Nana Akomea, former Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, has fired another salvo at Murtala Mohammed, a deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, describing him as “a complete embarrassment” to the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government. He has therefore called on the President to call him to order, especially in view of the fact that that he “does very bad public relations for government with his rude and insulting utterances and pronouncements.”
Last week, the former Member of Parliament for Okakai South said Mr Murtala was not “worthy” to be paid with the tax payers’ money in view of his failure to lead action against him (Nana Akomea) and other unnamed former officials of the NPP government who he claimed had been involved in criminal acts in respect of the administration of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency.
Nana Akomea, a former Information Minister in the Kufuor administration, fired the second salvo against the deputy minister yesterday while commenting on his claim that former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings does not have the capacity to speak about economic issues affecting businesses in the country.
The former First Lady had complained at a recent public forum about the government’s decision to increase the VAT rate, from 15% to 17.5%, together with increases in taxes on other items, a situation she said was hurting the private sector.
Nana Konadu had also argued that the way to go, for a developing economy, was to reduce taxes to attract more private investments, create jobs and increase people’s purchasing power. She accused the government of using the taxes to balance its budget rather than investing in the sectors of the economy that would improve the living standards of the people.
In a reaction to Nana Konadu’s concern, the deputy minister yesterday told listeners of Adom FM that the former First Lady was only seeking media attention with her “confusing” analysis of the impact of taxes on the economy.
“Nana Konadu is not an economist and she is only looking for public attention with this confusing economic analysis,” he said, adding that the analysis done by the wife of former President Rawlings was nothing short of a display of ignorance and confusion about taxation.
“I don’t know whether she was talking economics, architecture, psychology or physiology. I really couldn’t get her. I didn’t understand and I believe your listeners themselves were confused if they listened to her, that we use the taxes to balance the economy,” Murtala asserted.
But Nana Akomea says deputy minister’s response to the concerns raised by Mr Rawlings was unbecoming of somebody who is paid by the tax payer.
“I still maintain Murtala does not deserve to be paid by the tax payer. A former first lady, who is now a player in the local industry, is raising concerns about how increased taxes are killing businesses in the private sector and the response of a junior minister is that she does not have the capacity to speak on the economy. This is a very rude conduct and arrogance of the highest order,” he said in an interview with the New Statesman.
Nana Akomea added: “She had given her views about the economy and if you disagreed with her, you only needed to state your position, but to say somebody of Nana Konadu’s calibre should not express her views about the ailing economy is a clear show of rudeness.”
Source: The New Statesman
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