Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes…
I have observed that many people mistake Mustapha Hameed for Hon. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Information Minister and I find this, quite worrying, especially because the latter is now the Minister for Information and for that matter the mouthpiece of His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo and the government of the Republic of Ghana.
Respectfully, I wish to place on record and for the avoidance of doubt that, these are two separate personalities. And that, Mustapha Hameed is NOT the same as Mustapha Abdul-Hamid. Fortunately, I know both of them and wish to provide you with some further and better particulars.
Mustapha Hameed is a lecturer at KNUST and a youth activist of the NPP. He hasn’t held any political position in the party as yet. He contested in the 2015 Parliamentary Primaries of the NPP in the Asawasi Constituency but lost to Hon. Alidu Seidu. That is the closest he came in relation to holding political position in the party. He is very much involved in “social media politics”.
He is a prolific writer and of course, a sympathizer of the NPP, as evidenced in his write-ups. He writes with a lot of passion and sometimes, uses expressions that may be deemed, harsh. He doesn’t speak for the NPP. He doesn’t speak for the government. His thoughts or write-ups are purely his personal opinions and do not in any way, represent the position of government or the NPP.
Hon. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid on the other hand is the official spokesperson of His Excellency the President of the Republic and doubles as the Minister of Information. Prior to his appointment to serve in government, he was working at the University of Cape Coast as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religion and Human Value. He doesn’t do “social media politics”. In other words, he doesn’t write articles for the purpose of circulating same on social media platforms.
It is also very instructive to note that, the two men spell their names differently. Whereas the KNUST lecturer spells his Hameed with a double “e” (ee), the Hon. Information Minister spells his with an (i). So we have Hameed for the KNUST lecturer as against Hamid for the Information Minister. Again, unlike the KNUST lecturer, the Hon. Information Minister has the name, Abdul proceeding the ‘Hamid’. So we have “Abdul-Hamid.
With this piece of information, I hope the general public and the media in particular, now appreciates the difference between the two men [ie. Mustapha Hameed and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid]. I also hope that they would know what to attribute to who and what kind of substance to place on that, which is attributed to either of them.
Assalamu alaikum
Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry
