What Munkata told Adwoa Safo over her new baby during vetting

Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo, was on Wednesday spared a marathon grilling by the Appointments Committee of Parliament because she had to attend to her baby.

“We’ll not keep you here to deprive your baby,” Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Munkata, Minority Caucus Chief Whip, said.

The Minority Caucus Leader supported the position of the Chief Whip, saying: “I’ll not depart from the path he has chosen.”

As she answered questions from the members of the Committee, a Committee member noted that she would not be taken through a very long interview as she was a nursing mother.

The vetting of nominees had run into several hours, but that of the Minister-designate for Women, Children and Social Protection, who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for the Dome Kwabenya Constituency, was comparatively shorter.

Responding to questions asked earlier, the MP agreed that the use of women and girls as head porters, commonly called ‘kayayei’ was an issue.

Samuell Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, and Member of the Committee wanted to know if the Minister-designate would lead a campaign to outlaw the practice of carrying heavy loads on the head, saying, ”the human head is not for carrying the load.”

The North Tongu legislator suggested that the Minister-Designate takes steps to ban the use of the head for carrying heavy loads and pursue an alternative livelihood as the practice was a scar on the national conscience.

The Minister-designate said she would not readily proffer an opinion, but she would study and consider the proposal and engage stakeholders, including parliament and see the way forward.

On the payment of arrears of caterers engaged in Ghana’s School Feeding Programme, the nominee, who was Deputy Majority Leader of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic, and Minister of State in Charge of Procurement, said she will look into the issue with a view to streamlining it and make it better.

GNA