{"id":272922,"date":"2011-01-06T03:41:18","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T03:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/?p=45041"},"modified":"2011-01-06T03:41:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T03:41:18","slug":"npp-replies-government-taxi-drivers-are-also-persons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/06\/npp-replies-government-taxi-drivers-are-also-persons\/","title":{"rendered":"NPP replies Government: Taxi Drivers are also Persons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_29920\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29920\" style=\"width: 280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-29920\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2010\/11\/03\/jake-jabs-allotey-jacobs\/jake_obetsebi_lamptey\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29920\" title=\"jake_obetsebi_lamptey\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/jake_obetsebi_lamptey.jpg\" alt=\"jake_obetsebi_lamptey\" width=\"280\" height=\"258\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, National Chairman, NPP<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nOn Wednesday, a Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng, insulted Ghanaian taxi drivers.<br \/>\nSpeaking  on Joy FM\u2019s Super Morning Show, the young deputy Minister, said unlike  the Kufuor government, the Mills-Mahama administration has not appointed  taxi drivers to manage the nation\u2019s affairs.<br \/>\nThe New Patriotic  Party is calling on the President to act on his words this time and  reprimand the Deputy Minister for these unwarranted insults to Ghanaian  taxi drivers.<br \/>\nIt is just another example of the arrogance of  power that the ruling NDC, under its see-no-evil,  hear-no-evil-by-my-people President John Evans Atta Mills.<br \/>\nIt is  this same arrogance that had another deputy minister insulting Ghanaians  in cocoa-growing areas as primitive and uncultured. Yet, it is the  labour and fruit of these same cocoa farmers that have educated millions  of Ghanaians from colonial days and continue to do so. The least  President Mills and his people can do is to respect them. They do not  deserve to be insulted by the appointees of the President of the  Republic.<br \/>\nIs it not ironic that the NDC, which calls itself  social democrats and have spent propaganda time and energy falsely  describing the NPP as elitist, should now, in power, turn around and  criticize the NPP for appointing taxi drivers as government officials.<br \/>\nThe  NPP believes in building a society of opportunities for all. We believe  that with education come opportunities, that is why we are committed to  making sure that the potential of every Ghanaian child, regardless of  his or her circumstances of birth, should be assisted and encouraged to  blossom.<br \/>\nIndeed, many Ghanaians, both at home and abroad, who did  not have the opportunity or privilege to climb the academic ladder  through uninterrupted education, for one reason or the other, do go on  to combine work with education and they must be encouraged.<br \/>\nThey  may sell on the streets of Accra, clean offices in London, serve as  security guards in Amsterdam, work as factory hand in Hamburg, or drive  taxis in New York. But, they so with one eye on improving themselves so  that they may one day rise to the top of the social ladder.<br \/>\nSome  have risen to become Cabinet Ministers and we are happy to have  facilitated that and we hope that will encourage more and more Ghanaians  to see education, including adult education, as not time-bound.  Ghanaians should also know that in the NPP you can be a taxi driver and  still rise to the top.<br \/>\nEveryday sees the NDC exposing itself as a  hypocritical, deceptive and dishonest team of incompetent people who  have lied their way to office and their way of paying Ghanaians back is  to insult them.<br \/>\nIt has gotten so bad that young people, who until  2009, had never held a full time permanent job, lack experience, but  are now government officials feel so superior to the people they are  supposed to serve that they can now insult Ghanaians who are struggling  to make ends meet and better their lives.<br \/>\nAfter insulting the  nation that the Mills-Mahama administration has created 1.6 million  ghost jobs, government officials have gone a step further by insulting  hardworking Ghanaians.<br \/>\nIf all that Government can do is to  increase the burden on commercial drivers by increasing fuel prices, we  are asking them to not add insults to injuries by insulting commercial  drivers on top of that.<br \/>\nThere are several taxi drivers, in Ghana  and abroad, who are educating themselves further or are already good  enough to also wear a tie and coat like the Agyenim-Boatengs of the  Mills-Mahama government. What is Government\u2019s message to them? That they  should also begin raining insults because that is the only way that  they can be noticed by Professor Mills to be considered good enough for  an appointment?<br \/>\nSome people do the work they do because of the  circumstances they find themselves in. Some are proud of the work they  do and they all contribute to building a nation. Let us not degrade and  insult them.<br \/>\nAgyenim-Boateng must be ashamed of himself. There  are government officials, including Ministers of State, who are rather  using their period in office, while being paid by taxpayers, to further  their education. If the Ghanaian people are not complaining about that  then the least such government officials should do is not to insult  those who have chosen to educate themselves before any future  appointment.<br \/>\nThose who decide to prepare themselves before they  are offered appointments should be encouraged rather than insulted. We  should not encourage them to learn from a government that has been  characterized by incompetence, lies and arrogance.<br \/>\nAgyenim-Boateng  should apologise to all Ghanaian taxi drivers for raining such strong  unprovoked attack on them. We will urge Ghanaians, including taxi  drivers, to go on working hard and that there is a brighter future ahead  of them after 2012.<br \/>\nSigned<br \/>\nJake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey<br \/>\nNational Chairman, NPP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, a Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng, insulted Ghanaian taxi drivers. Speaking on Joy FM\u2019s Super Morning Show, the young deputy Minister, said unlike the Kufuor government, the Mills-Mahama administration has not appointed taxi drivers to manage the nation\u2019s affairs. The New Patriotic Party is calling on the President to act on his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NPP replies Government: Taxi Drivers are also Persons - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/06\/npp-replies-government-taxi-drivers-are-also-persons\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"NPP replies Government: Taxi Drivers are also Persons - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"On Wednesday, a Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng, insulted Ghanaian taxi drivers. 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