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"A Squeak Or A Roar?" - Asks Dr. Valerie Sawyerr

By Nana Aba Andah
NDC Dr. Valerie Sawyerr
AUG 17, 2017 LISTEN
Dr. Valerie Sawyerr

A former Senior Policy Advisor and Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit in the Mahama Administration seems undettered by attacks on her for taking Former President Rawlings on over his frequent blisterring attacks on every NDC Administration apart from his.

Moments after the Former President granted an interview to a section of the press in which he asserts she is threatened by his integrity, she has shot back, first describing as porous the headlines of the media houses and questioning Rawlings’ definition of persons who “influence integrity”.

In an interview with the 'Daily Post’ yesterday evening soon after the Rawlings interview, Dr. Sawyerr said “for Rawlings position that I am threatened by his integrity to be true, three premises must be established:

a. that he has integrity,
b. that I do not have integrity and
c. that I am intimidated in any form or manner by the integrity he must first have.”

According to her, all three premises are false so Rawlings’ claim that she is threatened by his integrity cannot be true.

“But maybe the headlines have not been fair to him. In the voice clip I listened to, he did not say those who lack integrity feel threatened 'by those of us who have integrity'. He said those who lack integrity feel threatened 'by those of us who have the INFLUENCE of integrity'.

She queried what the meaning of 'influence of integrity' is, rhetorically asking whether it refers to

"a. … those perceived as having integrity even though they may not have it;

b. those who can influence others to be persons of integrity even though they themselves may not be persons of integrity; or

c. those who make enough noise about integrity so they are seen as being influential in matters of integrity even if they themselves do not have integrity?

I am really not sure what he is trying to say" she laughed. She seemed highly amused by the whole scenario and likened the former President's utterances to a 'squeak' rather than a 'roaring volcano'.

Dr. Valerie Sawyerr last week crossed swords with the Former Rawlings when she criticized him for once again publicly attacking the NDC of which he is the Founder. At this year’s Asafotufiam festival held last week, Rawlings once again attacked the Mahama administration, describing it as corrupt. This drew the ire of Dr. Valerie Sawyerr, who responded with an article titled ‘Ntomtom or Nwansena’ in which she took Rawlings to the cleaners.

Likening Rawlings to “…an agitated mosquito…looking for his next victim”, she made it clear that Rawlings’ government did not have an unblemished record nor does the Akufo-Addo government have one and wondered why the Former President is quiet in the face of the scandals that have rocked the current custodians of the public purse, the Akufo-Addo government.

She also questioned Rawlings’ refusal to name those he claims are corrupt to give those he accused the opportunity to defend themselves just as he had the opportunity to defend himself in the matter of the monetary gift he is alleged to have received from late Nigerian President Sanni Abacha and which he confirmed receiving but stated the amount he received was $ 2 million and not $5million.

Dr. Valerie Sawyerr's criticism of Former President Rawlings received wide press coverage and drew applause from many within the NDC. Some, however, have taken up issues with her, attacking her for taking on the Former President who has frequently attacked the NDC publicly.

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