By Samuel Akumatey
Ho, Aug. 23, GNA – Mr Richard Ahiagba, the Director of Communications, New Patriotic Party (NPP), says attempts to label the present administration with economic mismanagement should not evade common reason.
He said the Government inherited and revived a slumped economy and worked to maintain its resilience even through a global pandemic, thus the efforts deserved reasonable approval.
Mr Ahiagba said this at a breakfast meeting with the media in the Volta Region.
“The comparison is out of context. It is unconscionable to say that the NPP has mismanaged the economy. We need to contextualise and know the state of the economy. Getting up an economy that has shut down is not easy and we should create context and ask what the Government is doing. It will ensure fair balance,” he said.
He spoke of an attempt by the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, to score points with the present economic challenges even though it passed on an ailing economy.
Mr Ahiagba said it continued to employ straight criticism to dominate media conversations in pursuit of negative propaganda without offering any alternative to the measures government had put in place.
It was, therefore, important for the media to help shape public discourse positively by ensuring balanced contextual conversations, he said, noting that “blanket opposition from the lack of contextual conversation in the media only benefits electoral outcomes but not policy”.
He cited how numerous developmental efforts by the Akufo-Addo Administration was being drowned by what he described as the NDC’s attempt to make the conversation “a memory contest of achievements.”
The current Government had revived the nation’s stalled Gross Domestic Product, and programmes such as the Free Education carried generational impact and should be acknowledged.
He said the meeting, which had practitioners from various media organisations and institutions in attendance, offered the opportunity to enhance media relations.
He reassured of the Government’s commitment to the betterment of professionalism and welfare among practitioners to improve their work.
“Let us cause the conversation to be about development so that our people can get development. Media’s work is consequential. Be loyal to the information of ideas and minimise the diabolical journalism,” he said.
The meeting enabled media personnel to share experiences and concerns with the NPP Communication Director and his team.
GNA