Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
The Information Minister, Kopjo Oppong Nkrumah has clarified his role as the supervising Minister for Right to Information (RTI) instead of the Attorney General.
According to him, the role of his Ministry is purely administrative and not to manipulate contents of information to government’s advantage.
The Minority criticised as a major mistake, the decision of the government to make the Information Minister, the supervising Minister for Right to Information (RTI) instead of the Attorney General.
According to Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, this affects the policy credibility of the legal framework.
“I believe that the government has already lost it. Lost it because the Shepherding Minister has been reduced to the Ministry of Information. Right to Information is not about propaganda or government information or government misinformation. It is about the right of access to information to aid in exposure.
“What decisions the Executive and Parliament and others may take so in my view, to substitute the Attorney General for the Minister of Information itself waters down the policy credibility of the Right to Information.”
But Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah addressing the media in the capital-Accra justified its supervisory role of the RTI law instead of the AG insisting such decision is within law.
“In giving life to Article 21(1f), the AG was the one who was designated to bring the bill to parliament. Now that life has been given to it, it is now merely an administrative process that is why you are going through the structure that is responsible for information unit and information officers,” he told Journalists.
