That is how an inventive and more progressive editor would have captioned the Adomonline.com article reporting the appearance of Ms. Gloria Akuffo, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice-Designate, before the Parliamentary Appointments Committee (PAC) – (See “I Have Always Been Single – Gloria Akuffo” Ghanaweb.com 1/22/17). She is a quite attractive woman by any measure or stretch of the imagination, as it were. But even more significantly, she is also definitely brainy, experienced and qualified for the job. And that is what the article ought to have stressed.
But, of course, she would not be the very first woman to be appointed to the job. At least two other women have preceded her, both of whom served under the National Democratic Congress. Nevertheless, Gloria Akuffo, Esq., has the singular distinction of being the senior-most female appointee to the post of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. She also appears to be the one with the most qualitative experience working within the country’s judicial system. Plus, even more significantly, she does not come with the reputational blight, or baggage, of the Woyome Scandal, although she has pledged to push and pull every lever within her authority and influence to ensure that Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome make good on his promise to return his loot to where it had been taken, our public treasury.
If she is successful in doing so, such success would add gloriously to her already quite impeccable reputation. But what actually drew my attention and interest to this story was Ms. Akuffo’s statement, to the Parliamentary Appointments Committee, that she has a special interest in concubinage “because I have 2 children but have never been married.” It would have been enlightening if at least one or two members of the PAC had followed up with a request for her to explain the circumstances under which the Attorney-General Designate decided to have two children out of wedlock; for in our kind of culturally conservative society, the unwed, or unmarried, mother is almost invariably not looked upon favorably. For instance, she could have highlighted the fact that most Ghanaian men do not look kindly or considerately towards a highly driven and talented woman who is poised to having it “both ways,” as it were.
She could still initiate a national dialogue on gender inequity and how this problem impacts the career development and success of Ghanaian women, and what needs to be done by way of devising mutually acceptable solutions. On the latter count, I see Ms. Akuffo working closely with her counterpart in the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs and Gender Protection, or whatever the latter cabinet portfolio is called these days. I also wanted to push matters a little bit more in order to fully appreciate precisely what she means, when the Attorney-General Designate uses the quite loaded terminology of “concubinage.”
For example, does it mean that Ms. Akuffo cohabited with the single male partner by whom she delivered her two adult children, or it was with a married man on whose hapless wife she callously and selfishly sponged like a parasite, especially since in introducing her to the public, President Akufo-Addo is reported to have described his nominee for Attorney-General and Minister of Justice as one with “a very strong ethical approach to issues of law and social responsibility.”
Still, one cannot debate the fact that Ms. Akuffo is delectably single and immensely successful. But even more than that, she just well may turn out to be the most astute and best qualified woman to have served as the Government’s Chief Lawyer. Perhaps even the best Minister of Justice ever, man or woman.
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