The Second Deputy speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has chastised former President John Mahama for appointing a “blind person” as minister of chieftaincy affairs.

According to him, Ghanaian culture does not allow one who is not “whole” to be made a chief, and so was inappropriate for Mr. Mahama to make a blind person a leader of the ministry that handled chieftaincy affairs.

“In our tradition if you are not whole can you be a chief or a queen mother? So when you form a government and make the minister for chieftaincy a blind person, and the chiefs are objecting and you don’t change it, what are you telling the chiefs?

“These are facts I’m stating, I have not added anything. You all know it but maybe you may not have appreciated the impact on what happened. And when some of us are close and we can foresee it and we say it, then they are called upon to insult us,” Mr. Bagbin who is campaigning to lead the NDC in the 2020 elections told members of the party in the Volta region, where is currently canvassing for votes, ahead of the Presidential primaries.

Dr. Seidu Danaa who is visually impaired was minister for Chieftaincy affairs under former President John Mahama.

Mr. Bagbin also said former communications minister Dr. Omane Boamah was not fit for the position because he stammered.

“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.

“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.

“You didn’t realise it, I studied governance and leadership up to the Master’s [level], so, I have some of these things at hand… They were some of these mistakes that cost us dearly.”