A youth activists of the governing National Democratic Congress Fred Agbenyo, says the president is not to blame for the increase in salary of the president. Fred Agbenyo insists the president did not in the comfort of his bedroom decree a new salary increase of 12,000 cedis per month to himself and another 10,500 per month to his vice. He was speaking on Peace FM’s morning show programme, Kokrokoo on Friday. Critics have questioned the rationale of the increases, given the prevailing economic situation in the country. A member of the Communications team of the New Patriotic Party John Boadu who was also on the show did not fail to remind the NDC the morality campaign they waged against the NPP when the same issue cropped up in 2008-09. Boadu chronicled how the NDC through its allied group, the CJA, embarked on series of demonstrations to protest the ex-gratia of the then Executive and Legislators. He said the salary increase of the president and his vice as well as their ministers which will be back dated to 2009, will obviously affect their ex-gratia in 2013. He wondered why a government claiming to have single digit inflation, which meant prices of commodities were relatively stable, would pay its officers triple digit pay rise. In any case, has the load shedding exercise been solved? Has poverty been eliminated in the country? Has all the schools under trees been eliminated, he quizzed, adding what is the justification for the increases? But in a reaction Fred Agbenyo said the president was not responsible for the increases. Rather, he argued, it was the people’s representatives in Parliament who offered to pay that amount of money to the president. He stated it was unfair for anybody to suggest that the president offered to pay himself that amount of money. Lawyer Egbert Faibille who was also on the show said the president cannot escape blame in the salary increases. Quoting portions of the Constitution, he said it was the president who constituted the Prof Ewurama Addy committee to determine the salaries of the executive and legislators. So if there is any public criticisms, he should equally be held liable.