The Public Relations Officer of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), Michael Ola, has come out to explain that though he is actively campaigning for President John Dramani Mahama in the Ashanti Region, he is doing so in his personal capacity and has no desire to involve FIPAG.
FIPAG has recently come under criticism from some of its members as well as sections of the media for supposedly supporting President Mahama in the upcoming general elections instead of being neutral.
In an interview with Showbiz on Wednesday, Michael Ola explained that he is the only member of the FIPAG executives who has publicly declared support for President Mahama.
And since he did so in his private capacity, he does not understand why anyone would take exception to this, especially when the constitution of FIPAG does not prohibit it.
“I have a private life outside of the work I do for FIPAG. I work as a communication consultant for various institutions including the Ashanti Faithfuls for Mahama as well as for the creative arts.
I can’t understand why people are kicking a fuss over this. It is within my right as an individual to support and campaign for whoever I want so why should there be a big deal about this?” he questioned.
Michael Ola told Showbiz that despite the criticism of his support for President Mahama, he has no plans to resign and explained that in order to avoid situations of conflict of interest; he always makes it a point to tell everyone that he is campaigning in his capacity as an individual and not as an executive of FIPAG.
He also questioned why Socrates Sarfo received no public backlash when he actively campaigned for Nana Akuffo Addo in the 2012 general elections during his tenure as an executive member of FIPAG.
According to him, he has proposed an amendment to the constitution of FIPAG which will address the issue of active members declaring support for political parties but that is yet to be debated by the executives.
“I proposed this amendment over two months ago but the debate had to be shelved because some of the members of FIPAG kicked against it since we have a general FIPAG election coming up.
They believe any changes to the current Constitution will help the current executives retain power so the debate has been put on hold until the end of August when the elections will be held,” he said.
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