John Owusu Afriyie Is Totally Unfit To Head The Forestry Commission

I actually wept when I heard that John Owusu Afriyie had been appointed to head the Forestry Commission. He is completely unsuited to fill this very important position.

Incredibly, prior to that bombshell, it had been announced that the Honourable Henry Kwabena Kokofu, the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Bantama, was to head that key green-econony public-sector organisation.

That inexplicable change of mind by the appointing authority, immediately put me off the new  Akufo-Addo administration - and made me realise that despite the many platitudes being bandied about daily about good governance, in reality, nothing much has actually changed in the governing of our country, after all.

With respect, at a time when global climate change is impacting the Ghanaian countryside so negatively, how can President Akufo-Addo possibly deign to  appoint John Owusu Afriyie - a narrow-minded and provincial-minded, blockheaded-philistine - to run  a vital green economy public-sector organisation, once headed by the world-class Ghanaian forestry professional, the late Dr. Osei Asibey, of blessed memory, I ask?

What hidden rent-seeking agenda is that sodden buffoon going to pursue at  the Forestry Commission - and for whose  benefit exactly, one wonders? Hmm, Ghana - enti yewieye paa enei? Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.

Clearly, the same disgraceful cynicism that led to the days of impunity  during the tenure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mahama, when the tunnel-visioned-partisanship of the  propagandist Stan Dogbes infected the presidency, still prevails. Pity.

If a new era had truly dawned in Ghana, why would a man like John Owusu Afriyie be given the leadership of the Forestry Commission - as a cushy sinecure to reward him for his foolish  extremism and nation-wrecking partisanship?

The Forestry Commission is one of the key public-sector organisations that will underpin the transformation of our country into a low-carbon green economy. Why play games with it?

Under no circumstances should it be toyed with in such abominable  fashion by those now entrusted with the leadership of our homeland Ghana.

The question is: Why has the president appointed a cynical, unprincipled, extremely partisan politician who is casual with the truth, to head Ghana's Forestry Commission?

Why make such an egregious square-peg-in-a-round-hole appointment for an organisation that if creatively-led by innovative minds will spearhead the transformation of rural Ghana into a thriving green pillar for our national economy?

Does the Akufo-Addo administration not realise that  rural Ghana can actually be transformed through carbon credit payments from nations with massive carbon footprints such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, seeking to neutralise their carbon footprints?

Do they not realize that their regime could actually persuade such nations to make regular annual  cash payments similar to that which Norway makes to Guyana to preserve its forests, to rural fringe-forest communities across the nation, to protect the remainder of our forests?

Ditto to indigenous-species-tree-planting agro-forestry  cooperatives made up of young people in the Ghanaian countryside - restoring degraded land ruined by illegal gold miners, illegal sand-winners and illegal loggers as a low-carbon sustainable development economic  activity?

President Akufo-Addo must revoke the appointment of John Owusu Afriyie as head of the Forestry Commission immediately - if the president really does care about the preservation of what is left of Ghana's natural heritage. This is a litmus text of his commitment to protecting forests in Ghana. Full stop.

The plain truth is that without question John Owusu Afriyie is totally unfit to head the Forestry Commission. He must not be allowed anywhere near that vital organisation - lest he contaminates it with his cynicism: and finally destroys  it with his foolish extremism and narrow-minded partisanship.

Hmm, Ghana empanin fuo, enti eyaa mu endwin kakraa, empo anaa? Ebeii. Haaba.