We can’t trust Assembly Members in food distribution – Deputy Gender Minister

The Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Freda Prempeh says Assembly Members in the country cannot be trusted with government’s outreach programme of providing food for the vulnerable in the society during the lockdown

President Nana Addo in his fifth address to the nation to update citizens on the pandemic coronavirus, noted that his government is going to provide food for the weak in the society amidst lockdown in some part of the country.

“The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and local Government and Rural Development and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) working with MMDCEs and faith based organizations have begun to provide food for up to four hundred thousand (400,000) individuals and homes in the affected areas of restrictions. This begun in Accra today and will begin in Kumasi tomorrow. It will come in the form of dry food package and hot meals, and will be delivered to vulnerable communities in Accra, Tema, Kumasi and Kasoa”. The President said in his address.

However, Madam Freda Prempeh speaking on the way forward to the distribution of food clearly stated that, Assembly Members can’t be entrusted with such an initiative.

“No matter what, you will find colours among assembly members. Some are NPP, some are NDC, hence, if you give this exercise to them, you may not get a good result”, she told Kwame Tanko on Angel Fm in Kumasi in an interview monitored by MyNewsGH.com.

According to her, though Assembly Members are not supposed to be political, but that is only on paper and not the reality, hence they may end up giving out the their food to their party members and not the target individuals the government is planning towards.

“We won’t give the food to Assembly members to share” she screamed.

Madam Freda thinks, officers of the social welfare are closer to the vulnerable in the communities than members of the assembly who live with them adding that the social welfare has data of all vulnerable individuals and groups.

“It’s a team work, we don’t want to make it individualistic”, she said.

“For now, it is not an issue of Assembly members. We plead with them to continue with their community-based education for us. There will be 18 outlets in Kumasi”, she stressed.

But Mr. Akwasi Addai Odike who generated the argument on the other side of the debate in the studio noted that, Assembly members are supposed to be the frontliners in food distribution exercise. “They can go down to houses of the individuals and deliver the foods”, he adds.