A fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Kwaku Sarpong Asiedu has raised concerns about the criteria used by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in awarding Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mavis Hawa Koomson, at the 2024 National Honours and Awards Ceremony.

In an interview on Joy News on Tuesday, December 31, 2024, he criticised the practice of honouring individuals without clear and independent criteria, which he believes promotes mediocrity.

He questioned the logic behind selecting award recipients from the same political circle, describing this as a form of "groupthink" that leads to poor choices.

"Hawa Koomson's citation made me cringe. If what they read was really what Mavis Hawa Koomson had done, do you think the voters would have kicked her out the way they did? Sometimes we should not insult the intelligence of Ghanaians. If someone has done as well as the citation implies, I doubt any sane voter would vote that person out of government," he noted.

He argued that rewarding mediocrity can prevent individuals from striving to achieve excellence.

"If you reward mediocrity, people stew in their mediocrity and think they are good enough. Unfortunately, based on what we have seen in this country, a lot of the people who were awarded, especially those who occupied key positions, were just not good enough," he explained.

He stressed the need for an independent national awards committee to ensure fair and transparent criteria, thus preventing future cases of perceived mediocrity being rewarded.

"Maybe we might have to have a national awards committee that is constituted either on a yearly basis or if it's on a four-yearly basis, or when a particular incident like COVID has happened or someone has distinguished themselves because let me go back briefly to what Emefa said that they were rewarding the office," he stated.

He further drew on an analogy from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, noting how Carter's initial poor performance as president was redeemed after stepping away from the office and learning from his failings.

"I'm quite sure we are all aware that former United States President Jimmy Carter has passed away and he is perceived as one of the greatest statesmen the world ever produced and a Nobel Prize winner. But you also know that he's perceived as one of the poorest presidents America ever produced.

"True. Why am I making this analogy? He learned from his failings as a president to become a better statesman and an even better, what you call, philanthropist and as a result redeemed himself. If he had been awarded when he was such a bad president after the Iran disaster and all those things and having been soundly beaten by Ronald Reagan in a landslide because he occupied the office of the President of the United States of America," he added.

Kwaku Aseidu called for a more rigorous, independent system to evaluate candidates for national honors, arguing that rewarding mediocrity hinders progress and encourages complacency.

"Unfortunately, based on what we have seen in this country, a lot of the people who were awarded, especially those who were occupied political office were just not good enough. And we need to say it as it is. If someone presided over the depletion of our forest reserves, pollution of our water bodies, if someone supervised over our country going to the IMF on a stretcher, I don't think the person deserves a national award," he noted.

On Monday, December 30, 2024, President Akufo-Addo presented awards to some Ghanaians for their meritorious services, hard work, sacrifices, and contribution to national development.

JKB/MA

Watch as Ghanaians reflect on 2024 and share their expectations for 2025 below: