George Ayisi Boateng, Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa

Ayisi Boateng’s comment doesn’t make sense – KB Asante

Isaac Yeboah Politics Nov - 01 - 2017 , 09:01 2 minutes read

Retired Diplomat, KB Asante has suggested that Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, George Ayisi Boateng deserves to be reshuffled away from his post to afford him chance to learn proper diplomatic behaviour.

In a brief reaction on Citi FM Wednesday to Ayisi Boateng’s concession to seek the interest of New Patriotic Party (NPP) members first ahead of other nationals because to him, NPP members who voted the party into power are more Ghanaian than the rest, KB Asante said the high commissioner’s comment doesn’t make sense, “with all due respect.”

“No Ghanaian is more Ghanaian than another. We are all Ghanaians with a Head of State who we elect and he is no more a head of state for Ashantis than for Kwahus and so on. We should get this cardinal point through otherwise the country will go to rot. All that the high commissioner is saying, with all due respect, it doesn’t make sense. He is there for all Ghanaians. The head of state is there for all Ghanaians. President Akufo-Addo is not there for his party people, he is there for all of us. Until we recognize this cardinal principle, the country will drift. And the earlier the high commissioner and all representatives of Ghana realise that they have been appointed to work for the good of Ghana and not for one particular party, we shall be in difficulties.”

According to KB Asante, how the erring diplomat is handled depends on the appointing authority but that he would have moved him away from South Africa to another country so he could learn the nuances of the job.

Mr. KB Asante wondered what sort of training the government offers its envoys these days and recalled how 10 of them were offered training abroad upon their appointment by the Nkrumah administration. KB Asante said he was only a school head then.

But he does not agree that Ayisi Boateng should be recalled and benched altogether, saying if we go on removing the envoys for their faux pas, we will end up without any.

Several calls for the removal of Ayisi Boateng have followed his comments to members of the NPP’s students wing, the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON), since it became public, but the man has vehemently been defending his comments, saying he has done nothing wrong.