Editorial: Scrap The Position Of Presidential Spokesperson

Yesterday, this paper carried on its front page the inside story of how the Minister of Information, Zita Okaikoi, is being sabotaged by some government appointees, consciously and unconsciously. Our revelation follows intelligence we had gathered from the field about her performance after she had come under attack from certain quarters for allegedly non performance. We must confess that until our investigations, we were among the skeptics who held the view that she was not up to the job. Since then, however, our opinion of her and her efficiency as the Minister for Information has changed and we believe that as a media house, we owe it a responsibility to let the public know about our findings. Taking a serious look at the Ministry of Information and the job it is supposed to perform for the government and the state leaves one in no doubt that it plays a central and pivotal role in the administration of the state. That is why we want to urge President Mills and his advisers to take a second look at the NDC government�s information structure to make it more efficient and dynamic so it would meet the modern aspirations of the people. In this vein, we are of the view that government must scrap the position of Presidential Spokesperson, leaving the Head of Communication and the Minister of Information in place to handle the out-flow and in-flow of information to and from the Presidency and from the government in general. While the Head of Communication at the Presidency would handle the flow of information to and from the Presidency, the Information to and from government. Effective collaboration between these two office holders should see a much more efficient way of handling information. With effective collaboration between these two office holders, the situation where they contradict each other on information released to public would hardly occur. The situation where the Minister for Information is kept in the dart about the President�s affairs cannot arise. Effective collaborations between the Minister of Information and the Head of Communication at the Castle, with the latter doubling as Presidential Spokesperson would see the NDC government�s Communication woes solved.