Meet The First Female Deputy Majority Leader Of Ghana’s Parliament
The news may come to you as a surprise but that is the reality. For the time in the history of Ghana, a female has been appointed as the Deputy Majority Leader of the Parliament of Ghana.
A young vibrant woman representing the people of Dome-Kwabenya in the Greater Accra Region, Sarah Adwoa Safo, got the nod to deputize her boss, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, to lead the Majority Caucus of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made up of 171 lawmakers for the seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic which will be constituted on Saturday, January 7, 2017.
This follows the massive endorsement of the list of five leaders for the Majority front which was submitted to the Council of Elders of the elephant family for consideration and approval on Thursday, January 5, 2017.
Sarah Adwoa Safo alongside Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu will be working hand-in-hand with Kwasi Ameyaw-kyeremeh, MP for Sunyani East (Majority Chief Whip), Moses Anim, MP for Trobu (1st Deputy Majority Whip) and Matthew Nyindam, MP for Kpandai to stir the affair of the Majority Caucus.
The vibrant young lawmaker who is a lawyer by profession has been very active in deliberations ever since she entered into Parliament of Ghana on January 7, 2013 to be part of the history making process of parliamentary democracy.
Her appointment may come to many with a question mark, considering the fact that she has been a lawmaker for only one term, thus just four years, and therefore, has not gained enough experience in parliamentary work to occupy such a sensitive position.
But the young lawyer deserves the position having contributed immensely to the success story of the NPP, especially, in the last two elections the party has competed in.
Besides winning more votes for the party, her contribution in the legislature has been very remarkable. Her dynamism in debating issues with her colleagues on the floor has always been admired by her peers. She has distinguished herself very well in Parliament and at the constituency level.
Her in-depth knowledge in procurement has made her an expert in that field. No wonder procurement related issues are always reserved for her to probe Public Accounts Committee sittings.
Profile
Lawyer Sarah Adwoa Safo is a legal practitioner and a daughter of Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo, one of Ghana's reowned technologist, philanthropist and industrialist.
She started her basic education under the tutelage of her father. At age 17 she entered the University of Ghana after passing her Ordinary and Advanced Levels' General Certificate of Examination Certificates non-formally.
At the University of Ghana, Adwoa studied law and graduated with a Bachelor of Law (L.L.B.) degree in 2002. She then continued to the Ghana School of Law and was called to the Bar in October 2004 at the age of 22, making her the youngest lawyer ever to be called to the Ghana Bar. This record she held and still holds in the annals of the Ghana School of Law.
At the University of Ghana , Adwoa was the Vice President of the LawBallot pix Student's Union (LSU) for the year 2001-2002 academic tear, a position she held to the admiration of the then Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Akua Kwenyehia. She was also a member of the Volta Hall Judicial Committee from 2001-2002.
Lawyer Adwoa Safo did not stop there. She continued to the George Washington University Law School in United States where she obtain a Masters of Law Degree (LLM) in Government Procurement in 2005. She worked briefly with the office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Washington DC in the United States and thereafter returned to Ghana to serve her nation.
She was the first legal advisor to the Legal Department of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA). She further acted as the secretary to the board and advised the Board and the secretariat on legal issues.
She was instrumental in the formulation of the proposal that formed the basis for the creation of the Appeal and Compliant Panel of the PPA and the change in the name Public Procurement Board to Public Procurement Authority.
She contested the Dome-Kwabenya constituency on the ticket of the NPP during the December 2012 parliamentary election and won with a sterling 63.75%.
Her victory revealed the concorted electoral burglary and a revelation of electoral irregularities, pink sheet swap and voter number manipulation which has resulted in the historical Election Petition Hearing by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Source: kasapafmonline