A leading figure in the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko does not get the “fuss” former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo made over the inclusion of pensioners in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
In a tweet on Sunday, Mr. Otchere-Darko who is also a cousin of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo added that while he sympathizes with those picketing, he finds it difficult to understand why they are asking “to be exempted from an improved offer programme which is voluntary.”
“Why picket over an offer that you have the liberty not to accept?” he quizzed
According to him, the former Chief Justice “erred big time in her basic appreciation of the issues.”
“Rather than asking the government for exemption at this late hour, why did she simply not exempt herself from exchanging her original bond for the new one?”
“Why picket over something you don’t like (the improved offer) when you have the right not to sign up? Sorry, but I struggle to get her emotional outburst over-exemption! I hope she won’t volunteer to picket tomorrow and on the same issues when the time to sign up has expired.”
“For a former CJ to take up a noble cause such as she did but at such a late hour when all was done and for all that publicity, she owed it to herself and her social standing to have understood the issues far better than what she exhibited last Friday. She is bigger than that,” he added.
(3) The former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, may mean well but she erred big time in her basic appreciation of the issues. Rather than asking the Govt for exemption at this late hour, why did she simply not 'exempt' herself from exchanging her original bond for the new one!
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) February 12, 2023
(4) Why picket over something you don't like (the improved offer) when you have the right not to sign up? Sorry, but I struggle to get her emotional outburst over exemption! I hope she won't volunteer to picket tomorrow and on the same issues when the time to sign up has expired.
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) February 12, 2023
(5) I was among those who pleaded for the exemption of pensioners. But, the Govt had to balance all that with the need to protect the economy for the 33m population and settled on the 15% yield maturing in 5yrs instead of 15, and that the individual was FREE not to participate.
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) February 12, 2023
(6) For a former CJ to take up a noble cause such as she did but at such late hour when all was done and for all that publicity, she owed it to herself and her social standing to have understood the issues far better than what she exhibited last Friday. She is bigger than that.
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) February 12, 2023
The former Chief Justice on Friday, February 10, 2023, joined a group of pensioners to picket at the Finance Ministry.
She described the move by the government as sheer wickedness and outright disrespect to the elderly who have sacrificed their lives for the development of the nation.
Madam Sophia Akuffo also called on the government to be transparent and account to Ghanaians what led to the current economic crisis and what all the loans were used for.
She threatened to head to court if government does not exclude pensioners from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
