Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu says President Akufo-Addo’s light-hearted reaction to calls for Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s resignation should not be construed as an indication that the Minister will not be sanctioned by the President.
During his tour of the Bono Region, the President jokingly mentioned the intense public criticisms against Health Minister Agyeman-Manu during his speech at a durbar on Tuesday.
Tagging the Minister as an important player in his government, the President, said, “Mr Agyeman-Manu, has endured a lot of suffering to stabilise the health sector, despite his efforts, he is receiving slaps” from a section of Ghanaians.
Mr Kpebu said the President, while touring the region where Mr Agyeman-Manu is an MP and one of their influential opinion leaders, could not have criticized the Minister or rub his mistakes in their faces while soliciting for their support.
“The reaction of the President at that place is not an indication that Mr Agyeman-Manu will not be sacked or resign. How on earth was the President going to stand there, and embarrass him and say ‘yes Mr Agyeman-Manu you did all of these things wrong’?”
“Naturally, he would have to make a light moment of it and then when the President returns to Accra, he would do the needful,” he told Ernest Manu on Thursday.
Mr Kpebu stated that because the people voted massively for the President, they will not take it kindly if he told them directly that he is sacking one of their revered members from his cabinet.
“It has to be done in a humane manner, he can’t rub it in their faces. So for me, I don’t think that because he made a light moment out of it, he will retain the position,” he added.
Sputnik V Vaccine deal
The President’s comment comes days after the Health Minister received massive backlash from the public as well as a call by the Minority in Parliament for him to resign after some details of the Sputnik V Vaccine emerged.
A revelation by the ad-hoc committee set up by Parliament to probe the procurement of Sputnik vaccines showed that the Health Minister paid 50% of the contract sum to Sheikh Al Maktoum prior to appearing before them.
The government had paid $2,850,000 of $5,700,000 in the controversial Sputnik vaccine deal. However, Mr Agyeman-Manu denied knowledge of any payment when he testified before the ad hoc committee.
After the report, the Ministry of Health clarified that the sector minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, received information about the payment to Messrs Al Maktoum, in respect of the Sputnik V contract, after he appeared before the committee probing the deal.
He sent the details of the transaction to the committee attached to the letter he wrote.
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