The Planning Committee of the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama Foundation has said that it will not be drawn into comments purporting to come from Haruna Attah, a member of the committee.
The Committee averred that the Managing Editor of the Accra Mail has no mandate to issue any statement on its behalf distancing the committee from the public lecture delivered by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate of the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Dr Bawumia, at a public lecture to mark the 1st anniversary of the death of former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, on Wednesday, criticized the Mahama-led administration for failing to adhere to the tenets of fiscal discipline.
Describing the National Democratic Congress� (NDC) social democracy ideology as �Akonfem Socialism,� the former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana wondered why a social democratic government has rather worsened the plight of Ghanaians.
�Their [NDC] socialism is more in words than action and in action it can be best described as �Akonfem Socialism,� he said.
However, Haruna Attah, who is also the Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Aliu Mahama memorial lecture, in a statement barely 24 hours after the lecture, dissociated himself from Dr. Bawumia�s comments claiming they were in bad taste.
�This is to dissociate myself from the lecture delivered by Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia at the Aliu Mahama Memorial Lecture yesterday, November 13, 2011.�
The Accra Mail editor further observed: �He not only deviated from the topic he was given but exploited the platform to indulge in an unwarranted partisan political point scoring exercise and by so doing, totally desecrated the memory of the man the lecture was supposed to ennoble. It was not in good taste.�
Haruna Attah, for this reason, apologized to President John Dramani Mahama and his government for what he described as (Bawumia�s) �unfair and uncalled for attack on them.�
But the Planning Committee of the Aliu Mahama Foundation disagreed.
A counter-statement issued and signed by two of its Co-chairmen, O.B. Amoah and Kwasi Abeasi, titled �Do the Right Thing� was emphatic that Haruna Attah had no mandate, whether real or imagined, �to act on behalf of the Publicity Committee�.
It said, �Haruna Attah claims to act on behalf of the Publicity Committee in disassociating itself from the lecture ably delivered by Dr. Bawumia and chaired by former President Kufuor. We wish to place on record that Haruna Attah has no mandate to issue any statement on behalf of the committee.�
According to the statement, he is entitled to his own appreciation of the professional and academic presentation by Dr. Bawumia on the need to ensure discipline in the country, especially fiscal discipline in our economy.
The Committee rather expressed its profound gratitude to all those who honoured the memory of the late former vice president with their presence and resources at the function.
�We are particularly grateful to former President Kufuor, the Chairman for the occasion and Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, whose brilliance and delivery on the night regarding the role of fiscal discipline in our economic growth since independence did justice to the late Aliu Mahama�s passionate appeal for us all to �Do the Right Thing.�
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