Mr. Mahama Ayariga, Member of Parliament and Minister of Information and Media Relations, should resign both positions immediately to save his face and what is left of whatever dignity he may claim to have.
Sure, we all make mistakes as human beings, but when within the space of one month a Minister of Information creates a pathetic contemptible image of himself, what reason should he have to continue to be in office?
Mr. Ayariga committed an unpardonable blunder, when he stated categorically, that President John Dramani Mahama and an American called Andrew Solomon had never met until Mr. Mahama’s launch of his autobiography entitled MY FIRST COUP D’ETAT, in the United States of America.
In the first place, why was Mr. Ayariga so anxious to distance President Mahama from Andrew Solomon? Well, Andrew Solomon is no ordinary homosexual practicing his preference without making any noise about it.
Andrew Solomon, who claims to be the ‘wife’ of another homosexual called John Habich, is the High Priest, Crusader and Evangelist of the Homosexuality cult.
Andrew Solomon has an organisation with the acronym LGBT, meaning, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and the Transgendered. Left to Andrew Solomon, everyone in the world would be a homosexual.
Mr. Ayariga was anxious to distance President Mahama from this Andrew Solomon, probably because he could not, even in his wildest imagination, see President Mahama associating himself with homosexuals.
Well, as it turned out, up to the time of the book launch, Andrew Solomon and President Mahama had been close friends for eight years, with Andrew Solomon treating President Mahama to mouth-watering meals.
Hardly had the last word fallen from the lips of Mr. Ayariga, when President Mahama got in touch to offer his apologies to Andrew Solomon, and to confirm their undying friendship.
Andrew Solomon did not stop at accepting President Mahama’s apology, but that Chief of Homosexuals wrote as follows: “I hope that President Mahama will seize this occasion to take a leadership role in the region on LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and the Transgendered) rights.”
Well, some of us cannot tell whether President Mahama has decided to pick up the flag of homosexuality and become Andrew Solomon’s Disciple, Evangelist and Crusader in the West Africa sub-region, if not the whole of Africa.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ayariga offered a groveling apology. The irony is that he did not need to bring embarrassment and shame to himself.
You see, a media house had asked Mr. John Jinapor, the Spokesperson of President Mahama, about the relationship between President Mahama and Andrew Solomon. Mr. Jinapor had, very sensibly, told the media house that he did not have information, but would find out.
If Mr. Ayariga had not acted the eager beaver, or the sycophant ever-ready to please his master, it would not have been necessary to offer that groveling apology and a retraction.
What sounds like another gaffe is actually not a gaffe, but a case of the servant suffering death to save his master? It had to do with the new official residence of President Mahama.
It will be recalled that the Kufuor government built a permanent home for the country’s Presidents with money from India, and from the country’s own resources. The place was named “Jubilee House.”
The late President John Evans Atta Mills steadfastly refused to occupy the place, apart from once or twice receiving the credentials of foreign envoys accredited to Ghana.
One morning, we woke up to find out that a person or persons, yet to be identified, had, in a surreptitious, ‘’necodemus’’ cowardly and contemptible manner, changed the name to “Flagstaff House.”
President Mahama decided to move into the Presidential Palace now secretly re-named “Flagstaff House.”
On February 10, February 11, and February 12, 2013, three press releases issued from the palace, and signed by Dr. Raymond Atuguba, the President’s Executive Secretary, bore the following address, “Office of the President, Jubilee Flagstaff House, Accra.”
What? Jubilee Flagstaff House? Reports had Mr. Ayariga saying emphatically that, indeed, there had been a name-change from “Flagstaff House” to Jubilee Flagstaff House.”
The reports further refer to Mr. Ayariga as saying that although he could not state exactly when the name was changed, he knew that the President started using it when he moved to the place.
He is quoted as saying: “The two names have been put together, and I think it is time we make progress, and we focus on what is happening in Jubilee Flagstaff House, and not the name.”
As it was in the case of Andrew Solomon, the carpet was yanked from under the feet of Mr. Ayariga, when Mr. Stan Dogbe, a Presidential Staffer contradicted him on his Facebook by stating that there had not been any name change, and that “Flagstaff House” remained the name.
The Minister of Information did not know when a name change was effected. And then a mere staffer told him and the rest of us that, in fact, there had not been any name change. The correction did not even come from a high ranking official such as the Executive Secretary. What kind of humiliation is that?
From all indications, Mr. Ayariga was right in talking about a name change. It is nonsense to talk of a typographical error or template type error.
I have no sympathy for Mr. Ayariga. Instead of praising him for sacrificing himself and his reputation to save the blushes of a timid, easily malleable and controlled President Mahama, I see him (Mr. Ayariga) as a sycophantic young fool, more interested in his stomach than in maintaining a good name for himself, his family, and posterity.
Mr. Ayariga is a lawyer, and Shakespeare says in his play, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act 1 Scene 2, thus, “Good counsellors (lawyers) lack no clients.” Can’t he set up his law chambers or join existing ones?
By the way, is the Ministry of Information under a curse? Look at the fate of those who worked there between January 7, 2009 and December 2012.
Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, Mr. John Akologo Tia, Mr. Fritz Baffour, and Deputy Ministers Agyenim Boateng and Baba Jamal, all went out. Only Deputy Minister Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa stayed put like the Rock of Gibraltar.
I repeat that if Mr. Mahama Ayariga has the least modicum of self respect, and thinks of his family, he will do the honourable thing by resigning immediately.