Respected media organization, Joy FM, an organization that the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah once worked with for several years may well be in a debacle of some sort, when in a news report on its renowned online portal, reported that. Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah had indicated that Ghanaians are to pay for the free provision of water and electricity that we enjoyed in the heat of Covid-19 infections.
On the back of calls for freebies with respect to water and electricity usage to help ease the pressure of Covid-19 by majority of Ghanaians and especially by John Mahama, the President Akufo-Addo had in April 2020, announced a free utility package for the vulnerable in the country to lessen the virus’ negative impact following the lockdown restrictions.
The Information Minister, Hon. Nkrumah was a guest on the stations PM: Express and had made the remarks that “It was free to the people of Ghana at the time,” because the pandemic was severe at the time and the government had to improvise for the country’s well-being, but added that, it came at a cost that has to be repaid by Ghanaians, “When we say free electricity it doesn’t mean that the Independent Power Producers (IPP) were also going to say because the President has said free electricity I won’t charge for it.”
He said that, “the liabilities we have incurred has to be paid for,” insisting that, the 19 billion cedis incurred expenses therefore has to be paid for at some point, “so I am going back to Ofoasi to explain to my people why we need to ensure that we all pay that 1% extra so that we can continue to provide those services for the people of Ghana to protect lives and livelihoods,” he added.
This, according to him, will help ameliorate the economy and bridge the gap between the country’s income and expenditure, as this will be a move to free us from our economic woes as to “get our people collectively across the divide to understand that at some point, we have to get out of this economic one-step-forward half-a step-back, sometimes one step forward, two steps backwards conundrum in which we find ourselves and to do that, we cannot consistently borrow our way out of our problems, domestic resource mobilization has to be tweaked and it has to be done in a way that you can raise resources without overburdening the people.” He said.
However, the NDC’s Former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson is rather of the view that, the government has been reckless with its expenditure and that is the reason for the high monies spent on the Covid-19 so far.
The Assistant Political Science Lecturer t the University of Ghana, Prof. Yaw Gyampo has however in a candid way, termed these comments as amateurish from the experienced journalist and advocates that, he must show some form of maturity together with his already acknowledge oratory skills to be able to comment properly about the budget. In his Facebook post today, he wrote that: “You can be an orator in explaining and speaking for government. But oration without maturity in political communication, is a needless noise that mocks you in the minds of not the unlettered, but the discerning in society. Some explanations to the Government Budget lines are simply amateurish. They can be explained better when maturity is allowed to blend with oration. He who the cap fits should soberly wear this, in order not to create more communication liabilities.”
This together with social media commentary has been increasing and has therefore attracted this hard backlash, rather on the renowned media house by one, Charles Opoku, who is the Eastern Regional TESCON Coordinator. In a response widely published online, he comes to the defence of his fellow NPP communicator writing that,
“Yesterday, Joy News published a story on its website with the title “Ghanaians to pay tax for COVID-19 ‘Free Water’ enjoyed to fill the economic gap” and falsely attributed it to the Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah ostensibly to give a propaganda message to the NDC to unduly attack the government as we have seen them do since the story was published.
At the outset, it must be stated that the story is misleading and does not capture the comments of the Minister within the exact context he made them, thereby giving a false impression altogether. Let me hasten to add that this unprofessional conduct of misreporting the Minister has been a persistent ploy by Joy News to cause undue disaffection for the Government and the Honorable Minister has complained about this severally yet Joy News has been adamant about it.”
This will not be the first time the Honourable Member, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is receiving such backlash though, for his work of communication, for which he has received much praises for also. During the election petition, NDC’s Lawyer Adawudu was of the opinion that, some level of court room experience was required before communicators could communicate appropriately on the apex body’s court proceedings, which was a direct attack on how in his opinion, Kojo Nkrumah was skewing his commentary from same, at some points in time.
In same petition hearing hearing for instance, he had alleged that, if NDC intended to subpoena the EC Chair, the NPP will also be forced to subpoena John Dramani Mahama and this made the headlines severally, but from the arguments the next day in court even before the courts judgement, it was shown clearly and understood by both lawyers for the NDC and NPP that, someone who is a party to the case cannot be subpoenaed.
I will not draw any conclusions myself, with these facts laid bare here, please draw your own and write your comments as well.
