Government has defended the invitation of illiterate politician, Akua Donkor, to the just-ended National Economic Forum, NEF, at Senchi in the Eastern region.

The Founder of the Ghana Freedom Party, who attempted running for President in the 2012 elections but failed, was one of 140 Ghanaians, including economists, bankers, financial analysts, business people, labour union leaders, academicians, politicians, and others, who participated in the three-day forum.

Some Critics, including farmer groups, have criticised her presence at their expense. They wondered if she understood any of the technical economic issues discussed at the Forum.

However, Minister of State at the presidency in charge of private public partnerships, Rashid Pelpuo, says the criticism against the presence of the farmer-turned-politician is not fair.

Speaking on Joy FM’s newsfile programme on Saturday, Mr Pelpuo said the views of any Ghanaian, including Akua Donkor, was important to be heard at the forum and so justified her invitation.

He cited an example of how Akua Donkor made some contribution about Ghana’s persisting energy crisis at the forum.

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jr, who was also on the programme, flayed Akua Donkor for her “weird” suggestions at the forum.

“I’m not going to go out there and say because she’s not educated in terms of English language and the rest, she didn’t have to be there. But I think she’s also not doing much justice to the proceedings because I heard her on air, the contributions she claims she made, and interestingly Pelpuo says it was to do with energy. Her view is that those who do generator business are in conspiracy with the ECG and it is them who tell the ECG to put off the light so that the generator business will go up.”

“You see, this crudity does not help us to accept that here was somebody who contributed something useful to a project. It’s difficult. So is that what she really said there? This kind of weird conspiracy theory is put into a serious programme like a national economic forum or dialogue,” Mr Baako said.