OPEN LETTER TO H.E THE VICE PRESIDENT JOHM DRAMANI MAHAMA

VEEP, YOUR SPOKESPERSON INSULTS GHANAIAN WOMEN. DISCIPLINE HIM

Your Excellency,

I hope you are well. I have taken this unusual step of addressing an open letter to you to draw your attention to very unsavoury remarks made by your spokesperson, John Jinapor, on the Metro TV Good Morning Ghana programme of Monday, 14th June 2010. Having known and appeared with you on numerous such programmes in the past, before you ascended to the high office of Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, I am aghast at the thought that an individual who can express such derogatory remarks about Ghanaian women is your spokesperson and I hope you will scrutinize the persons you choose to represent and speak for you carefully.

On that programme, I made an open statement that we are aware of people who have completed their houses within 6 months of the NDC coming into power, without naming anybody. I also stated that the President himself, as Candidate Mills, had accused certain high ranking NPP members of having their homes built for them by drug barons, even though these individuals had slaved for over 15 years to build their houses and that we need to de-politicize the fight against drugs and deal with it in a holistic, systemic manner. Your spokesperson claimed that I was referring to him as having built his house in 6 months of coming into office, and proceeded to cast insinuations on me and assassinate my character, claiming he knows women, presumably including me, who engaged in prostitution with big politicians, sitting in their laps to get money to build house, ending facetiously by saying people who live in glass houses should not throw stones!!!!.

For the record, I spent 14 long years building my house with money earned the hard way working as a lawyer, English language tutor in Japan, World Bank Consultant, Managing Director and Corporate Affairs Director of a multi national company. It is still a work in progress!

I find Jinapor’s statement not only reprehensible, but in keeping with the character of some news papers sympathetic to the NDC, which have labeled several illustrious Ghanaian women as prostitutes merely because they do not share their political sentiments. For myself, I have long been subjected to this kind of vilification, have therefore developed a thick skin and can survive such mean spirited personal attacks. However, I feel strongly about the negative impact such statements (coming from highly placed political figures who should know better, such as the spokesperson of our Vice President) will have on younger, more impressionable and less tough women who desire to make a career in politics.

We all know that when it comes to the number of women in politics and decision making in Ghana, our record is dismal, not encouraging and set to worsen in the near future if all of us do not make a concerted effort to identify, nurture, train, mentor and encourage more women to enter into the political arena. Let’s face the uncomfortable fact that it is statements like these out of the mouth of your spokesperson which deter women from entering into politics. It is vicious unwarranted personal attacks on the very few high profile female politicians by their political opponents which put off the next generation of female politicians because they would not want to expose themselves and their families to this kind of dirty politicking, insults and vicious lies.

What John Jinapor said repeatedly on air was not just a personal attack on Ursula, but an insult and an affront to all Ghanaian womanhood because he sought to suggest that women are incapable of acquiring property by dint on their own hard work, but have to prostitute themselves to get money to do so. Coming from someone working so closely with you, you stand the danger of being accused of sharing those sentiments and it would be in your interest (if you don’t) to reassure all the women of Ghana that you hold them in much higher esteem than your spokesperson appears to do. I also hope that you will reprimand your spokesperson and teach him to be more respectful of women because one such illustrious Ghanaian woman nurtured him in her womb for 9 months, cared for him and contributed immensely to make him what he is today. If for nothing at all, he should remember his own mother and mind his language! Hopefully, by making a public example of him, you will help to deter others in your fold who may have such a low opinion of Ghanaian women. I do not want to think that you put him up to this appalling conduct because never in all my interactions with you did you cast any aspersions on me or any woman. It is surprising then that such a man should be your spokesperson. I sincerely hope this is not a case of “show me your friend…..”

We are watching!

Ursula Owusu

Proud Ghanaian Female Politician and Women’s Rights Advocate

Ursula

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Sellasie I