President Mils Is Responsible For All The Attacks On Zita Okaikoi The Information Minister
Right from the day Zita Okaikoi was appointed by President Mills for consideration for the position of minister of Information several persons who knew her thought such a position was not the very best for her.
To such persons, it was not that, Zita lacked the needed paper qualifications to occupy that ministry, but the demand on a minister of Information in a country where the shouts from radio and TV stations every morning are deafening was probably their reason.
Even though I am not one of the people who believe that competence goes with paper qualifications, it must be said that, Zita holds degrees from both the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and the Ghana Law School. Infact he has paper qualifications more than her two deputies! This backgrounds of Zita not withstanding, some people are of the view that, her two deputies are performing better than she was doing as the substantive minister. This view has its own debate which I will not go into because it is not the subject of this commentary.
I am of the honest view that, if Zita had been made a minister of a different ministry rather than the information ministry perhaps the current pressure on her wouldn’t have been noticed.
As a minister of Information one can imagine the number of phone calls she receives every day to answer questions on governmental policies, and programmes. Infact including at times on issues she probably would have be hearing for the first time at the very moment those questions are thrown at her for answers! I am also just imaging the number of radio and TV stations that throws invitations to her to feature in talk shows and other programmes by virtue of her position as the minister of information of Ghana.
At times I wonder loudly why President Mills did not send her to any other ministry but the ministry of information. The decision of President Mills to make Zita minister of Information was a very bad decision from conception and he is responsible for all the bashings that Zita is currently receiving from both persons who are genuine with their calls as well as those who could be making those calls out of bad faith.
I am not one of those who are calling for the sacking of Zita as minister of Information. I am rather among those who believe that, she should be reassigned to a different ministry where the searchlight on her will not be consistent calls on her to talk more. There are some ministers whose names were only heard when they were named as minister and up to date nobody has heard about them in relation to how they are performing in their various ministries. Maybe they are lucky!
You see in life, we have different category of people; we have those who can talk more than parrots but can not even spell their names! We also have a second class of persons who can write very well but can not talk very healthy. Then we have the third group who are good at both. They can talk and write well. I am tempted to believe that, Minister Zita belongs to the second group; those who could write well but maybe unable to talk well to all radio and TV stations in Ghana. I will not be surprise at all if even it emerge that she writes what we hear her deputies always say on air. Should I add and on face book? With this scenario given, I am of the view that, Zita could perform better if reassigned to a different ministry rather than given the sack. Let us not forget that, she is also a mother and a wife and has two other “ministries” to handle home after close of work from the ministry of information. Hahahaha.
Akilu Sayibu, UK
Email: Akilu.sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk
