Budgeting GHS 4m for govt propaganda is inhumane - Okudzeto Ablakwa 'blasts' Akufo-Addo

He described the the decision as callous and inhumane amidst a pandemic.

The former Deputy Minister of Education said such an amount of money should have been channeled to the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to aid education on the COVID-19 vaccinations.

In a post on Facebook, he wrote: “This business of classifying Government Communication as a Government Flagship Programme and allocating hefty sums (GH¢6million in 2020 and GHC4million in 2021) must stop. Note that the Ministry of Information has a separate budget.

“Meanwhile, the Goods and Services budget for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has been drastically cut from GH¢7,016,420 in 2020 to GH¢4,291,295 in 2021 budget,” Mr Ablakwa said.

MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Pulse Ghana

He added: “One would have thought that during a pandemic where credible public education is a critical requirement to fight vaccine hesitancy and all the conspiracy theories out there, the NCCE budget would rather have been raised substantially and government communicators asked to take a rest. In any case, it is trite knowledge that in periods like these, the general public prefers to listen to non-partisan experts and not government propagandists.

“I humbly suggest that government reallocates that GHS4million to the NCCE. It’s not late to rethink this. Don’t squeeze out additional taxes from the people in these tough times only to fund government propaganda as a flagship programme”, he added.