoying for so long just because of propaganda? All other former first ladies have also been enjoying the allowance for several years, it but NDC is now behaving as if it's HARAM?
As usual NDC and their leader appears to put spices on the matter. Mr. Mahama should tell Ghanaian that as a sitting president did he pay any form Head of state spouses some allowances ? and if he did, how much did pay and on what basis /source documents used to pay. We should as a country and stop politicking every issue regarding national issue. Honestly, what is Mr. Mahama is saying appears unconvincing and does not carry weight .His write up suggested to me that since the recommendation is emanating from current Government , he disagree. He was paying former spouses , Mr. Mahama should share with the procedures , how much and calculations for that payment. Mr. Mahama is playing mischief in this matter and trust me it will bounce back and bit NDC some years to come
Politics nkutiiiiiin!!!
But your wife is enjoying hers, right?