Mahama's 'mischievous, double standard' accusations lack substance – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said former President John Mahama’s recent comments about the Akufo-Addo administration are “mischievous” and smack of “double standards”.

Reacting to the former president’s recent suggestion that press freedom under President Nana Akufo-Addo has suffered a deafening blow with the closure of pro-opposition radio stations Radio Gold and Radio XYZ among others, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said: “Any observer of our political landscape will not need to spend so much time in coming to the conclusion that the former President’s comments and actions in recent times are politically mischievous and demonstrative of double standards”.

“First of all”, the former broadcaster explained, “The former President has not acknowledged that these two stations he talked about are not the only stations that have been affected by the ruling that has been occasioned by their own petition at the Electronic Communication Tribunal”, wondering: “Does the former President suggest that the NCA stands in contempt of the ruling of the Tribunal?”

Mr Oppong Nkrumah observed that: “The former President, under his watch, allowed some of these stations to disobey the laws of the land”, but “today, you have an administration that says the law must be applied as difficult as it is”.

“If he [Mr Mahama] makes an argument that the Akufo-Addo administration is superintending a pushback on media freedom, it is not backed by substance”, Mr Oppong Nkrumah responded on Accra-based Citi FM on Tuesday, 21 May 2019.

He said three years into the Akufo-Addo administration, “We remain accountable to the people of Ghana to commit and explain to them what we have achieved so far and what remains outstanding in all humility”, adding: “But when you have the former President or executives of the former administration now seek the moral high ground and preach to the country about how better to manage the economy, we have a responsibility to quickly point to them what their record is vis-à-vis what our records are while we look at ways out there to complete what remains undone of our agenda.”