Social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to sack the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu.
This follows the Minister’s acknowledgement of the fact that he erred in handling the whole Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine transaction.
The Minister engaged in an agreement with a middleman to procure the vaccines from Russia but the deal was done without parliamentary approval.
The Minister, by his action, is said to have infracted Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution.
Answering questions at the sitting of a bi-partisan Parliamentary Committee probing the contract, Monday, July 19, the minister said he failed to seek approval because, “I was seriously in a situation that could not make me think properly.
“I was in a desperate and helpless situation with the management of the covid numbers. In February, we had 78 deaths; by March, we had 56 deaths, and these were the numbers that pushed me to act…if you were the Health Minister, I think you might have taken certain decisions that on hindsight you may not have done those things. The country was not in normal times…this was the environment I found myself in and out of desperation, frustration, and so many things.”
Following these admissions, there have been diverse responses from a section of the public with some calling for his sack from office.
Mr Jacobs, who is among those who believe the Health Minister should be sacked, questioned why Mr Agyeman-Manu didn’t inform Parliament before the transaction.
“You are a Parliamentarian. You know the rules of engagement when it comes to international transactions. So why can’t you inform Parliament?”
To him, the Minister has caused collateral damage to the government, therefore, doesn’t deserve to remain in his office.
“I know the President cherishes friendship and relationship but when it reaches an extent where the old man says I didn’t think properly, then the President can also find a way to tell him that me too, I’m not thinking properly; so go home. It’s as simple as ABCD,” he insisted on Peace FM.
READ ALSO:
