Akufo-Addo’s meeting with political parties on Coronavirus just a political gimmick – Dzogbenuku

The Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Brigitte Dzogbenuku, has described a meeting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had with the various political parties when the Coronavirus first emerged in Ghana as a political gimmick.

She told Natalie Fort on the Women’s Take programme on 3FM that nothing tangible came out of the meeting because these political parties were not involved in the implementation of the plans outlined by the government to tackle the virus.

After that particular meeting in March, the president said the engagement allowed him to explain to the political parties some key government decisions already taken after Ghana recorded its first case on March 12.

“We must be united in our determination and efforts to overcome this challenge. This, certainly, is not the time for politicking or the display of partisanship. The virus does not care which party you belong to, neither is it, as we have seen, a respecter of persons. The enemy is the virus and not each other,” Mr Akufo-Addo said.

But answering a question as to whether she has met with her fellow female contender in the December 7 presidential elections, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Ms Dzogbenuku said the last time the two of them met was during that particular meeting with the president on the Coronavirus.

“We have had very little engagement. I spoke to Nana Konadu in 2016 when her party and mine were disqualified. We had an interaction there."

“I also spoke to her at the Jubilee House when the pandemic hit us and the president called us to come together and think about the pandemic."

“That meeting was a political gimmick because we were not involved at all in dealing with the pandemic in the end."

“The president said the pandemic had no political colours and that we should come and suggest ideas but it was only talks. Where was the action?"

“This government did get a lot of support from the World Bank and all that but it would have been nicer if they had followed up you also saying and help.”