A Gaffe, An Apology

A rare exemption was granted to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, when she took her turn at the quizzing session of the Public Accounts Committee.

Information has it that the decision was not objected to by the Minority in Parliament, and the reason had to do with a so-called expression deficiency in the working language of the House. That was an interesting precedent.

In future, when a Presidential nominee for a top public office feigns such an excuse, there is a ready precedent to fall on.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, besides English language deficiency, lacks unfortunately the finesse and subtlety of public speaking.

While addressing the issue of construction without permits or doing with questionable authorisation after a mass demolition, she insulted people from the North.

Of course it is insulting to our compatriots from this part of the country when transfers to the North is done as a punitive action for wrongdoing.

Although she could not talk in front of her quizzers in Parliament where she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for several years, she could nonetheless describe the North with such contempt.

An apology for the nonsensical remark? Hell no. This is unacceptable in a country where we should all work towards building national cohesion.

Government officials have been transferred to the North because they issued permits for construction at locations which should be spared structures, such punitive reactions is a disingenuous thing to be said by a public officer such as a regional minister.

As top government official, we are tempted to believe that it is a decision by the ruling authorities to order transfers of persons seen not to belong to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The foregone is hinged upon verifiable premises. Dr. Gideon Boako, MP for Tano North and spokesperson for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has a wife who works at the Bank of Ghana. Some powers at the apex bank with NDC appendages decided that she should be punished because her husband does not belong to the ruling party. She was transferred to the North, detached from her husband, as punishment.

A mining consultant, Ing. Wisdom Gomashie, who speaks against anomalies in the mining sector, deserves punishment too for his steadfastness on the subject; his wife has been transferred to the North at her place of work in a state agency.

The regional minister's remark was not a slip as her apology sought to claim; she only slipped by letting out a decision taken by government when punitive actions are decided for erring government officials without NDC cards.

It can only be imagined if the so-called slip had been made by a New Patriotic Party (NPP) person. A weeklong demonstration would have been organised by the NDC to describe the NPP as disrespectful.

Those calling for a punitive action against the woman by the President should not waste their breath because it won't happen.

Remember her cynical remark during the Ablekuma North Constituency election re-run when vote-buying allegations were made?

She told those making the allegation, the NPP, that they too should go and buy votes.

The regional minister should understand that the office she holds belongs to the people of Ghana. When she seeks to run it as though it is an NDC office, she would continue to make silly and unacceptable 'slips'.

Unlike others, she has apologised anyway.