998 Pres. Staffers: Stop the sickening shameless hypocrisy - Samson Lardy

Private Legal Practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini has lambasted members of the New Patriotic Party attacking persons sharing their opinions and concerns over government’s latest revelation of 998 presidential staffers at the presidency.

He deems it hypocritical and shameless that a party whose members massively condemned the 678 presidential staffers appointed under the erstwhile Mahama government will today have a problem when well-thinking Ghanaians express concern over a number much higher than what they criticised.

Mr. Anyenini also chided persons attempting to justify the numbers with all manner of defenses when they very well would have ‘made noise’ particularly in the media if the same thing was done in another regime.

“The very many decent guys and intellectuals well deserving of their places in gov’t must tell those uninformed and hungry folks to shut up! Fine to abuse guys like us, it’s normal business. But it’s nauseating reading them abuse great and decent intellectuals and think tank leaders for sharing their views on this sinfully absurd 998”

“The internet doesn’t lie. Look up the stuff the NPP said about JM’s 678. What sickening shameless dishonest hypocrisy? Imagine what the NPP would have been doing on our radio and Tv if this 998 and 110 had happened in a different regime”.

He believes the ordinary Ghanaian should be able to speak up and express their opinions on issues particularly relating to a government they voted for when they have concerns and not be criticized for that.

“Citizens must have a voice even if they don’t pay tax. Now show up here and write what you may if you think I have time for you. I have been sitting here in my office reading and reviewing court records in excess of 2000 pages in total”, he wrote in a post on his Facebook page.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo got Ghanaians talking with the release of a list revealing a total of 998 people working at the seat of government, the Jubilee House in Accra. The revelation made in accordance with Section 11 of the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) which requires the President to submit a report on the staffing position of the Office of the President annually was met with mixed reactions from the public, majority of Ghanaians expressing worry over the implications of the figure on the public purse.

While critics have accused government of failing on its promises to protect the public purse with the huge numbers it has implored under its government, some government officials in defense have maintained that the number though high is having less effect on the public purse compared to the 678 figure under the Mahama administration.

Information Minister Mustapha Hamid speaking on JoyFM’s Super Morning Show said;

“…our list, for example, is a little above the President Mahama list but if you look at the budget for office machinery under President Mahama it is way above our budget…For 2017 they had about ¢3 billion but we came in 2017 with about ¢1.5 billion,” he told Daniel Dadzie Monday, on the Joy FM Super Morning Show.

Former NPP National Chairman, Peter Mac Manu, speaking at the NPP Western regional delegates’ congress in Tarkwa on Saturday also accused opposition forces of trying to sabotage government through falsity.

“It is not true. When we say presidency, they work for the office of the president. It is not everybody who works at the office of the presidency who is at the [Jubilee] House.”……..“Some of them are even at various locations but their designation is that they work under the office of the president. If NPP came with 200-and-something and somebody writes on his Facebook wall that NPP has employed 935 people at the Jubilee House, isn’t that fake news? It is.”, he said.