Robert Ahomka Lindsay
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay has offered an unqualified apology to Ghanaians over his “whining” comment.
It would be recalled that the deputy minister, who addressed the Diaspora Homecoming Summit at the Accra International Conference Centre last Thursday, told the Diasporans to stop “whining” about things not working in Ghana.
“Nobody likes whiners, people that spend all the time whining all the time really get on people’s nerves so stop whining,” the Deputy Minister said.
The comments angered some of the participants at the forum, one of whom asked “Who travels 3,000 miles to be a whiner?”
But Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay, in an apology letter issued a week later after the public backlash that greeted his comment, pointed out that his comments were not meant to offend Ghanaians.
“I wish to assure the people of Ghana and all those who have been offended by my comments that I did not in any way intend to sound offensive in my presentation,” he said in the statement.
“I refer to recent discussions on a 2 to 3-minute clip from my 14-minute speech given at the Ghana Diaspora meeting in Accra. The clip is a complete misrepresentation of the speech and taken completely out of context,” he explained.
According to the deputy minister in the statement, “I was asked to give my candid opinion on my experience as a Diaspora returnee and how I would advise others who intend to make a similar journey. My speech was in 5 parts: 1. Your approach to trying to get results in Ghana 2. What you should expect when you make the move to Ghana 3, the opportunities available for you in Ghana 4, the rewards for perseverance 5. The next steps.”
“The clip being shown referred to section 1 of the speech. Listening to it independent of the other three sections gives a completely different meaning to the speech I would implore all that want to get a true picture of my speech to look at it on You Tube: https://youtu.be/YbkQCoNgSBc,” he urged.
“None of my comments were meant to cast aspersions. They were an expression of my personal experience. I wish to assure the people of Ghana and all those who have been offended by my comments that I did not in any way intend to sound offensive in my presentation. I hold all Ghanaians in the greatest respect and would not in any way do or say anything that would impugn their integrity,” he added.
By Melvin Tarlue