Naa Momo Lartey
Those who are entrusted with the running of the affairs of this country on behalf of the President of the Republic must do so with dedication and without discrimination.
Government appointees who are unable to live according to the foregone principles must resign their appointments.
Eyes are watching how such appointees discharge their duties on behalf of the President.
A few weeks ago, over a dozen kids perished in a road accident and their mass burial broke many hearts. We pray that God grant the bereaved families the fortitude to bear the loss.
Since the accident occurred, the Gender and Children’s Minister has not deemed it necessary to express condolences to the bereaved families let alone visit them to console them.
The silence has been deafening. The apathy was a subject of discussion in a section of the media, and we thought that offered an opportunity for the minister to remember that she had goofed and to make amends laced with apologies. She still did not do so.
On Friday, the minister, following the fatal helicopter accident which claimed eight lives, penned a statement.
It is regrettable that the statement downplayed the death of the kids, consigning it to a latter portion of the correspondence.
In any case, the helicopter accident and the perished persons should not have been bungled with the kids as the Gender Minister’s statement did.
Each of the two incidents required separate statements so that one does not overshadow the other.
We consider the action of the minister as irresponsible. She should have done more to show that she is the sector minister for the affairs of children in the country.
Any life lost is a painful thing for the whole nation. Even as we therefore mourn the eight public and military officers, let us not forget the children as the minister did.
Wouldn’t the parents think that their children are less important than the others?
We should not in anyway create the impression during such times that some lives are better than others.
The minister’s behaviour in the matter of the death of the kids and her belated reference to it in passing smacks of discrimination and ‘eye service’.
She simply wants to be counted among those who have expressed condolences, and in doing so her conscience hit her for not doing same for the kids who died in a tragic accident.
During such difficult times, the shortcomings and goodness of people come to the fore; the indifference of the minister being a case in point.
We are constrained to also call out the name of the Vice President, who as a mother of the nation should have also expressed condolences to the parents of the kids and the nation in general. The pain of the bereaved families of the departed kids should be shared by all Ghanaians. And what better way to have our compatriots join in such grief sharing than getting the Vice President to express condolences to the bereaved families or even visiting them or dispatching a delegation to them.