Valerie Sawyerr mocks Rawlings over integrity claims; says he didn’t make sense

DrValerie Sawyerr, a former deputy chief of staff has hit back at claims by the former president, Jerry Rawlings that she lacks integrity and hence should be ignored.

Valerie Sawyerr recently released an “ntomtom” or “nwansena” statement, where she called the former president Rawlings a hypocrite over his continuous attacks on the National Democratic Party and his predecessors.

But in a response, Rawlings said such attacks on him could only come from people without integrity.
“NDC is at a crossroads between those with integrity and those without. Those who lack it feel threatened by those of us who have the influence of integrity and that is what is frightening them.

“None of all these calls against us will hold. I mean it’s false, they know it but they have to propagate it,” the former president said at the sidelines of the 2nd edition of Accra Dialogue.
But Dr Sawyerr has shot back, questioning Mr Rawlings’ definition of persons with integrity.
She told the Daily Post that: “Rawlings’  position that I am threatened by his integrity to be true, three premises must be established: a. that he has integrity, b. that I do not have integrity and c. that I am intimidated in any form or manner by the integrity he must first have.”
READ ALSO: Rawlings replies Valerie; says she feels threatened by his integrity
“But maybe the headlines have not been fair to him. In the voice clip I listened to, he did not say those who lack integrity feel threatened ‘by those of us who have integrity’. He said those who lack integrity feel threatened ‘by those of us who have the influence of integrity’.

 
She queried what the meaning of ‘influence of integrity’ is, rhetorically asking whether it refers to “those perceived as having integrity even though they may not have it; those who can influence others to be persons of integrity even though they themselves may not be persons of integrity; or those who make enough noise about integrity so they are seen as being influential in matters of integrity even if they themselves do not have integrity?”
She adds: “I am really not sure what he is trying to say”.
The former Senior Policy Advisor to former President John Mahama further likened Rawlings’ utterances to a “squeak” and not a “roaring volcano” as others may want to describe the former President’s reply.