A US-based Ghanaian law professor, Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has stated that the country is waiting with bated breath to see the next person who will return the ex-gratia.
His comment comes on the back of Togbe Afede XIV’s recent refund of an ex-gratia paid to him for serving as a member of the country of state.
Kwaku Azar, in a post on his social media handle, said that the gesture by the traditional ruler was not a vice.
He further slammed some persons who have been criticising the former President of the National House of Chiefs.
According to him, the number of meetings held by Togbe Afede’s committee on the Council of State cannot be used as a metric in determining performance.
“Committee X met 52 times and collected sitting allowances 52 times. Therefore, the Chairman of Committee Y, which met 11 times and collected sitting allowances 11 times, is not as effective or serious or hardworking as the Chairman of Committee X.
“How can one so confidently, yet so wrongly, assert that holding 11 meetings is abysmal performance? Why is 52 fantastic and 11 abysmal? Should we target meeting 3 times a day, including weekends?
“When I say ‘nonfa nkoaaa’, Yaanom will say I should not say that so I won’t say that. Look, comedy is important and should be accommodated but let us be serious about how we use and interpret data.
“And don’t let Yaanom confuse you into thinking that rejection of ex gratia is a vice! It is virtuous and we are still waiting for the next returner!,” Kwaku Azar posted on his Facebook page.
Togbe Afede XIV in a statement dated June 6, 2022, confirmed that he had refunded over ¢365,000 ex-gratia paid to him for serving on the Council of State between 2017 and 2020.
He indicated that he felt uncomfortable with the money paid for part-time work which he received monthly salaries and other benefits.
Togbe Afede mentioned that the refund was hinged on his “general abhorrence of the payment of huge ex-gratia and other outrageous benefits to people who have by their own volition offered to serve our poor country.”
However, the Host of Good Evening Ghana Paul Adom-Otchere has been unimpressed by the gesture accusing him of attending only 39 out of 242 meetings of the Council of State – a claim the Asogli state has dismissed as a lie.
Mr. Adom-Otchere countered that in the Thursday, June 9 edition of his show insisting that Togbe Afede attended only 16% of sittings of the Council of State.
