Presidential Staffer Nana Yaa Akyenpim Jantuah has hit back at Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin over comments she described as disrespectful following the presentation of a New Patriotic Party (NPP) petition to the Presidency.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen on Thursday, August 6, Nana Yaa Jantuah said Mr Afenyo-Markin had no basis for describing her as “a nobody”, insisting that she was acting on the direct instructions of President John Dramani Mahama.
She explained that President Mahama designated her to receive the NPP’s petition because he and other senior government officials were attending a national commemoration for victims of the August 6 helicopter crash.
Nana Yaa Jantuah said the Minority Leader’s comments were therefore unnecessary and disrespectful, particularly because she was performing an official assignment on behalf of the President.
“Afenyo-Markin, you are not my classmate. I am older than him. How old is he? Even if I’m older than Afenyo-Markin by just two years, he hasn’t got the right,” she said.
‘He is insulting the President’
She argued that by describing her as “a nobody”, Mr Afenyo-Markin was also indirectly showing disrespect to the President who had assigned her to receive the petition.
“Now he’s insulting the President because it was the President who nominated me to go and receive the petition,” she said.
The Presidential Staffer also defended her professional background and personal accomplishments, stressing that her credentials existed long before her current government appointment.
“If we take out this political office, I have achieved a lot in life. I started working at GIPC, I’m well educated, I’m from a good home, and my father is a well-trained lawyer,” she said.
Nana Yaa Jantuah questioned the basis for Mr Afenyo-Markin’s decision to attack her when she had simply been carrying out an official responsibility assigned by the President.
She also rejected suggestions that she lacked the seniority or authority to receive the petition on behalf of the Presidency.
According to her, her position within government makes her sufficiently senior to perform such an assignment.
“They claimed because I am a nobody, they made their Deputy Women’s Organiser present the petition to me… I am a senior government official,” she said.
Her comments come amid a political dispute over the NPP’s petition and the manner in which it was received at the Presidency.
