Three Former Appointees Are Giving Akufo-Addo Sleepless Nights

Martin Amidu (L) Andy Appiah-Kubi (M) Prof Frimpong-Boateng (R) is a professor.

As is constitutionally required of every president in Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, upon assuming office, nominated individuals he believed would assist him in driving his political agenda effectively.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng, the former Minister of Science, Environment, Technology, and Innovation; Martin Amidu, the former Special Prosecutor; and Andy Appiah-Kubi, the former Deputy Minister for Railways Development, are three such appointees.

While all three are no longer in office, they continue to make headlines due to their criticisms of the current administration regarding various issues.

The recently released details of the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) are one example of such a reference point.

This article focuses on instances in which each of these former appointees has publicly criticized the government.

Martin Alamisi Burns Kaiser Amidu, also known as the 'citizen vigilante,' was appointed by the president of Ghana in 2018 to serve as the country's first Special Prosecutor, an independent office established to combat and prevent corruption.

The appointment of the citizen vigilante was received favorably by the general public.

Two years later, in November 2020, however, Martin Amidu sent a letter to the president announcing his resignation from the position, citing the presidency and others as having frustrated his mandate as a Special Prosecutor.

Following his resignation, the citizen vigilante has become a prominent critic of the government and the president.

Al Jazeera's exposé titled Gold Mafia prompted the most recent round of such criticisms.

In a statement, the citizen vigilante alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is an admitted acquaintance of Alistair Mathias, the suspected gold kingpin suspected of smuggling massive amounts of gold out of Ghana.

"The argument that Nana Addo could not have been Mathias' attorney because the president cannot recall if he was or not is specious and diversionary. Nana Addo is a known associate of the alleged kingpin gold smuggler and gold money launderer. Period! "It is typical of the previous behavior of the President of Ghana to befriend a member of a criminal gang or a financial architect," he said.

Since his resignation in 2020, Martin Amidu has written numerous articles criticizing the president's style of governance and accusing him of corruption on multiple occasions.

Andy Appiah-Kubi:

The president appointed the former deputy minister to the Ministry of Railways, a newly created ministry during the first term of the Akufo-Addo administration.

He held this position until 2021, when he was relieved.

He had intended to be appointed to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, but this did not occur.

Since then, the former deputy minister has been on the government's neck, urging the consolidation of some ministries due to job duplication. He also influenced the Majority Caucus in Parliament to move the anti-Ken Ofori-Atta motion, which sought to remove Ken Ofori-Atta from his position as minister of finance.

In 2022, he was captured in an interview on Joy FM stating, "I am part of the group that organized the press conference regarding the claim that the Finance Minister should be relieved of his position, and we have been meeting on this topic. On one occasion, a man approached us and offered to mediate on behalf of the finance minister."

After his prospect of being appointed to a substantive ministerial position by the president did not materialize in February 2023, the former deputy minister expressed regret for accepting the position of deputy minister.

"Never again will I accept the position of deputy minister. Accepting such a position was an error, and I will never do so again. According to a report on 3news.com, he was quoted as saying, "I didn't get the chance to showcase my talent."

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng's name has been in the news for the past week due to a report he authored in 2021 for the president on the work of the committee he chaired, which was responsible for combating illicit mining in the country.

The aforementioned report was not made public until two years after it was submitted to the president.