Afenyo-Markin gains plaudit for apologising to Clerk

Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has commended the Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markn for apologising to the Clerk to the Appointments Committee, Mrs Gifty Jiagge-Gobah.

Prof Asare in a Facebook post said, “The Minority Leader’s unreserved apology to the Clerk is in order.”

Mr Afenyo-Markin had earlier accused the Clerk of carrying out her duties like “a typical NDC member.”

He said Mr Jiagge-Gobah has failed to cooperate with the Minority members of the committee. He added that she circulates notices late and does not provide copies of reports early enough for his colleagues to have ample time to review them before the committee’s sittings.

“I will have her removed. She is partisan,” he threatened.

But speaking in Parliament on February 4, the Minority Leader said, “I unreservedly apologise to her. I also apologise to her husband and children as well as her relatives who have been emotionally affected by my utterances.”

Prior to this development, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, described Mr Afenyo-Markin’s approach to reprimanding the Clerk as inappropriate.

Before him, the 1st Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor stated in an exclusive interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on February 3 that the Minority Leader will be made to apologise.

“The Clerk is not partisan. Partisan in what manner? What he did to the Clerk is rather unfortunate, it is uncalled for, unbecoming of a member of Parliament,” he said.

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Mer Ahiafor added, “If they don’t want to work with Gifty Jiagge-Gobah, then they don’t want to work at the appointment Committee because, I, as the Chairman, will never recommend her removal. I won’t do that today or tomorrow. What I even want to do as Chairman is that, if she is listening to me, she should accept my sincerest apology… That is the hallmark of a leader.”

He therefore urged the Minority Leader to apologise to the Clerk.

“She is a mother and she has been in this House for 19 years. She doesn’t deserve that, so i expect the Minority Leader to be apologising to the Clerk. He must apologise to the Clerk of the Committee because she doesn’t deserve those words…We should not be denigrating her before the cameras,” he said.

In apologising, Mr Afenyo-Markin stated, “If the husband, the children and family are traumatised by my comments about the clerk, I am sorry. I concede that there is always a better way to react. I will write a personal letter to her [Clerk on Appointments Committee] for the records.”