“We will always get our monies back,” these were the words of the Finance Minister on August 5 when he spoke to Accra-based Asaase Radio whiles addressing the botched Sputnik V vaccine deal.
Barely a week later, Ken Ofori-Atta is the subject of a Twitter hashtag calling for his resignation over the role of his ministry in making payments to a vaccine dealer based in the United Arab Emirates.
The #KenOforiAttaMustResign hashtag comes barely 24–hours after a similar one – #AgyemanManuMustResign – trended on Twitter calling for embattled Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, to quit.
For most of the Twitter users, the fact that the finance ministry made up to 50% payment for the now abrogated deal with the private office of Sheikh Dalmouk Al Maktoum, meant that Ofori-Atta was complicit in the mess created by his colleague minister.
Agyeman-Manu had told a Parliamentary Committee probing the Sputnik V scandal weeks ago, that to the best of his knowledge, no monies had been paid to the Sheikh’s office.
But the committee in its report late last week pointed out that 50% of the over 5 million dollars agreed for the supply of vaccines had been paid.
The revelation has triggered calls from the Minority caucus in parliament, social commentators and civil society groups for the minister to resign.
One of the few people to have defended Agyeman-Manu is the finance minister who tasked Ghanaians to be empathetic with his colleague whose actions he said were out of good faith.
“I kind of have listened to the argument and sort of on hindsight … I think there is so little empathy in appreciating what my colleague minister must have been going through.
“To be so unsympathetic to someone who felt like what can I do to ensure that there is continuity and to sit now comfortably …. I am empathyzing with him and I expect that others will realize the type of pressure that he was under and his commitment to ensure that the Ghanaian people are safe,” Ofori-Atta said.
Parliament has tasked Ofori-Atta to retrieve in excess of 16 million cedis Ghana paid to the vaccine contractor. The contractor has in correspondence with the Ministry of Health confirmed that he is ready to reimburse the country.
Below are some of the tweets calling for Ofori-Atta’s resignation
