SPIO Shuts Up!

The rippling effects of the Team A&B theory propounded by the embattled former presidential hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who is also the chief executive officer of the united Kingdom-Based Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, seem to have boomeranged at him. The CTO boss, having been bombarded with very harsh words from Ato Ahwoi and Koku Anyidohu, both power brokers within the ruling party, has adopted a culture of silence, at least for two weeks, to, as he puts it, �not inflame any passions.� Dr. Spio-Garbrah, who touched down from London Monday night, and held a closed-door meeting with party chairman Kwabena Adjei at the NDC headquarters yesterday, had this to say in a short statement: �Out of respect for the role of the chairman, the founder of the party and the president of the republic in this matter, I shall not make any public statements at this time beyond this document.� Further, �I shall, therefore, appreciate the collaboration of the media not to expect any interviews from me at this time, so as not to inflame any passions and to allow the party hierarchy to undertake their work without any undue impediments.� The former presidential hopeful, who declined any interviews with the media, explained that his presence at the party headquarters followed a call by the chairman of the party, to �meet me and other people who have been attacking my personality recent days.� He revealed, Chairman Adjei urged that such public exchanges should not bring the government or the party into disrepute, nor should it degenerate into attacks on personalities, �and I agree with that.� �I do not currently have any information regarding the process that the party intends to use to address the matters arising from the recent furor and how long that process will take. For this reason, I will in Ghana for at least two weeks, to enable the party and/or relevant government officials to have all the necessary time to deal with the issues raised,� he stated. The former education minister in the Rawlings � led NDC administration promised that when the Council of Elders and other organs of the party have gone into the matter and have come out with a decision or recommendations, �I shall decide at that time what kind of public statements, if any, are required of me.� Recounting his article that elicited the negative responses from leading members of the party, he said the piece only attempted to honour the centenary celebration of the birth ex-President, Kwame Nkrumah and to examine what important lessons the current NDC administration could learn from Nkrumah�s achievements. �Evidently, some examples used to illustrate the main points in my argument were not appreciated by all readers, and a few people in the NDC party have chosen to malign me for my views. �In my article, no NDC officials� names were mentioned; no one was insulted; and the president and vice president were mentioned only because they head the current administration, �he stressed. �Many have argued that my article and some of the responses it received have demonstrated that there is healthy debate and internal democracy within the NDC. Following the attacks against me by certain personalities, the media would have noted that I have granted no interviews nor made any additional statements that could inflame passions.