DEPUTY MINISTER of Information Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah has been told to admonish President Mills to crack the whip on his ministers who have made insulting people their stock in trade.
Ernest Owusu Bempah, Director of Operations for FONKAR, said if Mr. Okudzeto knows how to advise people to stop being insulting, then he should first give that advice to President Mills.
According to him, several ministers in the present NDC administration have been insulting the elderly in society like Messrs Kufuor and Rawlings but the president seems not to care.
He told President Mills that remaining silent whenever his ministers subject people to verbal insults makes him culpable of sanctioning those insults.
Mr. Okudzeto is reported to have advice members of ‘Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’ (FONKAR) that subjected the presidency to various insults during the campaign period for the NDC congress to apologize to President Mills now that the event is over.
Reacting to the reports, Mr. Owusu Bempah in a chat with Kessben Fm from his base in Germany said FONKAR member do not owe anybody, including President Mills any apologies.
Sounding irked about Mr. Okedzeto’s comments, he said “he Okudzeto with that big mouth that has been insulting former President Rawlings and his family without any provocation is now telling us to apologize to President Mills?
With his loud mouth, he insults the elderly under the watchful eyes of President Mills who has so far failed woefully to caution any of his ministers that have made insults a part of them.”
He said since the NDC took office in 2009 several ministers including Okudzeto, Koku Anyidoho and Kobby Acheampong have been insulting elderly and respected people like Messrs Kufuor and Rawlings for no apparent reason.
Shockingly, President Mills has been acting as if he is not aware of what his ministers have been doing he said adding “and this has given people like Okudzeto the motivation to insult anybody.”
The FONKAR top executive said the first person in Ghana that needs advice with regards to what the country should do to stop the incessant insults that have taken over the political landscape is President Mills.
Mr. Bempah said President Mills should quickly disassociate himself from the insults being peddling by his ministers by sternly dealing with them publicly “and I think Okudzeto can pass on this information to President Mills.”
He denied speculation that he left FONKAR and moved to Germany after Nana Konadu lost the NDC presidential race, stressing that there is no bad blood between him and the former first lady.
On the contrary, he explained that he rushed to Germany after the congress to attend to some pressing issues, adding that he and Nana Konadu have been talking via telephone on a daily basis since his departure.
Mr. Bempah said the Sunyani loss was not the end of FONKAR, saying the group would reorganize and come back strongly and take over the party’s presidential seat in 2016.
He said KONKAR would start by appealing to the NDC hierarchy to enlarge the base of delegates that would exercise their franchise during the congress before the next party flag bearer was elected.
But for the intimidation and buying of votes, he said there is no way that President Mills could have defeated Nana Konadu.
According to him the loss by Nana Konadu does not mean President Mills is so popular among the party’s grassroots. He warned people like Okudzeto not to be carried away by that victory “because only 3000 people who are just a fraction of the party voted at the congress.”
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi