Alban Bagbin
EX-MINISTER of Communications in the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, has accused NDC presidential hopeful, Alban Bagbin, of telling lies to Ghanaians whilst seeking to clarify his recent comments against persons with disabilities.
Mr. Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo in the Upper West Region, who is scheming to upstage Mr. Mahama for the NDC presidential ticket, came under strong criticisms recently when, in criticizing the ministerial appointments of Mr. Mahama, he singled out Dr. Henry Seidu Danaa, former Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs as well as Omane Boamah as some of the factors that led the party to its shameful defeat at the polls in 2016.
The Nadowli-Kaleo MP also saw it wrong for an NDC MP, Okudzeto Ablakwa, whose university results were withheld for some time, to be appointed deputy education minister much to the chagrin of school heads.
Again, Mr. Bagbin pointed out that the appointment of Dr. Omane Boamah as communications minister was not the best because for him communication was not the best of portfolios for a stammerer.
The flag bearer aspirant on Tuesday, 28 August, 2018, organized a press conference to apologize to Ghanaians for his unsavory comments.
Mr. Bagbin said at the press conference: “I render my heartfelt apologies to you all. I want to take full responsibility for the indiscretion in going public with issues that should otherwise be private to the NDC. I have learnt that such disclosure could raise emotions among some sections of the Ghanaian society”.
Notwithstanding his apology, he seized the opportunity to clarify a few issues for the avoidance of doubt, and to allay any fears of discrimination or non-inclusive governance by certain groups of Ghanaians in the event that he was elected flag bearer and eventually president of the nation.
According to him, “For the records, I wish to state emphatically that I did not say persons with disabilities are not competent to be appointed to public offices or ministerial positions. Never! I didn’t say that.”
He explained: “What I said was that certain wrong decisions were made in placing or assigning some government appointees. That wrong placement cost the NDC some votes.”
The MP claimed that he mentioned the three ministers to illustrate his point and stated that they were all very brilliant and capable persons but they were assigned to inappropriate ministries.
“I never questioned the competence of the appointees of the NDC government. To the contrary, I praised them. I only questioned the wisdom in placing three of them in some designated ministries.”
But, responding to a tweet, Dr. Omane Boamah said the explanations by Mr. Bagbin were nothing but lies.
“Why can’t Hon. Bagbin just realize he cannot lie his way out of his mistake?” Dr. Omane Boamah quizzed sarcastically in his tweet to one of Ghana’s longest-serving MPs, Mr. Bagbin.
BY Melvin Tarlue