The National Democratic Congress’ running mate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has refuted suggestions she was an NDC rep when she moderated the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) presidential debate in 2012.
Speaking on The Point of View on Citi TV, she recalled that she “wasn’t even in the country” when she got the invitation to moderate the debate.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang also stressed that then-President John Mahama did not call her.
“I was not invited to that debate by the NDC. Far from it. I was invited to that debate because somebody thought I would be fair and I liked that fairness,” she retorted.
“At the time I am not sure I could have called myself a leading member of the NDC,” she told host of The Point of View, Bernard Koku Avle.
Though there have been some accusations that she also leaked questions to Mr. Mahama, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang explained that the moderators did not even set the questions.
“The question bank was not created by us… The person is there to explain why they want the position not to you but the audience,” she noted.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was at the time coming off her term as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast.
She said she was hoping she could finally focus on her work on the executive board of UNESCO and was preparing for a three-week meeting in France when she was informed of her selection as a moderator of the presidential debate.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang also assured that her role on the IEA debate had no bearing on her later becoming Education Minister under the Mahama administration.
She said persons who thought she was given the position because she moderated the debate “don’t know me. Do they think that was all I could have bargained for if that was the case?”
Her fellow moderator during the debate was Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a New Patriotic Party member who is currently the Information Minister in the Akufo-Addo government.
That debate was between four presidential candidates Mr. Mahama, New Patriotic Party flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo, People’s National Convention flagbearer, Hassan Ayariga, and the Convention Peoples Party’s Dr. Abu Sakara.