New Patriotic Party's rising star on the campaign trail Samira Bawumia has expressed disappointment in the governing NDC's reaction to criticism, observing that it leaves much to be desired.
Samira Bawumia who is wife of the 2016 NPP Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says government officials learn to accept that in a democracy, the people are masters, the politician are servants.
"When I speak of the hardships, I think that the government should be gracious to accept criticism from the people," she said in an interview on Joy FM' Super Morning Show Wednesday.
"Look we pay for their luxuries, we give them what they have. The people pay for government so when people speak they should have the humility to listen and not to insult".
Her comments were in reaction to vitriolic attacks from a government appointee Alhaji Saeed Sinari who is Ghana’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He was angry at Samira Bawumia's criticism of the government and branded the stay-home mother as a bad Muslim wife.
Some of his comments cannot be reproduced here but he said in part; "If this girl with a mouth like that of crocodile should be offered to me for free to marry, I swear to God, I would add the dowry to her and throw her back to her parents.”
Alhaji Saeed Sinari
Samira Bawumia said government must learn to stomach questions raised by citizens. Explaining her 'We see you, we see corruption' criticism of government, Samira Bawumia stressed that there was nothing personal about her comments because it captured the mood of ordinary Ghanaians.
"...the question of corruption is not a question anymore. It has been established. There have been so many scandals ...and we don't see an honest attempt to deal with them. we rather see people being rewarded".
Samira Bawumia is the latest pain in the neck of the governing party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC). She follows in the footsteps of her husband Dr. Bawumia whose diagnosis of the NDC's economic performance is headline grabbing.
Samira Bawumia was let loose to go after President John Mahama who had gone into the Eastern region last month to campaign in the NPP's second stronghold. Mounting different campaign platforms, the experienced politician on one hand, and the new-comer on the other, exchanged jabs.
At Akojo Park in Tema during the NPP’s Greater Accra campaign launch, Samira responded to the NDC's government's claim that the opposition in living in denial about his government's massive investment in infrastructural developments.
She also commented on the mounting of billboards advertising the President and the NDC's Parliamentary candidates at every nook and cranny of the country.
Samira said, "We are saying to the NDC that we see you alright...you want us to see you, we see you but we see incompetence, we see you but we see corruption, we see you but we see bad management, we see you but we see bad governance, we see you but we want change, we see you but we want Ghana to move forward...".
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