Ghana not experiencing culture of silence – Manteaw

Anti-corruption campaigner and chair of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Dr Steve Manteaw has rejected claims that Ghana is currently experiencing culture of silence.

In a Facebook post, Dr Manteaw said he is able to speak his mind freely and if need be, the government contests him on his thoughts.

His comments come after former AngloGold Ashanti boss, Sam Jonah KBE has insinuated that the country seems to be in a culture of silence.

At a Rotary Club function last weekend, Mr Sam Jonah said “What is baffling is that those who used to have voices on these things seem to have lost their voices. People speak on issues based on who is in power.

“Is our deafening silence suggesting that we are no longer concerned about issues that we complained about not too long ago, particularly when those issues persist….. The molestation of and in some cases assassination of journalists, murder of MPs, corruption, the harassment of anti-corruption agents.

“We have just finished another election, the 8th in the series since the beginning of our fourth Republican democratic experiment. As usual, the accolades came in from all corners of the world, and we took them with pride. What we failed to tell the world is that some people lost their lives in the course of the election.”

But some have disagreed with Sir Sam Jonah.

“I personally don’t think we live under a culture of silence. I’ve always felt free to speak my mind, and gov’t has contested me whenever they disagreed. It’s the beauty of democracy,” Dr Manteaw said.

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, for instance, has stated that “what I see now in Ghana is a Culture of Bizarre Intolerance but by a Special Class who believe they have the right to speak and squeal freely but others must be silent and not challenge the views of that Special Class”.