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Chief Of Staff Resurrects NDC Anti-Business Crusade

By Daily Statesman
General News Chief of Staff Julius Debrah
OCT 21, 2016 LISTEN
Chief of Staff Julius Debrah

President Mahama’s Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, has come under intense fire over comments which are seen as very inimical to the promotion of private business initiatives in the country, and evocative of the era of NDC/state-led crusade against some Ghanaian businesses.

The victims of that hate campaign included Akenten Appiah Menka, who was manufacturing a popular local soap, Apino Soap; the late Appenteng, owner of Panbros Salt Industry in Accra, who also owned an intravenous factory in Koforidua; Kwame Safo Adu, proprietor of a pharmaceutical company; and Kwabena Darko, owner of Darko Farms.

Addressing supporters of the National Democratic Congress at Wenchi, as part of his desperate campaign to save his boss from pending defeat in the upcoming presidential election, Mr Debrah cautioned Ghanaian adults to desist from drinking Kalyppo fruit juice, claiming it is not good for their health.

“I am pleading with you that you the adults here if you take Kalyppo, the sugar content can leave you with some sickness, so please don’t take it,” the Chief of Staff was quoted to have said in Twi, without providing any scientic proof to back his claim.

His campaign against Kalyppo comes barely a month after an image of the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, sipping the drink in between campaigns went viral on social media.

The despicable attempt by activists of the governing NDC to mock the NPP leader triggered what has become known in Ghana as #Kalyselfie, with free publicity for the product that has increased its patronage.

Now, the only crime of Aquafresh Limited, producers of Kalyppo, is that its product is being promoted by sympathisers of an opposition party.

It is for this reason that the ‘Truth Forum’ has joined others in condemning “the reckless and irresponsible pronouncements made by the Chief of Staff.”

“It is rather unfortunate that, after 8years of making a complete mess of the Ghanaian economy, the John Mahama-led NDC government has decided to not only negatively tag our local industry, but take us back to the dark days in our history,” the group said in a statement issued yesterday and signed by Anthony Abayifaa Karbo.

The statement added: “After presiding over several years of unending power crisis, high taxes, petroleum price hikes, high utility tariffs, mismanagement of the economy, unstable currency which has resulted in collapse of many businesses and rendering hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians jobless, it is regrettable that such comments would come from the Chief of staff. Instead of outlining what has been done to curtail the energy crisis in the long-term, as well as measures put in place to make the business environment conducive for business to thrive, this is how low government has decided to sink.”

The statement called on Mr Debrah to apologise for “the irresponsible statement”, and also to the manufacturers of Kalyppo and the general public.

In a related development, the ‘Concerned Ghanaians for Local Products’ has also asked the Chief of Staff to "retract, apologise" or prove his scientific claim for saying that Kalyppo fruit drink is not good for the health of Ghanaian adults.

“This comment from the honourable man does not only come to us as a shock but is also very disturbing considering the number of years some of us have been drinking Kalyppo,” a statement co-signed by Ernest Ampadu and Aresa Ansah Patrick, Secretary and Deputy Secretary respectively of the group, said.

The statement added: “We are of the view that it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the safety of its citizens, so, if the Chief of Staff knows that Kalyppo is not good for our health, why won’t he advise his government to take action? Since when did he realise this? Why would he wait till now? Is he aware that Kalyppo has been approved by FDA, which was established under the laws of Ghana? Or Mr Debrah does not have trust in the FDA? When did the Chief of Staff become a nutritionist?"

According to the group, even though the government has always been preaching about the need to patronize made-in-Ghana goods, “comments like this are not healthy since it can reduce sales of kalyppo and could result to the collapse of the company.”

“Let’s not preach virtue and practice vice. If we really mean well for our local companies to grow, we should desist from comments like this that has (sic) no scientific evidence. We hold a strong conviction that comments like this seek to campaign faintly against kalyppo juice and so humbly plead with him to either apologise and retract or prove his claim with scientific evidence to prevent other adults from drinking kalyppo,” the group demanded.

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