GenCED condemns Afenyo-Markin over treatment of Nana Yaa Jantuah at NPP petition presentation

The Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCED) has criticised Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin over his interaction with Presidential Staffer Nana Yaa Akyenpim Jantuah during the presentation of a petition by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), injecting a gender and institutional-respect dimension into an already contentious political episode.

The controversy emerged from the NPP’s “Democracy Under Attack” demonstration on Thursday, August 6, after the Presidency designated Ms Jantuah to receive the opposition party’s petition on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama.

Mr Afenyo-Markin, who led the NPP delegation, objected to the level of representation offered by the Presidency. He argued that considering the senior political figures participating in the demonstration and the gravity of the issues contained in the petition, a more senior official should have been assigned to receive it.

GenCED, however, said the episode went beyond disagreement over protocol and raised broader concerns about how women occupying public and administrative positions are treated when exercising official authority.

In a statement issued on Friday and signed by Executive Director Esther Tawiah, the organisation stressed that political disagreement should not diminish the respect accorded to an official carrying out an assigned responsibility.

“Regardless of political differences or disagreements, all public officials deserve to be treated with dignity and respect while carrying out their official responsibilities,” GenCED said.

A dispute over office, gender and protocol

At the heart of the controversy is a distinction that could prove important to the public debate: whether Mr Afenyo-Markin’s objection was principally directed at Ms Jantuah as an individual and woman, or at the Presidency’s decision concerning the seniority of the official sent to receive the petition.

The NPP has maintained that its objection concerned the latter.

The party’s position is that a delegation comprising senior opposition figures deserved to be received by an official whose rank reflected what it considered the seriousness of the petition. Mr Afenyo-Markin has subsequently shared footage of former Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson raising a comparable objection during a previous opposition demonstration, apparently seeking to demonstrate that concerns about the rank of officials receiving political petitions are not unprecedented.

That defence complicates attempts to interpret the confrontation exclusively through the lens of gender.

GenCED nevertheless argues that political leaders have a particular responsibility to ensure disagreements over protocol do not translate into language or behaviour capable of diminishing women exercising public authority.

The organisation warned that comments perceived as belittling a woman carrying out an official assignment could reinforce longstanding stereotypes surrounding women’s competence and authority in Ghanaian public life.

“Political leaders have a responsibility to model respectful engagement and contribute to building a political culture that values inclusion, equality, and institutional respect,” it said.

Jantuah says she felt disrespected

Ms Jantuah has herself strongly objected to the Minority Leader’s comments, arguing that she was not at the event in her personal capacity but as an official representative of the President.

“I’m so mortified that you could stand there and look in the face of a woman and tell that woman she is nobody. I just cannot comprehend what happened,” she told Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen.

Her response shifts part of the debate from formal political protocol to the symbolic authority delegated to public officials.

In most administrative systems, an official assigned to receive a document on behalf of a superior does not necessarily possess the same institutional rank as the person who delegated the responsibility. The important question is whether that official has been properly authorised to perform the task.

Ms Jantuah therefore maintains that the substantive focus should have been the contents of the opposition’s petition rather than the identity or perceived rank of the person selected by the Presidency to receive it.

Political symbolism matters

There is, however, another side to the dispute. Political demonstrations are highly symbolic events, and the official selected to receive a petition can itself communicate how seriously an administration appears to regard the protesters and their demands.

Opposition parties may consequently interpret the deployment of a relatively less senior official as an attempt to downgrade the political importance of their action.

That makes the dispute partly one of political signalling rather than simply personality or gender.

The challenge for Ghana’s political leadership is separating legitimate objections over protocol from rhetoric that can be interpreted as a personal attack on the official assigned to perform the function.

This distinction is particularly important as Ghana attempts to expand women’s participation in political and public leadership. Greater representation alone may have limited effect if women occupying positions of authority continue to encounter assumptions that their presence requires additional justification.

GenCED’s intervention therefore places the incident within the wider debate about political culture rather than treating it as an isolated exchange.

“Respect for women in leadership is not a partisan matter; it is a democratic imperative,” the organisation said.

The episode also illustrates the increasingly adversarial environment surrounding Ghanaian politics, where disagreements about procedure can rapidly evolve into disputes over gender, dignity, precedent and partisan conduct.

For both government and opposition, the longer-term issue may be establishing clearer norms for receiving petitions following major political demonstrations. Such conventions could reduce disputes over representation and allow attention to remain on the substantive demands being presented.

Ultimately, GenCED’s intervention asks political actors to recognise that institutional disagreement and respectful engagement are not mutually exclusive. Opposition parties retain the right to question the government’s handling of political events, while officials assigned to represent the state are entitled to perform those responsibilities without being personally diminished.

The test for Ghana’s political culture is whether those two principles can coexist.