Otiko saga: Minority on suicide mission – Jacob Osei Yeboah

Ghana’s parliament voted for truth, integrity and sincerity with regards to the approval of Otiko Afisa Djaba as Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), independent presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 elections, has said.

Ms Djaba was approved by parliament amidst controversy over some comments she passed about former president John Mahama in the lead-up to the 2016 election. She described Mr Mahama as one with an evil heart for superintending the rot that characterised the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), an initiative to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians living in the three regions in the north of the country, where the former president himself hails from.

There were also issues with her inability to do her national service, a development National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs thought made her unqualified to serve as minister.

Nonetheless, she was approved with 152 votes on the floor on Tuesday. The Minority, however, boycotted the vote.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday February 8, JOY said: “The NDC MPs’ posture in parliament will not help the country. Their actions now in parliament can be compared to a wounded lion roaring at people, or like persons embarking on suicide mission. They will need to exercise restraint.”

“Yesterday in parliament, the MPs voted for truth and integrity as against falsehood and hypocrisy. Otiko has been very blunt and sincere with herself and everybody, especially Northerners, about how they feel about the former president. She admitted saying those words, she stood by her words, she did not withdraw those comments she made about the former president and that showed sincerity. The NDC MPs wanted her to withdraw the true comments she passed about the former president but she did not.

“All that they (NDC MPs) were trying to achieve was a delay in her appointment because they knew their actions against her would lead to nothing.

The hypocrisy [of the Minority] is that Oti Bless (former Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development)) was also guilty of the national service issue yet they approved him as Deputy Minister when they were in the majority. Apart from that, I challenge them to investigate all the MPs to find out how many of them did their national service.”