Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has charged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to be firmer in condemning US President Donald Trump for describing African countries as ‘shitholes’.
According to the ranking member on the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, the President’s decision to respond to Mr. Trump’s derogatory comment on twitter was not outright enough to send a strong signal.
Mr. Trump has been in the news lately for describing El Salvador, Haiti and certain African nations as “shithole” countries during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Thursday.
Reacting to the “shithole” comment, President Akufo-Addo in a tweet said: “The language of US President Donald Trump that the African continent, Haiti, and El Salvador are ‘shithole countries’ is extremely unfortunate. Ghana is certainly not a ‘shithole country’. We will not accept such insults, even from a leader of a friendly country, no matter how powerful.”
But the North Tongu lawmaker who was speaking at a public discussion organised by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) accused the President of being vague in reproaching Trump for the comment.
“We hold the view that the recent racial slur by President Donald Trump should have been condemned in a more firm and swift way. The condemnation came but it came very late after some other African countries have gone ahead to condemn the statement. We have seen other countries summoning US ambassadors, but we haven’t seen that here,” Okudzeto said.
