Persons with speech impairment have pounced on National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential hopeful Alban Bagbin for describing them as unfit to occupy certain positions in government.
The second deputy speaker of Parliament slammed former president John Mahama for appointing Dr. Omane Boamah as Communications Minister despite being a stammerer.
“I learnt from tradition that it is not the chief that speaks, it is the linguist and, so, when you are a leader, you must have a very good linguist.
“When Prof [Atta Mills] was in power, Haruna Iddrisu was our linguist in charge of communication, when my brother John [Mahama] came to power, he substituted him for Dr Omane Boamah who is a natural stammerer,” the Nadowli Kaleo MP said during his tour of the Volta Region.
He added: “He is a very intelligent boy, he is smart but when he is speaking, he wastes time in coming out and Ghanaians do not have that much patience, so, they are always looking for those that are rattling.
“So, even though you might have a good message, you will not succeed in marketing that message because somebody is there from the other side rattling and they are listening to him, so, we came down.”
However, persons who stammer have issued a statement demanding an apology from the legislature over such “disparaging comments.
“We find his description of the former minister not only unguarded, reckless and infantile, but an attack on all well meaning stammerers in the Communications Industry,” the statement said.
It added: “It’s against this backdrop that we demand a full apology on behalf of Dr. Omane Boamah from the Nadowli West constituency while cautioning him to desist from passing comments which have the potential of undermining the intellectual capacities of people with physical impairment.”
Below is the full statement
STATEMENT BY PERSONS WHO STAMMER ON DISPARAGING COMMENTS BY SECOND DEP SPEAKER
Our attention has been drawn to a very damning soundbite on stammerers from the second deputy speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and MP for Nadowli Kaleo.
On the voice clip, the Second Deputy Speaker was heard clearly alluding that Dr. Omane Boamah was not fit to occupy the Communications Ministry because he is a stammerer.
We find his description of the former minister not only unguarded, reckless and infantile, but an attack on all well meaning stammerers in the Communications Industry.
Stammering is a speech disorder which impairs one’s speech flow, but that cannot, with all due respect to the Mr. Bagbin be used as yardstick to judge one’s competency.
We note with concern that his unguarded attack on the former minister could discourage many stammerers from going into politics and public service.
It’s against this backdrop that we demand a full apology on behalf of Dr. Omar Boamah from the Nadowli West constituency while cautioning him to desist from passing comments which have the potential of undermining the intellectual capacities of people with physical impairment.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
