The Gratia Women of Substance Network has condemned certain public utterances made by Communication Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful after President Akufo-Addo’s State of thr Nation Adress  on Thursday.

According to the group, the utterances made by the Communication Minister were “reckless, backward, undemocratic and injurious.”

According to the statement, the Minister had said, "We aren't going to allow the NDC to ever come to power, over our dead bodies. The real owners of Ghana are now in charge.

“Whatever opportunity they [NDC] had to govern in the past belongs to history but we are sounding a note of warning to them that they will never see power again. Ghana deserves quality leadership and not this bunch of incompetent people."

This, the group says is “not only backward, tribalistic, undemocratic and insulting but unGhanaian and unpatriotic as well” thus Ursula should apologise and retract her statement “as it may form a basis for others to respond in like manner thereby heightening tension in Ghana.”

Read the full statement below.

For Immediate Release

February 21, 2020

GRATIA WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE NETWORK CONDEMNS URSULA OWUSU EKUFUL ON HER RECKLESS PUBLIC UTTERANCES

The Gratia Women of Substance Network is a political women group that has occupied a political space in Ghana's political jurisprudence over the years. It is in keeping with the organization's mission for the existence of empowering women, promoting gender equality and safeguarding Ghana's fledgling democracy, it is issuing this statement.

The attention of the group has been drawn to a rather reckless, backward, undemocratic and injurious statement from Ghana's Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on Asempa FM yesterday.  The minister in her interview says;

"We aren't going to allow the NDC to ever come to power. Over our dead bodies. The real owners of Ghana are now in charge. Whatever opportunity they [NDC] had to govern in the past belongs to history but we are sounding a note of warning to them that they will never see power again. Ghana deserves quality leadership and not this bunch of incompetent people"

The Gratia Women of Substance Network is of the strongest view that these statements are not only backward, tribalistic, undemocratic and insulting but unGhanaian and unpatriotic as well. It is again in view of this that we condemn this statement from Ursula Owusu in the strongest and unambiguous terms.

Ghana has come a long way in her journey into this democratic dispensation. The constitution of Ghana guarantees freedom of speech and free expression but the same law places on us some responsibility that should guard and guide us in making statements that may be injurious and has tendencies of eroding our democratic gains. Such statements create the impression that apart from NPP no other party can rule Ghana and also confirms the suspicion that, this Government will do anything fair or foul to stay in power. The situation becomes even more worrisome when the party (through their Government) has operated a training center that trains militias even at government installation, the Christianborg (Osu) castle, which is a security zone. We saw it in Manesseh's documentary “militia in the heart of the nation". There are rumours that they are still training more of their men at Bundasi ahead of the 2020 general elections. This we can't accept and countenance going forward.

We demand that the minister as a matter of urgency publicly apologises and retracts the said statement as it may form a basis for others to respond in like manner thereby heightening tension in Ghana.

Executive Director

Theresa Gbekie