If approved by parliament, Minister-designate
of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has assured that
New Patriotic Party (NPP) women capable of providing catering services will not
be left out of the National School Feeding Programme.Responding to
questions from New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma
West Ursula Owusu-Ekuful at the vetting of ministerial nominees on Monday,
January 30, Ms Otiko explained that the ministry had plans to expand the
National School Feeding Programme across the country.
She said the
previous administration’s advertisement for caterers through national news
channels as part of transparency measures will be continued adding that women
organisers of the NPP will have the opportunity to be contracted to provide
various services.
“In line with what my predecessor has done, this is
what is there now, that to make it more transparent, the School Feeding
Programme is advertised in the newspapers and so we will look at it and ensure
that when we expand, it will include more women…and I will say the women’s
organisers should have no fears because they are all part of the inclusion
agenda of the ministry. We cannot leave anybody out.”
Ms Djaba, who holds
the National Women’s Organiser of the NPP, told the Appointments Committee that
she stood by comments she made against ex-president John Mahama.
For her,
Mr Mahama is, indeed, “wicked” and “an embarrassment” to people of the Northern
Region.
“I don’t owe him (Mr Mahama) or you (Alhassan Suhuyini) any
apology…” she said in response to the Tamale North MP’s question about whether
she would apologise to the ex-president on whom she used those words during the
electioneering period ahead of the 7 December 2016 elections.
“My comment
about he being an embarrassment was in relation to SADA, It was in relation to
SADA that I said he had embarrassed northerners and the northern chiefs
themselves had come to say same,” Ms Djaba justified on Monday, 30 January 2017,
explaining that: “When I talked about his wickedness, the people of Ghana were
asking for reductions, they were asking for ‘dumsor’ to be solved, people were
losing jobs and so forth … what I said was within the context of that
period.”
When asked by Tamale South MP Haruna Iddrisu if she would
withdraw those words owing to their harshness, which the minority too “strong
exception to,” Ms Djaba retorted: “Are you saying that we cannot criticise in
this country? Are you saying that my right to speak [is curtailed?] … It was not
an insult, it was a criticism and I’m allowed as a citizen of Ghana to criticise
the president and these are descriptive words, it is not an
insult.”
Asked by Mr Iddrisu is she stood by her words, Ms Djaba said:
“Yes Mr Chairman. … I did not insult the president, I criticised him.”
In
2014, Ms Djaba told Moro Awudu on Radio XYZ’s breakfast show that: “This
President (Mr Mahama) is not serious. He has embarrassed a lot of
Northerners.”
Reacting to Mr Mahama’s promise, at the time, to
progressively make Senior High School Education free as announced in the state
of the nation address presented to Parliament in that year, Ms Djaba said: “He’s
embarrassing mother Ghana and the IMF is telling him that: ‘E no dey go well’,
so he should stop the ‘edey be kɛkɛ’, put down his Dubai things and get down to
the ground and give us the bread and butter things that we need for the
development of this country.”
Also, in the heat of the 2016 campaign, Ms
Djaba said: “President Mahama’s time is up. …President Mahama is extremely
wicked, and, so, he must step down. We need change, we need someone who is
passionate about this country. You have to vote massively for Nana Akufo Addo.
We need change this year. Your time is up, President Mahama.”
|
| |
|
|
|
