"Petty and ridiculous:" gov't bashed for suspending presidential staffer

The suspension of presidential staffer

Dr Donkor, who works as a Policy and Communication Analyst at the Jubilee House, was suspended for saying he does not deal with footsoliders, a term for activists of political parties.

A statement from the Chief of Staff Frema Osei-Opare announcing her suspension said: "My attention has been drawn to some unsavoury comments attributed to Dr Louise Carol Serwaa Donkor, the Policy and Communication Analyst, at your outfit.“These comments sought to disparage a section of the Ghanaian society, a conduct which is unacceptable to this Office. Consequently, you are directed to suspend Dr Donkor from office for a period of thirty days beginning the 13th day of June, 2018."

Commenting on the matter, a member of feminist group Pepper Dem Ministries and a friend of Dr Donkor, Ms Felicity Nelson, slammed the government over the decision to suspend her friend.

“Right now, I think that we are actually going into an era in which we are doing government by foot soldiers. … There was no mention of NPP or NDC, so, I’m quite surprised that NPP people have taken it so personally,” she said on Accra-based Class FM.

“I think even they [Presidency] know that it is so petty and so ridiculous… Why didn’t they say that: ‘We want to appease our foot soldiers because we failed to give them jobs, we failed to give them the healthcare they deserve, we don’t give them ambulances if they go to the hospitals, no oxygen, we haven’t given you the factories we promised … so what we are going to do is that we are going to use this to distract them from the things that we have actually failed to provide’, so, that’s what this really is and I’m so appalled, I’m really appalled … I’m so ashamed to be Ghanaian today because I actually voted for this government, today I am ashamed”, Ms Nelson fumed.