Media liaison officer in the Office of the President (OP) Kwame McKoy yesterday acknowledged that he was behind controversial billboards on the maritime tribunal award and said he had done it after being approached by some businessmen.
McKoy made the disclosure after President Bharrat Jagdeo had identified him as the person behind the billboards. Speaking at a press conference yesterday afternoon the Head of State said while there was no harm in citizens celebrating the country’s achievements he was disappointed with the billboards because his image was associated with them.
McKoy told Stabroek News yesterday that he was approached by a few businessmen who wanted to make the billboards and he agreed. He said he had two options, one to erect billboards with photographs of children and the slogan “A Brighter Future For All” and the other with a photograph of the President. He chose the latter and on hearing about them Jagdeo ordered that they be dismantled. The billboards bore huge images of the President and were deemed inappropriate to the stance that Guyana had adopted in accepting the award which conferred it with control over a possible oil bearing region.
This newspaper was told last week that Impressions Advertising Novelties, in Forshaw Street, Queenstown created the billboards and when contacted for confirmation, an official at the company said they were given the job from OP Assistant Press and Publicity Officer McKoy.
The President said yesterday that as a people we sometimes self-flagellate and are reluctant to celebrate our achievements. “I will not stop my people from celebrating, but I am disappointed because my photograph is associated with these billboards,” Jagdeo declared.
At a press conference last week, Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira, who was deputizing for the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, flatly declined to say who was responsible for the billboards.
Head of the Government Information Sector, Dr. Prem Misir had said in a letter to the media that the President had ordered that the billboards be taken down and refuted suggestions that the head of state may have issued orders for the installation of the billboards. At least two of the billboards were erected – one at D’Aguiar’s turn in Greater Georgetown and one leading to the East Coast Demerara. Misir’s letter had said that when the President returned from the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York he immediately ordered that the billboards be taken down.
According to Misir’s letter, the billboards were inconsistent with the President’s address to the nation on the tribunal award during which he remarked that on the fundamental issues, while Guyana’s interests and objectives were fulfilled there was going to be no triumphalism.
