Mahama must fire 'untouchable' Stan Dogbe - Lecturer

Presidential staffer Stan Dogbe must be fired by President John Mahama over the error-ridden brochure saga, a senior communications lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Eric Opoku-Mensah has said.

According to him, Mr Dogbe does not have the professional expertise to manage communications at the office of the president.

Speaking to Class News Friday March 11, 2016, Dr Opoku-Mensah said it appeared Mr Dogbe was untouchable.

“We all know some people are untouchable within the Flagstaff House. You mentioned rightfully Stan Dogbe and I think the president really doesn’t know what to do with him.

“You know the issue of the journalist, which everybody expected the president to fire him, but nothing actually happened and I was thinking that since this is another major issue, he and the other people, who are in charge, should be put aside and probably more professional people should be brought in”.

“I think that a lot of communication professionals are bemoaning the situation happening with the communication at the office of the presidency. From my point of view, I don’t think we have professionals being in charge, but these are party people, who probably may have had some links with the media, but not have the capacity to be responsible for the presidential communication and all other related matters with respect to putting up appropriate program for the presidency.

“And I think that going forward, even as we ask for people to be fired, the presidency should be looking at this more seriously and have a scheme of professionals headed by a politician, who may come and go, but professionals, who will be there and be responsible for this, whether it’s the NDC government in place, CPP or NPP it doesn’t matter.

“Some professionals need to be put there and I think that there are a lot more professionals in Ghana than we find in the Flagstaff House because currently if you go to the Flagstaff House and probably on their website to find out who are responsible for communication for the president, I don’t think you will have people, who have the professional expertise and I’m afraid I don’t think Stan Dogbe qualifies to do that job”.

The Independence Day brochures distributed during the anniversary were riddled with inaccuracies including a wrong designation of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Ghana. The Coat of Arms of Ghana was referred to as the ‘Coat of Arm’, among a raft of other spelling and grammatical errors.

Meanwhile, Mr Dogbe insist his company, “The EventPR” did not print the error-ridden brochure.