Anyidoho launches veiled attack on Nii Lante Vanderpuye over ‘vagabond’ label

• Koku Anyidoho says some officials he served with under president Mills were jealous of his role

• He says privileged access to the president as his spokesman made some staffers and aides bitter

• His comment comes after one of his then colleagues openly labelled him a vagabond for recent utterances and posturing

Samuel Koku Anyidoho was recently described as a ‘vagabond’ by a colleague he served in government with, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, who is the current Member of Parliament for Odododiodioo.

Anyidoho, who served as Director of Communications under President John Evans Atta Mills (2008 – 2012) was seconded to the role by Vanderpuye, a veteran sports journalist. He, Vanderpuye, was Director of Operations in the same government.

Anyidoho was the subject of harsh criticism recently when Vanderpuye granted an interview to Citi TV describing the latter as a ‘vagabond’ who had learnt little or nothing from the values of the then-president.

Vanderpuye also disclosed that Anyidoho only positioned himself as a powerful person in that government but that he was a nobody in reality.

Despite making the comments in mid-September, Anyidoho uncharacteristically refrained from responding directly to Vanderpuye. In a recent interview, however, he made reference to Vanderpuye’s position in a critical light.

Contributing to the debate on the need for a presidential jet or otherwise, Anyidoho told Accra-based Okay FM that from his experiences working in very close proximity to President Mills, Ghana indeed needed a bigger jet. He then accused colleagues of jealousy, referring specifically to the Director of Operations role Vanderpuye held.

"My experience in governance [as Director of Communication], because of my unique role as a speechwriter, a spokesperson, managing the President's PR, I got to be with the President for almost all his travels.

"Some of the aides and staffers were never with the President because their roles did not permit them to be around the President on such trips and that is why some of them got angry..., and today they open their mouths and want to run me down but that is their business."

He continued: "If you had no role around the President, then those of us with roles, will not just carry you on a trip if you had no real role around him [President]. Those trips were not for funfair, they were for hard work.

"So if you were a Director of Operations at the Presidency, you had no operations on a trip to China, Japan and UN, stay in Accra and do operations work and don't get jealous of the Director of Communications who had hard work to do on those trips," Mr Anyidoho added.

Anyidoho has been expelled from the NDC for engaging in acts of indiscipline and anti-party behaviour, he has yet to make true his threat to go to court over the matter.