I do more work than Felix Kwakye – Murtala

Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, Murtala Mohammed, has revealed he works more than his colleague Deputy Minister Felix Ofosu Kwakye.

He was reacting to reports in the Statesman newspaper about a brewing crisis within the government communications team.


The report claimed there is a serious power play over who is next lieutenant in charge of the ministry after the substantive Minister, Mahama Ayariga.


At the centre of the supposed crisis, is who chairs the government communications team in the absence of the Minister. The members are purportedly aligning themselves to Felix Ofosu-Kwakye.


The report described this as a “deputy ministerial re-shuffle”.


But speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Murtala Mohammed gave a 'spirited' response.

He dismissed the report as false, “class one” stories, and a “desperate” attempt to create “rancor”.


He said the decision to streamline the communications team was taken by the minister together with his deputies and not by Felix alone.


It was to effectively coordinate the position of government in the media. It was not important, he said, to have everybody else at the meeting held every Monday morning.


“With regards to what happen at the ministry…I do more work than Felix …that is a fact,” he said repeatedly.


He said he had chaired communication team meetings on two occasions but was not concerned about “who chaired what”.

He underlined the strength of his relationship with Felix and revealed it “pre-dates even NDC coming to power”.


The Minister of Information was his senior at Ghana Secondary School while he knew Felix at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science, and Technology, Murtala said.


He said nobody can undermine the “long-standing relationship” among the younger group of ministers, and deputy ministers cultivated during their days of “student activism”.


He reiterated his “selfless” sacrifice and output he had put in for the party, and added that working as a deputy minister was a privilege. Nonetheless, he worked hard for his position as an MP, he noted.


He had a simple message for detractors - "the more they write, the more we will do more".

Managing editor of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako, a co-panelist recalled how in 1998 in Sunyani, former President Rawlings confirmed and authenticated several media reports about in-fighting that were previously denied.


He pointed out that the decision to streamline the communications team may have caused dissatisfaction among affected members.


He said he had been in “the game for a longtime” to know the NDC was “suffering from internal contradictions”. The reported rift was a signal of this contradiction, he said.


Referring to the “lengthy” explanation by Murtala, Kweku Baako counseled that “you can run the story down, but quietly do your intelligence checks”.