NPP has no hand in workers’ strikes - Akomea

Former Information Minister under the erstwhile Kufuor administration has taken a swipe at the National Security Advisor Brigadier General (Rtd.) Joseph Nunoo Mensah, for suggesting the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is behind the numerous strikes and labour agitations.

Nana Akomea insists the intelligence claims by the Security Advisor is bogus and an insult to the intelligence of the workers.


The Retired Brigadier General made the headlines apparently for the wrong reasons, when he charged angry Ghanaian workers to put an end to the numerous strikes and demonstrations that have engulfed the country or be ready to pack out.


He said if the kitchen is too hot for the workers they must get their passports and leave the country in peace.


His remarks were greeted with a groundswell of criticisms from political activists, heads of labour unions, with some calling for his dismissal and an official apology rendered.


In an interview on BBC’s Focus on Africa programme, the former Chief of Defence Staff was in no mood to render any apology.

He later told Adom FM the NPP is behind the serial strikes and demonstrations in the labour front.


According to him, the NPP, having failed to win the elections through the “front door” has decided to use the “back door” to win political power.


He alleged the opposition party is using the workers “as Trojan horses” to come back to power.


Reacting to the allegations on Citi FM, Nana Akomea said the comment by the National Security Advisor is only making matters worse.


“When you are in a hole, why do you start digging?” he questioned, adding the more the Retired General speaks on the matter, the worse it becomes for the government.

To accuse the NPP of instigating the strikes and demonstrations in the labour front is to insult the intelligence of these professional workers, Akomea parried.


“When you don’t pay nurses for 21 months and within one week after strike they start receiving their salaries, what you are telling workers is that you only respond to strikes,” he added.


He said every government has had its fair share of strikes and should not be attributed to any political party.