Pressure is mounting on Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to resign following the use of a chartered private jet by Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang—a move that contradicts a public pledge made by Ablakwa in 2022.
The controversy began after Vice President Opoku-Agyemang returned to Ghana from a two-month medical leave in the United Kingdom aboard a chartered Vistajet flight. Reports estimate the cost of the flight at over $170,000.
This development has reignited scrutiny of Ablakwa’s past statement made during an interview on Adom FM’s Burning Issues. At the time, Ablakwa criticized the then-government’s use of expensive private jets and pledged to resign if a future National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration engaged in similar actions.
His exact words were: “I don’t have anything against the president, but it’s about protecting the public purse, and I don’t expect a future NDC president to hire jets at such high cost. Some of us would resign; I wouldn’t want to be part of such a government.”
The return of the Vice President via a private chartered jet has drawn responses from political figures, including Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, former Deputy Minister of Education and current Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee. Fordjour called on Ablakwa to fulfill his own commitment, saying, “Okudzeto Ablakwa… do the noble thing and resign with immediate effect. You hang yourself with your words!”
As of now, Ablakwa has not responded publicly to the calls for his resignation. The situation continues to generate public debate over political accountability and consistency in leadership
