John and Abu Jinapor ‘clash’ over SoNA 2018

Jinapor brothers, John and Abu of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patroitic Party (NPP) respectively, found themselves in a heated debate regarding the content of the message of the President, Nana Addo’s State of the Nation address

Standing between them was Ghana Broadcasting Corporation GBC’s Selikem Acolatse who was interviewing the two brothers

John Jinapor who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei/Kusawgu constituency in the Northern region said the President’s address was most uninspiring with the President taking only using the time he had to “single out and praise some of his failing 110 appointees one after the other”, he said.

He further questioned why the President was unduly taking advantage of, and credit for work in the energy sector, works he said was “clearly done by his predecessor Mr John Mahama”, under whom the senior Jinapor, John was a Deputy minister for Energy.

In his view, the President took the platform to only rehash his numerous “failed and failing campaign promises over and over again without addressing the issues of corruption, rising fuel prices and vigilantism which were core issues on the minds of Ghanaians.” He said if indeed the President was listening, he would have known Ghanaians are unhappy because things are tough for them and would have taken the opportunity to address their concerns through the SoNA.

His younger brother who is Deputy Chief of staff under the Nana Addo-Dr Bawumia government, Samuel Abu Jinapor however, sharply countered his brother. He said the President spoke on “three broad themes bordering on what he inherited, what he’s done so far in the past one year and where he intended to take the country to”, rubbishing his brother’s assertion that the President said nothing actually.

He further indicated that contrary to his brother’s statement, the President inherited a terrible economy from the erstwhile government, “one growing at a paltry 3.6%, we inherited an economy that had a deficit of 9.6% meaning the economy was in crisis, in a mess and choking”, he stressed.

He said the government of the NPP should be credited with bringing down inflation and improving onall important indicators of economic growth leading to good ratings for the government, all in record one year.”

On job creation, he said “government cannot create jobs when the economy is stagnating, growing at 3% and not expanding as it should”. “You cannot create jobs when your economy is in dire straits”, he added. He however pointed to the recent recruitments into the security services as indication of some progress being made. He said very soon the Prison and Fire Services will also begin recruitments. “Under the Mahama administration, you hardly find the security services recruiting”, he alleged.

The senior Jinapor brother, John is on record to have said in 2014 that he hardly talks politics with his brother. They rather dwell on family issues when they meet.

“We hardly talk politics because some years back when we talked politics it brought disagreements between us”, he said in 2014 when allegations flew about that his younger brother Abu was a mole in NPP for the then ruling NDC party.