NPP-Canada On The “Chalkgate” Palaver

Ordinarily one insensitive remark by a second lady would not have attracted any comment by NPP-Canada. But coming as it is in a long line of slights, insensitivities and outright insults by government officials and persons closely related to high government officials, the comment by Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur begs some reaction.

It was not too long ago that the Minister among whose portfolio is law enforcement, protection of lives and property looked Ghanaians in the eye and told them that “violence begets violence”. This was when the Minister was asked what he planned to do about the violence being perpetrated on other citizens by an amorphous, violence-inclined group associated with the NDC.

A few short months ago, in May 2015 to be precise, A Presidential Staffer by the name Alhaji Halidu Haruna dealt our women-folk a heavy dose of insult. Alhaji Haruna had referred to women celebrities above 30 years of age and unmarried as “prostitutes”. The crime of these women was that some had dared to criticize the NDC government of President Mahama for its poor handling of the dumsor crises. To add insults to injury, an NDC Communicator, Dela Coffie, had also described these female celebrities as suffering from menopause hence their amplification of the problems of Ghanaians under dumsor.

Not to be out done, another Presidential Staffer, Mr. Sam George set his sights on the disabled. Mr. George was not very amused when, at the Congress of the NDC, Mr. Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary of the CPP, had emerged as the most uncompromising in his criticism of the government of President Mahama. In an apparent reference to Mr. Greestreet’s confinement to a wheelchair as a result of an auto accident, Mr. George said of Mr. Greenstreet that from where he sat, he (Greenstreet) suffered from an inability to see the big picture.

Also in the queue is a former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Mahama Ayariga. Not amused by a question from a Journalist about accounting for public funds spent in Equatorial Guinea, Mr. Ayariga retorted that the Journalist was asking him “useless questions”.

For at least a couple of years now, there has been several alarms raised over the scarcity of basic teaching supplies like chalk in Ghana’s schools. And the response has been to send in computers in a dumsor-ravaged country? It is not unlike what is said of French Queen Marie Antoinette who is infamously reported to have retorted “let them eat cake” when she was told that the people were complaining that there was no bread.

So while the insensitive comment by Mrs. Amissah-Arthur is sad, it is not altogether a surprising one. Mrs. Amissah-Arthur is obviously so much out of touch with the reality of the daily struggles of ordinary Ghanaians. And as if that was not regrettable enough, she is associated with a government that tries to pull the wool over the eyes of all with propaganda and heavy politically-tinged spending.

For how long will Ghanaians tolerate this?



NPP Canada Communication Team
NPPCanada@outlook.com
Tel: 587-708-9915 / 647-800-3585