The former chair of Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has raised strong objections to the accelerated timeline for vetting three ministerial nominees put forward by President John Dramani Mahama.Osei-Owusu criticized the short notice issued on January 9, 2025, which allocated just four days before the vetting exercise on January 13, 2025.

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He argued that such a hastened schedule undermined the transparency and inclusiveness necessary for thorough public involvement in the process.The former Bekwai legislator and erstwhile First Deputy Speaker of the 8th Parliament described the decision as an administrative oversight, stressing that the truncated timeline deprived key stakeholders, including citizens, of an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the vetting process.

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“I would have thought that [a] minimum [of] one week at best or two weeks [is given] to allow people who have issues and wanted to bring them out to the committee to enable them to do that, but I did not see any publication whatsoever. So I was surprised, and I think it was the wrong step.

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“The reason we call that a public hearing is that we want to afford the opportunity for the public to participate in it, not because it is in public, but because we want to afford the public the opportunity to participate in it if there is a way.“I thought that it was needless, hasty, and indecent to go through with this one.”

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