President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has heaped praises on minority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin for constantly making the Appointments Committee an exciting place to be.
According to him, Afenyo-Markin brings to life the vetting process and without him, the entire vetting process would have been very boring and rigid.
“Be honest, guys. But for Afenyo-Markin, this whole vetting would have been boring and we never would have known so much about the nominees,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
He described Chairman of the Committee, Bernard Ahiafor as a “the most rigid, unprepared and severely uninspiring.”
Franklin Cudjoe’s comments comes on the back of the abrupt ending of the vetting process of Deputy Minister of Justice nominee, Justice Srem-Sai.
Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice nominee, Justice Edem Srem-Sai appeared before vetting committee on Wednesday, February 26 2025.
Minority Leader, Afenyo-Markin took his turn with the nominee after Srem-Sai had spent over an hour answering questions from the various committee members.
What became he highlight of the vetting was when Afenyo-Markin took his turn with Justice Srem-Sai.
The minority leader after questioning the nominee about his hometown asked him to briefly demonstrate the ‘Akpi’ dance after the nominee ascribed to the dance as part of his tribe’s culture.
“Honourable Nominee, we are here to learn about our country, kindly demonstrate the Akpi dance for a bit, just for a second,” Afenyo-Markin asked the nominee.
In a sharp response, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor overruled Afenyo-Markin’s request asking Srem-Sai not to demonstrate the ‘Akpi’ dance.
He said the vetting procedure is not a forum for demonstrations but an Appointments Committee mandated to vet nominees.
“Honourable nominee, the question is overruled. You are not going to demonstrate,” Ahiafor stated.
Afenyo-Markin in response to the Chairman’s comments accused Ahiafor of rudely interrupting the proceedings, adding that the chair was acting “capriciously”.
“Chairman if you decide to be whimsical and capricious, it will not advance the work of this proceedings. Apart from the constitutional matters involved, it is also about our cultural. We’ve had nominees who have spoken their languages,” Afenyo-Markin remarked.
Bernard Ahiafor also took offense to Afenyo-Markin’s comment and demanded that he withdraw and apologise.
“Honourable Minority Leader I take offense to you saying I’m acting whimsical and capricious so I urge you to withdraw those words you use on me,” Bernard Ahiafor demanded.
But Afenyo-Markin vehemently refused and stood by his comment.
“Chairman, I will not withdraw. You were whimsical and capricious in the way you overruled my question. I will not withdraw, I am sorry,” Afenyo-Markin noted.
This caused the Chairman, Bernard Ahiafor to end the vetting unexpectedly by ordering the Minority Leader not to proceed with asking any question further.
“Well, to demonstrate to you that I am the Chairman of this particular vetting committee, that may be your last question,” Ahiafor declared.
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