NYAUNU'S COMMENTS WERE UNFORTUNATE, DAILY GRAPHIC, MAY 27, 2011 (FRONT B)

Story: Della Russel Ocloo

A DEPUTY Minister of Information, Mr Mohammed Baba Jamal, has described comments by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya, Mr Michael Teye Nyaunu, that President Mills is visually impaired as unfortunate.
Responding to the comments made by the MP suggesting that letters meant for the President were read and interpreted to him, Mr Jamal said they were misplaced, since “it is not possible” for the President to read every single letter that was directed to the Presidency on a daily basis.
Mr Nyaunu, the Campaign Co-ordinator of the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, in her bid for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearership, made the suggestion that President Mills could no longer read during a campaign forum for some selected party delegates in the Greater Accra Region.
According to the MP, the President's poor eyesight affects his work and so he needs to be voted out, since he has lost control of affairs.
“When you write a letter to report a minister to the President, he cannot read your letter and these circumstances clearly indicate that the man (President) is not in charge,” the MP had said.
Worse still, he said, persons in whose care the President had entrusted such confidential letters photocopied them and later went to the persons about whom the complaints had been made to report the complainants.
Explaining further, Mr Nyaunu had said the situation had become so serious that many of the people surrounding the President had taken control.
“Every minister is a President and nobody is controlling any minister. They are all on their own,” he told the delegates.
He accused Messrs Ato Ahwoi and P.V. Obeng of usurping the powers of the President.
“The only thing you will hear is that Ato Ahwoi and P.V. would say they are sacking somebody. This is the extent to which we are going but we can’t say this in public,” he told the delegates.
The MP, who expressed surprise at the manner in which the matter had got into the public domain, admitted the comments when quizzed by some media houses.
“I see the comments as infantile, childish and irrelevant to the selection of a candidate,” Mr Jamal said.
He expressed surprise at the fact that the MP, who was seeking to promote a candidate to the high office of the land, would denigrate the same office with such unwarranted criticisms.