Ambassador-at-large: I won't be a burden on public purse - Edward Mahama speaks on new role

He believes that his appointment is an opportunity to serve the nation.

Dr Edward Mahama, the newly-appointed Ambassador-at-large has said that his portfolio will not put any extra burden on the taxpayer.

“...I’m sure the president has calculated what I’m going to do for him and it is worth it and as I said, any opportunity, especially regarding the initial discussions I had with the president, for me, it’s good because I don’t think I would burden Ghana. I will be an Ambassador who will make things better for Ghana in whatever role he asks me to do. I’m not somebody who wants to burden Ghana at all,” the five-time flag bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC) told Accra-based Class FM.

He said that his appointment is “an opportunity for me to serve my nation like I have never done, and, so, yes every opportunity to serve for a Christian like me is an opportunity to meet up God and so I see this opportunity as one that is service first to God, second to Ghana and thirdly to President Akufo-Addo.”

The medical doctor, however, indicated that he will not make available to the public the specific role President Nana Akufo-Addo has asked him to play in his new portfolio.

“When I first discussed this with the president, he mentioned a specific area where he wants me to work, I won’t mention it on air and it’s an area that I feel passionately about and I said yes I would work with him. But Ambassador-at-large simply means that the president can send me anywhere – outside Ghana, inside Ghana to do what he thinks is in the interest of Ghana. And as I said, the opportunity to serve Ghana in this new role is one that I appreciate and I thank God and I thank the president for the opportunity,” he added.

 

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When asked if he had consulted the national executives of the PNC before taking up the president’s offer, Dr Mahama said: “I consulted with some individuals but I didn’t call the executives to say: ‘This is what is going on,’ but I talked to some individuals in the party and told them that because this particular position was more or less a national service than serving a particular party or administration, I thought it was appropriate that I will [take it] because people who don’t know me out there think that I have been refusing to serve in any capacity other than being a president.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday appointed the 72-year-old as an Ambassador-at-Large.

He is among 21 others who have been appointed to represent Ghana as diplomats in other countries.

 

As an ambassador-at-large, Dr Mahama will have special duties but not appointed to a particular country.

READ ALSO: PNC executives want 'sleeping' Mahama to resign

Mr. Rasheed Seidu Inusah has also been named Ambassador at Large.

The others who were also part of the 22 sworn in include former Attorney General, Ayikoi Otoo who is to represent Ghana in Canada, George Ayisi Boateng; South Africa and Mercy Bampoe Addo for Malta.

The rest are Salma Francess Mancell-Egala; Turkey, Paul Oko; Egypt, Kwasi Owusu Yeboa; Togo, Miss Sophia Horner-Sam; Netherlands, Mrs Amerleey Olennu; Denmark, Mrs. Elizabeth Salamtu; Namibia, Gen. Francis Adu-Amanfoh; Mali.

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