Tagging government critics NPP is NDC strategy - MP

The Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee says it is a political strategy of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to smear all government critics.

Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu said this strategy of the NDC is designed to cower all critical masses and silence them into docility whilst it mismanages the country’s economy without being held accountable.

“In my work as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, I have met civil society people who have vowed not to talk because they will be tagged politically if they do,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for Dormaa Central was speaking on Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programe, Newsfile Saturday, July 25, 2015.

He was discussing the controversy generated by a meeting of eminent religious leaders and some leaders of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the residence of former president John Agyekum Kufuor.

The meeting was called by the former president to calm the raging tensions and rancorous disagreements in the opposition party.

The selection of the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, and the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle has generated controversy.

Presidential Staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak, just like many NDC spokespersons, said the three religious leaders have exposed their affiliation to the opposition party.

He said their acceptance to attend the meeting confirms long-held suspicions that they are adherents of the NPP.

Clement Apaak argued that it was no coincidence that the most ardent critics of the government’s actions have been these three leaders.

But Mr. Agyemang-Manu dismissed the assertions as nothing but the same old tired strategy of the NDC to discredit all major critical voices in the country and render them impotent by simply tagging them NPP.

There is no basis to call the eminent religious NPP simply because they were invited by former president Kufuor to mediate a dispute between members of the NPP.

“When I have a problem, I will go to my pastor or my priest,” so there is nothing strange about inviting religious leaders to mediate a disagreement between party members, he argued.

The Dormaa MP said, “The NDC knows that they have mismanaged the economy and have lost the confidence of the people so what they are interested in doing now is to say NPP is not ready for power.”

“The wish of the NDC that NPP disintegrates before the 2016 elections will never happen,” he asserted firmly.

More soon.