Agyeman-Manu's ‘I’m tired’ comment was not lost in translation - Kofi Adams

MP for Buem, Kofi Adams, has expressed shock at the response of Health Minister-designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, on a question posed to him during his vetting with Parliament’s Appointments Committee, on what he said in a radio interview at Dormaa in 2020.

In his response to the question, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu blamed what he insisted was a misunderstanding of what he said and meant, on a journalist.

In that interview, the minister-designate, speaking in his native Bono language, made comments that appeared to mean that he and the president were tired in the fight against the coronavirus.

The audio, which went viral thereafter, drew in a lot of criticisms from the public but Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has insisted that that was not what he meant.

“The translation of what I said is wrong; 100% wrong. I made this admonition at a function in my constituency, Dormaa Ahenkro, and I spoke in Bono so whoever did the translation got it entirely wrong and that is not what I meant.

“I was trying to tell people that they should have sympathy on those of us who are fighting the battle and listen to the admonitions we were putting into the public domain. I didn’t say it on radio and maybe let us correct that too,” he said during his vetting.

But Kofi Adams disagrees.

Speaking on GhOne TV’s Ghana Today and monitored by GhanaWeb, Kofi insisted that what his colleague Member of Parliament said is what it meant and that for him to even try to pin it on the journalist who reported on it, is not admissible.

“I am aware of the tape and I have listened even though those viewing did not have the chance but I have had the opportunity of listening to that audio recording and it’s different from what the nominee said that that was what he said.

“So, I was surprised that he was accusing the reporter rather because exactly what has been said that he talked about being tired, the president is tired, is what he said and therefore he cannot be claiming that he was advising them and not that he was saying that they were tired.

“If he is talking about context, he should say that he was taken out of context and not to say that he was misreported,” he stressed.

Kwaku Agyemang-Manu appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament and was gruelled for some five hours on a plethora of issues related to his sector and his re-appointment for the position of Health Minister by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.