2nd Deputy Minority Whip and Member of Parliament for Ada, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe has warned Majority leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin to stop attacking women simply because they have aged.
She emphasized that aging should not be a point of attack, especially considering that no women have criticized the current President, who is over 80 years old, based on his age.
She said, “Mr. Speaker, tell the majority leader to withdraw that statement about old women because when men are old, we don’t attack them. As of now, we have a president who is over 80 years but no woman has attacked him.”
The exchanges began during question time on Thursday with an attempt at humour when the Majority leader used a popular adage – when dry bones are mentioned, old women shiver – to counter a protest by Minority Chief Whip, Kwame Agbodza.
Former Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu had asked the Minister for Labour and Employment whether this is the first time the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is selling some of its assets.
The Minority Whip, however, protested and urged the former Minister to file a question as this does not fall within the ambit of a supplementary question.
Afenyo-Markin then used the adage to insinuate that the NDC Caucus was not comfortable with the question as many assets of the state were privatized under the P/NDC era.
The mention of old women, however, incurred the chagrin of the Hon. Comfort Doyoe who pushed back on Afenyo-Markin’s statement.
She underscored the unfairness of targeting women over 40 for their age and pointed out that men who criticize aging women often conceal their age-related issues.
“Mr. Speaker, they should stop the attack on women. Especially when you clock 40 then they start attacking you meanwhile, the men who are attacking us that we are old cannot do all night long.”
“They cannot do all night long because they are also old and they are hiding it,” the Ada MP stressed.
Comfort Doyoe’s anger stems from past comments of the Majority leader who, on several, occasions attacked the running mate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) because of her age.
Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, the running mate of NDC flagbearer former President John Dramani Mahama, is 72 years
