Bagbin’s comments ‘Unacceptable’ – Rawlings

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has taken swipe at Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin over utterances which have the tendency to negatively affect the unity and cohesion of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Alban Babgin has fired salvos again, accusing former president John Mahama of appointing unqualified individuals to head sensitive positions during his tenure.

He specifically mentioned colleague MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, and Dr Edward Omane Boamah, as some people who were not fit to be selected for ministerial positions.

He told NDC delegates in the Volta Region last week that Okudzeto-Ablakwa, then Deputy Education Minister in charge of Tertiary, had ‘problems’ before he got his certificate from the university while Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah was a ‘stammerer,’ who should not have been the Communications Minister.

“We had very good materials in our last government but the placement was wrong. Look at my son-in-law Ablakwa -brilliant handsome young man but he had problems before he got his certificate at Legon. You recall they almost rusticated him” Bagbin fired.

He said “after he came to do his national service in Parliament and joined politics, he was made a Deputy Minister for Education in charge of Tertiary. (So far) the lecturers, what are you telling them? Some of these decisions affected us a lot.”

Bagbin described Dr. Omane Boamah as “an intelligent young man” but said his appointment was misplaced.

“I learned from tradition that it’s not the chief that speaks, it’s the linguist and so when you are a leader, you must have a very good linguist,” he said.

The Nadowli Kaleo MP in the Upper West region added that “when Prof (Atta Mills) was in power, Haruna Iddrisu was our linguist in charge of communications when my brother [Mahama] came to power, he substituted him for Dr. Omane Boamah, who is a natural stammerer.”

But Rawlings said comments by Alban Bagbin were unacceptable and contrary to the values and principles of the party.

He emphasized that the ongoing intraparty democratic processes taking place are meant to further deepen the democratic credentials of the party and indicated that the National Executive Committee of the Party will have to ensure the full application of the rules and regulations governing campaign utterances and electioneering.

He stated that “Such utterances have the tendency to negatively affect the unity and cohesion of the party.”