Kweku Baako And Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye Slam Ex-President Rawlings

Director of Operations at the Presidency, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije, has slammed former President Rawlings for stating that had the late President J.E.A. Mills listened to wise counsel and done something wiser he could have lived a while longer. According to Mr. Vanderpuije, former President Rawlings� comments were �unnecessary, irresponsible and absurd� to say the least. In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, former President Rawlings who has never seen eye-to-eye with the late president since the latter assumed office in 2009, said even though the news of his former deputy�s demise came as a surprise to him, it could have been averted. Mr. Rawlings said �quite frankly I think that had he been advised and done something wiser earlier on, he could probably have survived for another six, seven months, I guess but it got too tight, it got extremely tight.� But speaking on Metro TV�s Good Morning Ghana programme on Thursday, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije said the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should waited to be briefed on what transpired before making such definite statements on an international platform. Doctor Rawlings? �You are not a doctor. A post mortem has not been carried out for you to determine what killed him. And you are not there in the office with him. I know Professor Mills works more than the three hours he is talking about. So where does this fallacy of hasty conclusion come from?� he queried, adding �you don�t work with him, you don�t live with him, you are not there to determine [his health].� The NDC�s parliamentary candidate for Odododiodoo stated that the haste with which Mr. Rawlings commented on the cause of death of the President was alarming and showed a man who still haboured hate for the deceased Prof. Mills �In your normal haste and because of possibly habouring that level of hate and dislike for the person, you will say these things!� Mr Vanderpuije said he was literally ashamed after listening to the audio over and over again on getting wind of what the former President had said about the late President Mills. �It is totally uncalled for and as an elderly person� I felt so, so ashamed when I heard that. I couldn�t believe it.� He vowed to stand up to individuals, no matter their age, who make such unguarded pronouncements and called on the youth to do same in correcting people who go out of the accepted practice in society. �It is time some of us, I think it is time to tell people, no matter their age, when they go against our cultural norms and practices, when they go against things that make us a people, we should tell them that maybe, they are becoming deviants in society,� he asserted.