The recently passed Frances Awurabena Asiam, the outgoing managing director of the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited (GCMCL), has accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of betraying her in a dispute over Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh’s appointment as energy minister. The dispute ultimately led to her resignation.
In an interview with Yeah FM after announcing her resignation on February 23, 2022, Madam Asiam claimed that the circumstances surrounding her decision to step down demonstrated the unreliability of politicians.
“Politicians, politicians in generic terms should not be trusted and cannot be trusted… the reason being that they do not respect loyalty and the reason being that they feel too big. Their egos overrun and overtake them,” she said in an interview with Okay FM’s Kwame Nkrumah Tikese monitored by GhanaWeb.
In another interview with Accra-based UTV, Madam Asiam said she does not want to have anything to do with the Akufo-Addo government going forward although she remains a member of the New Patriotic Party.
“I thank the president but what I want to tell Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is that loyalty which is not respected is not worthwhile and my party and my parting words to the primus inter pares of the Republic of Ghana is that a government or a nation that does not respect its heroes or heroines is not worth following. This is what I have to say to the president.
“For Nana Akufo-Addo, I’ve finished with him. I don’t have any issues to talk out with him, he should not call me. He should take his cylinder (company) I will also find my way. I am a private individual, from now a consultant. I am an international consultant and it is God who takes care of all humans not Nana Addo,” she added.
Awurabena Asiam has blamed the minister of energy for her resignation.
While accusing the minister of meddling in her work, she said GCMCL had partnered with another government agency for its ongoing expansion project but the minister had unilaterally decided to bring in another agency in place of the government agency.
Awurabena Asiam added that she had a huge fight with Dr Opoku Prempeh over his decision at a retreat over the weekend and warned that she will resign if the move happens.