Jinapor: Frema Opare deserves another term as Chief of Staff

A former Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has eulogised his former boss for her exceptional leadership qualities in managing affairs at her office.

According to Mr Abu Jinapor, who is now the MP for Damongo in the Savannah Region, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei Opare, while serving as the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, maintained a cordial working chemistry with the office of the President and the Vice-President.

“I worked with the Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Frema Osei Opare. I was her deputy for four years, and I do know that she is a very diligent woman. She discharged her duties by paying attention to details and her work over the last four years speaks for itself,” he said.

Mr Abu Jinapor, who was speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen show yesterday, added: “Due to her humility, deep knowledge and understanding of national issues and her working relationship with the President and the Vice-President, the last four years of her work as Chief of Staff at the office of the President has been fruitful and she deserves to remain in office to continue her service to the President and the nation.”

Continuation

To this end, Mr Jinapor is pleading with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reconsider Mrs Osei Opare in his second term by maintaining her at the Office of President as Chief of Staff.

The call comes at a time President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is preparing to set up a new government.

Mr Jinapor believes his former boss deserves a second term in office for discharging her duties diligently and creditably during the first term administration of the President Akufo-Addo.

“I will be very surprised if President Akufo-Addo doesn’t maintain Honourable Akosua Frema Osei Opare in office,” he said.

He noted that throughout her tenure, Mrs Osei Opare took absolute charge of her office and established a strong working relationship with all appointees of the President.

He added that as the first female Chief of Staff in the history of the Fourth Republic, she kept the busy business of the Office of the President going without recording any scandal whatsoever in the first term of the Akufo-Addo administration.

Who is Frema?

Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare is a development consultant and a labour and employment expert, with 40 years of experience in these fields.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Science from the University of Ghana, and a Master’s degree in Foods, from the University of Guelph, Canada.

She was a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, from 1976-1982, and a consultant for the United Nations in the ‘Women in Fisheries’ programme in countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo, Kenya and Namibia. She was also Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment from 2005 to 2008, under the government of President John Agyekum Kufuor.

She was a two-term Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon.

She is married with four children.