General News of Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Source: The Herald

Kwesi Nduom Clashes With Stan Dogbe

By Gifty Arthur

The office of Dr. Paapa Kwesi Nduom, the man who prides himself with all the successes of the ex-President Kufuor regime but not its failures, is questioning the political stature of Presidential Aide Stan Dogbe in issuing an ultimatum to the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) presidential hopeful.

Dr. Nduom’s office, in a press statement, said it was not amused about Mr. Dogbe’s remarks advising him not to pretend to be at the same level with the likes of Dr. Nduom anytime he wanted to engage in national discourse because he was nowhere near him.

“Young propagandists like Dogbe must learn to walk with their equals and not attempt to joke with serious national matters. As the saying goes monkeys play by sizes,” the statement said.

It has, therefore, sounded a word of caution to the presidential aide to desist from attacking their leader if he had no serious contribution to make on national debate.

The press statement which was signed by one Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, last Friday, was in reaction to a statement made by Mr. Dogbe on Multi TV’s political talk show, ‘Majority Caucus’ on Thursday in relation to Dr Nduom’s comments on last week’s heavy downpour which claimed lives, with the death toll increasing by the day and destroyed properties as well as rendering many people homeless in Accra.

In the said comments, CPP’s aspiring flag bearer and onetime minister in the Kufuor government told ‘Joy News’ that the nation’s leader must be proactive to avert future floods instead of sympathizing with flood victims.

Dr. Nduom was reported to have said that there was the need “to figure out what we can do to ensure the water courses are taken care of proactively”.

But Mr. Dogbe, who appears not to be enthused about the remarks of Dr. Nduom, rubbished his submission and challenged Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, to within a week come up with a proposal that will help alleviate the flooding situation in the capital.

“For those politicians like Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and the Nana Addos, who stayed in government for eight years, had they constructed some storm drains each year as we have done, I am sure that we would not have been here today” Mr. Dogbe stressed.

He added that “I said it in 2007 and he got angry with me then, but I am saying it again, he is not going to get 1.7% of the total votes that will be cast in 2012.”

However, the Nduom office thinks that “…Presidential Aides are engaged to help the President to manage the affairs of the country. If they have nothing positive to contribute to making Ghana a better place, then they should leave serious-minded people like Dr. Nduom alone,”

The statement said that issues such as the catastrophe that engulfed the nation last Wednesday, was so huge that it is “not the time for mindless propaganda, Dogbe should take note. He should go and find playmates of his size to play with”.