Flagbearer hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has begun dissecting the various appointments Mr. John Dramani Mahama made during his time as President of the Republic with his radar falling on Dr. Edward Omane Boamah and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Dr. Omane Boamah was Minister of Communications while Okudzeto Ablakwa was a deputy Minister for Education during the Mahama-led NDC administration.

However, Hon. Bagbin who is the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament believes that although the duo was very brilliant, the choice of the former Ghanaian Leader assigning them to the portfolios they held were wrong.

For instance, he said it was a very bad decision on the part of Mr. Mahama to have assigned Dr. Omane Boamah who is a “stammerer” to the position of Minister for Communications.

“I learnt from tradition that it is not the chief that speaks, it is the linguist and, so, when you are a leader, you must have a very good linguist. When Prof [Atta Mills] was in power, Haruna Iddrisu was our linguist in charge of communications. When my brother John [Mahama] came to power, he substituted him for Dr Omane Boamah who is a natural stammerer,” said Hon. Bagbin during his tour of the Volta Region.

He added: “He is a very intelligent boy, he is smart but when he is speaking, he wastes time in coming out and Ghanaians do not have that much patience, so, they are always looking for those that are rattling. So, even though you might have a good message, you will not succeed in marketing that message because somebody is there from the other side rattling and they are listening to him, so, we came down. You didn’t realize it. I studied governance and leadership up to the Master’s [level]; so, I have some of these things at hand… They were some of these mistakes that cost us dearly.”

Hon. Bagbin who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli/Kaleo also told the gathering that Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s appointment as deputy Minister for Education did nothing but contributed to the dwindling fortunes of the umbrella family.



“We had very good material in our last government but the placement was wrong. Look at my son-in-law Ablakwa; brilliant handsome young man but he had problems before he got his certificate at Legon. You recall they almost rusticated him. After he came to do his National Service in Parliament and joined politics, he was made a deputy Minister for Education in Charge of Tertiary. [So for] the lecturers, what are you telling them? Some of these decisions affected us a lot,” he said.