Are Ghanaians surprised about the behaviour of the Minister of Defence? Well, we on the DAYBREAK newspaper are not surprised about his behaviour one bit and his posture goes to shows that he is not on top of his brief.
This is a Minister who says DAYBREAK publishes falsehood, yet confirms at a durbar that Ghanaian soldiers on peacekeeping missions have turned their mission turf into sex parties, and even admonished our men in uniform to behave like catholic priests.
This is a Minister whose Deputy Director General of Defence Intelligence admits before the National Media Commission that ‘there are leaks from the Military to the DAYBREAK newspaper and that our stories about the Military are true and others are half truths’ yet the Minister says the DAYBREAK newspaper publishes falsehood.
This is a Minister who goes round with his Chief of Defence Staff telling troops not give us information and yet he lies through his teeth on matters such as the one under reference. This shows that his men do not trust him and they trust us in the media more than him.
When we said Major Moses Nanyun Nankpan (GH/3257) was professionally unfit as Military Assistant (MA), this same Minister said we were writing about another Moses not his Moses.
Well, we still maintain that Major MN Nankpan is a Special Duty Commissioned Officer born on 6th June 1969 and commissioned into the Pay Corps on 3rd September 2004. Before he was commissioned, Major MN Nankpan had been with the Military Police and the Pay Corps as an Other Rank. The major criterion for his selection as a Military Assistant is the fact that he is a KOKOMBA citizen just as the Honourable Member of Parliament for Bimbilla and Defence Minister. He has not had any proper command and staff training in the military to be able to give appropriate pieces of advice to the Minister. Thus, Moses lacks competence and skills commensurate with his appointment. He is only riding in a brand new Toyota land cruiser V8 to show that the Kokomba solidarity, loyalty and unity are real.
The shortcomings of Moses are reflecting in the speeches and appearance of the Defence Minister at Military functions, such as durbars with troops and meetings with the Military High Command and the general public.
The thought of it that Nitiwul sits in cabinet is mind blogging. Sitting in cabinet is not a bye election where a party’s general secretary parades your girlfriend and father before the Commander-In-Chief for him to talk you down to contest on his party’s ticket because the party must win the first bye election during his tenure.
Sitting in cabinet is a serious business and we doubt if this Minister is part of the much-touted ‘we have the men and women’ mantra.
We are not surprised because we on the DAYBREAK know for a fact that the Commander-In-Chief trusts other sources of information on his Ministry more than the briefs he gives to the Commander-In-Chief.
If as Minister you believe the lies fed you by a corrupt and an irresponsible man who cannot zip his trousers and condoms were swept from his office every morning at Burma Camp, this is what you end up.
President Mahama’s aide was charitable to you Mr. Minister. You have Defence Intelligence yet you are shallow than the word itself.
For us on this newspaper, we are just sad for the Akufo-Addo administration for appointing a boy at heart and in mind as the Minister of Defence.
We associate ourselves with the concerns raised by a known activist of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former leader of Tertiary Educational Institutions Network (TEIN), Baba Musah.
Read Baba Musah’s post below
In the last decade, Ghana has had fine Defence Ministers, both within NDC and NPP.
From Mr Kwame Addo Kufuor under HE Kufuor, General JH Smith under HE late Prof Mills, Mr Mark Woyongo and Dr Ben Kumbuor all under HE JM and now Mr Dominic Nitiwul under HE Nana Akufo Addo.
I must say that Hon. Nitiwul has lowered the bar very much, for the position of a Defence Minister. I recalled that many Ghanaians expressed their misgivings and displeasure when news broke that Mr Nitiwul was pencilled for appointment as a Defence Minister.
The argument against his nomination was not necessarily about his educational qualifications. Many made the argument that, his temperament and experience didn’t match with the post. Some argued that the position is supposed to be occupied by someone with experience in security issues or better still appreciable knowledge in handling security issues.
Some of us thought that it was a good opportunity for a young man like him to prove that the youth of this country also have something great to offer in our governance system, thereby an opportunity to prove his critics wrong.
But I must confess that as a young man I am terribly disappointed in his conduct, especially in his recent remarks about former President Mahama. His comments did not only sound improper, but they sounded amateurish and most unfortunate.
Even though in the past, he was guilty of making similar disparaging remarks about HE John Dramani Mahama but one would have thought that having been given the responsibility and opportunity to serve in such a sensitive ministry like Defence, he would have changed his modus operandi especially regarding his public conduct and utterances but it’s sad to note that nothing pretty much has changed.
It brings to question the safety of we the citizenry if people with such temperament are the very people manning or having direct control over sensitive installations like our security agencies in the country.
For God sake, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul must be decorous when he is addressing the former President, John Dramani Mahama or any other statesman. The use of such abusive tantrums by him against HE John Dramani Mahama does not make him a supernatural Minister.
Instead, it rather portrays him as an irresponsible amateurish Minister. It serves no purpose for a Minister who is supposed to know better, to speak publicly like a notorious drunkard no matter his or her disagreement with anyone.
God bless Ghana
