The Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) has called on senior statesman, Franklin Adubobi Jantuah, to “render an unqualified apology to the disability fraternity following “unacceptable despairing and demeaning” comments he made against the newly elected flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party, Mr Ivor Greenstreet.
In an interview marking the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of Nkrumah’s government, Mr Jantuah, who is the only surviving member of Nkrumah’s cabinet, bemoaned the quality and dedication of the current generation of CPP party leaders and members.
According to him, the election of a “cripple” as flag bearer is a smear on the image of the party which is Nkrumah’s legacy.
“The CPP itself is no more. It’s not functioning,” said a disappointed Mr Jantuah to Ghtoday at his Kumasi residence.
“If you have a CPP with a leader who is a cripple… I wonder how he is going to rule,” he stated.
In a press statement signed by its president, Mr Yaw Ofori Debrah, the GFD has asked that Mr Jantuah's comments about Mr Greenstreet, and by extension, all persons living with disability, be taken with a pinch of salt.
“Ignore unreservedly the conservative politician and his retrogressive tendencies which have no place anymore in modern and inclusive democracies in the world,” the GFD said.
According to them, Mr Jantuah, “who should have been a seasoned politician and a reservoir of political experience, has disappointed all modern-thinking and progressive democrats by his expression”.
Quoting the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which states in Article 15 (1) that “the dignity of all persons shall be inviolable” and Section 37 of the Persons with Disability Act 2006 (Act 715) which “frowns on derogatory statements about persons with disability,” the GFD asked that Mr Jantuah should debate the flag bearer on “ideas and other areas of competency”, given that “the law frowns on anybody attacking a person because of that person’s disability.”
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