Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has challenged the credit given to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for digitalization initiatives in the country.
Nketiah insists that the roots of the digitalization efforts can be traced back to former President John Dramani Mahama's tenure as the Minister for Communication.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews on December 15, he highlighted Mahama's role in the establishment of what he called the groundwork for digital infrastructure, citing the separation of the former Ministry for Post and Telecommunication as a step during Mahama's tenure.
"Who is the godfather of digitalization in Ghana apart from former President John Dramani Mahama?" he asked.
Asiedu continued “…these two portfolios were separated because there was an opportunity for expansion in the telecommunication and the ICT sector.
"So, John Dramani Mahama was actually the grandfather of this whole digitalisation, go and check the records and his investments in laying the infrastructure for ICT in this country,” he said.
Asiedu Nketiah emphasized that Mahama's contributions laid the foundation for the subsequent developments in the telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors.
“But you don’t claim ownership of digitalisation in Ghana, so, if we talk about digitalisation, then Bawumia doesn’t come anywhere close to Mahama,” he added.
Vice President Bawumia as part of his digitalization agenda has become the face of the Ghana Card roll-out, stressing the importance of integrating the card with others like the Voters ID, Driver’s License and SSNIT cards.
Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
Dr. Bawumia and John Mahama