How Akufo-Addo fought against asset declaration requirement for spouses of Article 71 officials

According to him, the President who was then a Parliamentarian argued spouses could not have known that their partner would end up in a high office at the time they got married. It would therefore be unfair to subject them to the hazards of an assets declaration regime.

However, the same person after several years seems to have changed his stance as his government wants to put his spouse and that of his Vice in the sake rank as a Cabinet Ministers.

“I recall that I entered the 4th Republican Parliament in the same year as President Nana Akufo-Addo. As a young MP, I remember we debated an amendment to the Assets Declaration Law to expand its ambit. One of the groups targeted for addition was spouses of public office holders including the President, Vice President, Ministers among others.

Leading those who vehemently opposed the inclusion of spouses was President Akufo-Addo. I remember one of the main thrusts of his argument was that a spouse could not have known that their partner would end up in high office at the time they got married. It would therefore be unfair to subject them to the hazards of an assets declaration regime (it would be in the Hansard somewhere).

“Have the chickens come home to roost? A spouse may not have known that their partner would end up in high office at the time of marriage, so would it not be unfair to bestow upon them salaries as part of their husband’s emoluments in office?”