The Truth Forum, condemns the reckless and irresponsible pronouncements made by the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, urging Ghanaians to stay away from Kalyppo, a locally-made fruit juice.
It is rather unfortunate that, after 8years of making a complete mess of the Ghanaian economy, the John Mahama-led NDC government has decided to not only negatively tag our local industry, but take us back to the dark days in our history.
It will be recalled that a few weeks ago, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, was spotted in photograph drinking Kalyppo fruit juice. The photograph went viral on social media, with Ghanaians from all walks of life identifying with him by posting selfies mimicking him drinking the locally made juice. It is obvious that sales of Kalyppo has increased tremendously in recent times
Speaking to supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong Ahafo Regional town of Wenchi, Mr. Debrah said “adults who take very sweet fruit juices would go down with a sickness called “Kalyppolities.” The Chief of Staff has suddenly acquired medical qualification to determine what our population should or should not consume.
After presiding over several years of unending power crisis, high taxes, petroleum price hikes, high utility tariffs, mismanagement of the economy, unstable currency which has resulted in collapse of many businesses and rendering hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians jobless, it is regrettable that such comments would come from the Chief of staff. Instead of outlining what has been done to curtail the energy crisis in the long-term, as well as measures put in place to make the business environment conducive for business to thrive, this is how low government has decided to sink.
This brings back memories of terror on private entrepreneurship; and as a people, we must condemn such utterances in our political discourse.
We are therefore calling on the Mr. Julius Debrah to apologise for the irresponsible statement, and also to the manufacturers of Kalyppo and the general public.
Signed………….
Anthony Abayifaa Karbo
Member Truth Forum
20TH October 2016
