Features
Chief of Staff @ 75: Significance
There are many good managers the world over but what makes the managerial skills of the current Chief of Staff special is her unique skills in addressing the challenges that confront her at her current age of 75.
Her style of management is always characterised by patience, accommodation of views even if unpalatable, broad mindedness and motherly love. These are special qualities that have endeared her to personnel in the seat of government under the current political administration in the country.
Many a time, political administrators occupying the position of the Chief of Staff in the seat of government tend to think that they occupy a position that makes them very powerful and unchallengeable, thereby making them turn around as proud people who are sometimes found to look down upon those that are nowhere near them compared to the position of Chief of Staff. The position of Chief of Staff is very important in the sense that whoever occupies this position must be highly alert and ready to work with various segments in the Administration so as to be able to achieve unity of purpose.
BLENDING SEGMENTS TOGETHER
Without the ability to blend various segments together, it becomes difficult to pull various personnel along the common purpose of attaining the goal of the Administration. This is a skill that is required by the occupant of this position to make it possible for the attainment of organisation goals even under very difficult circumstances.
In the case of the current Chief of Staff, Hon. Akosua Frema Osei Opare, she has been able to unify the personnel around her and encouraged them to move ahead in unison. Her unique skills did not come by chance. Her experience as a social worker for the underprivileged in Ghana took her to various parts of the country to carry out NGO activities which were variously aimed at bringing improvement to people in deprived parts of the country.
HARDWORK
In addition, she fought hard to win the seat for Ayawaso West Wyoming and became a Member of Parliament to represent people in the area. Her humility, commitment and dedication to the lives of people as well as openness to all manner of people she came along with endeared her to her constituents. It, therefore, came as no surprise when she was appointed by former President J. A. Kufuor as a Deputy Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment from 2005 to 2008.
As part of her duties, she took part to ensure that the National Disability Law was developed, worked on and thoroughly discussed before it became law in this country. In this connection, she worked in various segments of society including the hearing impaired and all physically challenged persons as well as others like Albinos. Unknown to many people, she is very accommodative when it comes to opening up to underprivileged.
LAW ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITY
Today, the country can boast of a law for persons with disability. She had to own it as her own baby, running round Parliament, the Ministries as well as engaging other stakeholders in the country. She showed real love to all such people, that is, the underprivileged.
During preparations towards the 2016 elections, which was won by the NPP, she was found to be organising things for the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. So impressive were her administrative skills such that it came as no surprise that when President Akufo-Addo, having won the 2016 elections, found it necessary to appoint her as the first female Chief of Staff. This position has brought great honour to women in this country and they are all proud of her.
BEAUTIFUL PERSONALITY
In fact if her age had not been announced, it would have been difficult to guess how old she is. Looking at her beautiful personality, one is likely to take her for somebody who is around 50 years. May she continue, with the blessings of God, to remain “evergreen” at all times. What this means is that God has really blessed her with strength and skills that make it possible to go about her duties. It is her coolness of temperament, humility, patience and love for all that have endeared her to all those who come in contact with her. There are many people who are very boastful and proud due to some positions they hold such as being head of institution. In the case of our current Chief of Staff, we are proud of her because of her unique humility, love for the underprivileged and readiness to mingle with other people.
Her duties as government official is characterised by hardwork. She finds herself to be working with a very hardworking president who goes to the office very early and leaves late. She’s capable and is able to cope with all the challenges that come her way as an administrator at the seat of government. She has lived up to expectation and therefore deserves all the praises that come her way. Aside all these, her belief in the Almighty God is firm and does not waver under any circumstance or challenging situations that come her way. As a strong Christian, she believes that being prayerful is good since it is only the Almighty God who helps people to make achievements in life.
DUES
At the age of 75, Madam Frema Osei Opare has fully paid her dues and serves as a good example for young people, especially for women who are coming up.
She has been a source of inspiration not only to women in Ghana but beyond the country. We therefore pray that the Almighty God will bless and continue to guide her in all her endeavours so as to assist the current administration to move the country forward and to a higher pedestal of development.
Contact email/whatsApp address of author:
Pradmat2013@gmail.com (0553318911)
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
