Looking calm and collected, Member of Parliament for Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency Kofi Amankwa-Manu appeared before the Appointments Committee as the second law maker from the constituency to be appointed as a minister.
Dr Mathew Kwaku Antwi was the first MP from the Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency, in the history of that political enclave, to be appointed as a deputy minister, at the Food and Agriculture, in the erstwhile John Agyekum Kufuor administration.
After 17 years of ‘appointment drought’, Kofi Amankwa-Manu broke the jinx when he had favour in the sight of the President of the Republic.
He goes down in the annals of political history, as the first MP from one of the largest and popular constituencies in the Ashanti Region to be appointed to one of most important public offices as Deputy Defence Minister.
Before his appointment, Mr Amankwa-Manu was a presidential staffer in charge of impact assessment at the Office of the President.
He won the 2020 Parliamentary Elections securing over 84 percent of votes, the highest in the constituency since 2000 and in the region, in nominal terms.
He is also the first-timer MP to have secured the most votes for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the history of the Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency.
As he sat for his vetting, thousands of his constituents monitored the proceedings.
One constituent told 3news.com “we have been waiting for this opportunity for long, we have never had any appointment since 2004”.
Another resident said: “I stopped work just to monitor his performance. I am not surprised he did not keep long at the vetting. He is very competent and I think the president made the right choice.”
By William Evans-Nkum|3news.com|Ghana