Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says the nation can’t be fooled into believing that the Covid-19 team put together by the opposition National Democratic Congress was to fight a national cause and not to pursue a political agenda.
He observed that the NDC has even been engaging in “subtle jubilation” when Ghana’s case count goes up, affording them the opportunity to point to the public that the “government has failed”.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah told Stephen Anti, sit-in host of TV3’s The Key Points, Saturday, May 23, that the NDC’s Covid-19 team had regularly undermined government’s efforts.
He noted that Ghana is the only country in the world with the opposition party having its own Covid-19 response team alongside that of the state.
“It is now becoming clear that it was just a political exercise. Because it was an exercise to give them the platform to be taking hotshots at the state’s efforts and to be regularly attempting to undermine or critique or question what the state was doing even including the data that the scientists are putting out.”
He for instance cited the former president John Mahama’s facebook live sessions, which he said is consistently used to shift the nation’s attention from the substantive issue to delve into political banter.
“So let’s not be fooled anywhere, it was an attempt to politicize the matter, it drew out political responses from our side,” he stated.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah also suggested that it was apt for Vice President Dr. Bawumia to compare how the government is handling the coronavirus pandemic to the erratic power supply (dumsor) the country experienced under the Mahama-led administration.
“The vice president was justified in coming out with a strong checkmate,” he asserted.
He would not agree that President Akufo-Addo has himself been engaging in some level of politics in his regular address to the nation. “The president will do his politics in due time,” he said, insisting, Mr. Akufo-Addo is “not dabbling in partisan politics at this time”.
Meanwhile, the minister admitted that the NDC Covid-19 team submitted “materials” on the deadly pandemic that were forwarded to the government response team. This, he said, to reject concerns that the government team has not been engaging other interest groups, noting that the concern is “blatant untruth”.
By Isaac Essel | 3news.com