My attention has been drawn to certain comments of Mr. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, the deputy minister of information, and I wish to react to them.

First, Mr. Deputy, Ghana belongs to all of us and we all have the right to comment on any issue we have opinions about. Government does not have the luxury to determine who can and who cannot speak. The culture of silence is dead and we have freedom of speech (to the extent that they are limited by such laws as the law of contempt and the abominable "causing fear and panic" law). To this end, it is shocking that a minister of state responsible for media relations can even suggest that "credibility" is the new benchmark for assessing who can and cannot speak in Ghana today. That line of reasoning is faulty at best, and very harmful for our democracy. If adopted, it could lead to the reintroduction of the culture of silence via the back door, especially as what constitutes credibility is then open to political convenience.

Having made that point, Mr. minister, you need to be reminded that if 'credibility', your own benchmark for being able to express opinions were the case, then you should not have also opened your mouth. To be direct, 'You are not clean yourself.' The NYEP, which has been renamed GYEEDA has been exposed as being one of the agencies of government where corruption is abundant and you were in charge over the last for years as deputy national coordinator. Recent revelations have caused a lot of fear in Ghana and my dear minister; you have been implicated as well, so if the benchmark was credibility, you too should not have spoken.

Again, if credibility was the benchmark, does the ministry of information qualify then to speak on any issue? This ministry lied to Ghanaians about the president's relationship with Andrew Solomon, causing such embarrassment that the president had to personally call Mr. Solomon to apologise. Is that a credible ministry? The much publicized rancor between yourself and colleague ministers that lead to the declaration by yourself that you work more than another deputy minister was also not reassuring in terms of the credibility of the ministry. Going by the maxim, he who goes to equity must do so with clean hands, did you have the right to speak then?

I have decided to react to your comments because such is not good for our development as a country. They are a bad example for children, very divisive and tension raising. It also has the tendency to scare investors, who might be alarmed that ministers reason along such lines.

I understand that criticisms are difficult to stomach and that sometimes there is always the tendency to react in the manner you did; attack the personality of the one criticising and avoid the hard truth issues. The only problem with that approach is that it is backward, childish and propagandist. Something that makes your credibility become very laughable indeed.

But to get to the hard truth of the matter, Mr. Osarfo Marfo stampeded Ghana to middle income status from a HIPC country. He was the finance minister that was at the helm of affairs for much of the time while this phenomenal transformation was ongoing. If that is a disastrous performance, what about Dr. Kwabena Duffour who slowed down the rate of growth of the economy and paid large judgment debts?

We are all young men Mr. Minister. There is no need to do what you did. One would have expected that you will be honest and debate the solutions. But this is not to say that you must be discarded into the abyss of political irrelevancy on the basis of damaged credibility. The people of Ghana will wait for a better piece.

God bless us all.

Nana Kofi Oppong-Damoah

Host, Minority Caucus

Member, NPP Com. Team.