As the controversy over the payments of salaries to spouses of the President and the Vice President as well as former presidents and vice presidents rages on, wife of the Vice President, Samira Bawumia, who is one of the people at the center of this controversy, seems unperturbed as she goes about her duties as Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana.
On Friday, July 9, 2021, she announced, on social media, her participation in the Heritage and Cultural Society of Africa (HACSA) 2021 Virtual Sankofa Summit where she delivered an address on the theme “Bridging the gap: Geographic, Linguistic, Cultural”.
The Second Lady indicated that, as part of her address, she advocated for the preservation and further development of the African culture and heritage through research and shared knowledge.
“I had the honour of addressing the Heritage and Cultural Society of Africa (HACSA’s) 2021 Virtual Sankofa Summit, on the theme, “Bridging the gap: Geographic, Linguistic, Cultural”. I advocated for our culture and heritage to be safeguarded and further developed through research and shared knowledge,” she stated.
Samira Bawumia and the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo have become the talk of town following the approval of a recommendation by the Ntiamoa-Baidu Committee on Emoluments for the payment of salaries to spouses of the president and vice president as well as spouses of former presidents and vice presidents.
The committee which was set by President Akufo-Addo in 2019 recommended that spouse of a sitting president be paid salaries equivalent to that of a cabinet minister who is a Member of Parliament and the payment is to take retrospective effective, as a result, the current First Lady is to be paid salary arrears amounting to over GHS1.5 million.
For the spouse of a sitting Vice President, the committee recommended that they will be paid salaries equivalent to that of a cabinet minister who is not an MP and it is also to be backdated to 2017 and thus, the current Second Lady is due to be paid salary arrears to the tune of a little over GHS1. 5 million.
But the people of Ghana, who are to bear this expenditure, are vehemently kicking against the decision. They argue that the recommendation is preposterous and has no legal basis since the spouses of the President and the Vice President are not government officials.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, however, refuted claims that the committee recommended the payment of salaries to the spouses of the President and the Vice President. He clarified that the recommendation is for the formalization of the payment of allowances which was instituted by the Kufuor’s administration and not the payments of salaries.
Meanwhile, different lawsuits have been filled at the Supreme Court challenging the recommendation and its approval.
