Otiko Afisa Djaba is a “pale shadow” of the immediate past Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection Nana Oye Lithur, founding president of civil society group Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has said.
Mr Cudjoe’s description of Ms Djaba as such follows the former’s vetting by parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday, 30 January at which she refused to backtrack on her characterisation of former president John Mahama as “an embarrassment” to people of northern extraction, a wicked” leader as well as a man with the “heart of the devil.”
Ms Djaba insisted, despite all efforts to get her to apologise, that she had nothing to apologise to Mr Mahama for.
She said as a person of northern lineage, she personally felt “embarrassed” by the former president’s handling of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) project, thus, her description of Mr Mahama as an “embarrassment to northerners”, since, in her view, the programme, which was meant to develop the impoverished parts of northern Ghana, got fraught with corruption under the former president.
She also justified her description of Mr Mahama as a “wicked” man, since, in her view, the former president imposed a lot of hardships on Ghanaians during his term of office.
Explaining herself to the Appointments Committee, Ms Djaba said: “I spoke from my convictions,” and, so, “I don’t owe him [Mr Mahama] or you [Alhassan Suhuyini] any apology. … My comment about he being an embarrassment was in relation to SADA, it was in relation to SADA that I said he had embarrassed Northerners and the Northern chiefs themselves had come to say same,” Ms Djaba justified, adding that: “When I talked about his wickedness, the people of Ghana were asking for reductions, they were asking for ‘dumsor’ to be solved, people were losing jobs and so forth … what I said was within the context of that period.”
When asked by Tamale South MP Haruna Iddrisu if she would withdraw those words owing to their harshness, which the Minority took “strong exception to”, Ms Djaba retorted: “Are you saying that we cannot criticise in this country? Are you saying that my right to speak [is curtailed?] … It was not an insult, it was a criticism and I’m allowed as a citizen of Ghana to criticise the president and these are descriptive words, it is not an insult.”
Asked by Mr Iddrisu if she stood by her words, Ms Djaba said: “Yes Mr Chairman. … I did not insult the president, I criticised him.”
Source: classfmonline.com
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We voted for change. There won't be any change if the status quo remains. We cannot continue to do the old things if there is going to be a change. Someone should dare to be different and Otiko is one of them.
Franklin ,you refused to vote citing the ridiculous excuse of refusing to take a side.But now you are not hesitating to compare the 2. I thought you will carry on with your non vote pledge and only offer constructive criticism rather than a comparison between Otiko and Oye Lithur whose husband raped the country with Waterville and other dodgy legal schemes which denied her own ministry of crucial funding.What difference did the obviously highly educated Oye Lithur manage to effect on all the poor mothers in Ghana as well as children in 4 years. Some of us will come out retirement to put u on the right path. Next time we will actually post it on your Facebook wall to let people see how contradictory and unwise u can be
This guy did not even vote yet he is quick to criticise, imagine if everybody had acted like you.
I HOPE PEOPLE ARE NOT CONFUSED WITH ARROGANCE AND SELF ESTEEM/ CONFIDENCE. ASEM BEBA DEBI...!
Anybody who dislikes Otiko Djaba has serious self-esteem issues.
think about the work you going doing not about criticism but the way forward .tks
i am not surprised. double faced man
Otiko wears a half bow haircut. Children will copy her half bow. Yet because Nana Addo has a heart of the devil he nominated her. God save us.
i guess you have applauded Otiko for her criticism of JDM and her refusal to withdraw that statement. l hope when the time comes and HE Akuffo Addo is also criticized hell will not break loose and you will not start warning people as if you are the only people with brains but accept the critism in good faith. Already you members on the Appointment committee have started messing themselves up with bribe (corruption cases). Time will tell if NPP people are angels and saints. we voted for NPP bcos you told us NDC is corrupt.
SHAME ON YOU FRANLIN. OTIKO WAS FAR BETTER THAN THAT ***barred word*** OF A WOMAN WHO SIGNED FOR THE RELEASE OF THE MONTIE THREE. BE OBJECTIVE. WE KNOW U WERE ON TH PAY SLIP OF THOSE PEOPLE.