NPP Blasts Mahama Over Tribal Comments

Published in Daily Guide on November 12, 2012

 

Samuel Abu Jinapor

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned recent ethnocentric comments made by President John Dramani Mahama in a bid to get votes.
Mr Mahama was quoted to have told a rally at Zualerigu in the Upper East Region over the weekend that “our brother Aliu Mahama was vice president for eight years. I was vice president for three-and-a-half years. For almost 12 years, we have tasted vice presidency.
It’s no longer exciting. It’s no longer what we want. If NPP think they want vote from here, they should put my brother Bawumia in number one and let the two of us contest and then they will get something from here. The vice president we chop it aaaah, we are tired.”
These comments of the president has made him the hottest man in the country today, after his campaign coordinator and Deputy Minister of Local Government Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, recently threw caution to the wind and likened the NPP’s promise to provide ‘free SHS’ to the collapsed Melcom building virtually every Ghanaian was grieving over.
The NPP believed that “this is a very reckless statement, which may even be interpreted to mean that he spent his first three years or so at the Castle desperately looking for the opportunity to take President John Atta Mills’ seat”.
At a press conference in the Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi yesterday, a member of the party’s campaign, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor said, “This is a clear sign that the President has lost the battle on issues and is now resorting to fanning ethnocentrism in this country”, insisting that “this is a very dangerous and irresponsible way to rule a nation as rich and peaceful in its diversity as Ghana is.”
On November 1, 2012, the President made a similar comment whilst addressing the chiefs and people of Nankpanduri in the Northern Region, with a call on all ‘Northerners’ to give their backing to him so he could ascend the seat and make them ‘proud’.
According to Abu Jinapor, “That is the most insulting thing a leader can say to his people” in view of the fact that the President did not ask the people to because of what he could do to improve their lives but because of where he comes from.”
That, according to him, was because President Mahama and his ruling NDC had nothing to show for their four-year mandate given them by Ghanaians.
Treachery
He emphasised, “We cannot go down this dangerous path and wish to make it plain to President Mahama that if he has nothing better to offer to Ghanaians, at least, he shouldn’t destroy what he inherited, a nation with a long and proud history of multi-ethnic harmony.” He asked “…should other people also say that Southerners should also vote for Nana Akufo-Addo or any other candidate from the South?”
That, he said was because “Ghana has come a long way for her to be divided by myopic, visionless, petty-minded, and self-seeking politicians in the mould of President Mahama, who is desperate for power” and that “Ghana deserves better than the politics President Mahama is pursuing”.
Mr Jinapor believed that President Mahama and the ruling NDC had nothing to offer Ghanaians since “the President is recklessly driving Ghana back onto the road now abandoned by countries like Rwanda and Kenya, the dangerous road of tribal politics and we the young people of Ghana are cautioning him to stop this useless tribal politics” which he described as cheap, unhealthy and dangerous.
He noted, “No amount of useless emotional blackmailing would divert the attention of the people of this country from the failures of this NDC government.”
“With very little to show for the three-and-a-half years that he was in charge of the Economic Management Team as Vice President and subsequently as President, due to the unfortunate death of the elected President, the late JEA Mills, our caretaker President, John Dramani Mahama, has decided to put substance aside and concentrate on petty and divisive politics,” he said.
However, reacting to the anger that has greeted the president’s comments, Hannah Tetteh, Director of Communications for John Mahama Campaign, said the comments were directed at a particular group the president was interacting with.

Apply To Join NDC. Mosquito Tells JJ

Published in Daily Guide on November 9, 2012

Jerry John Rawlings

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, has demanded an official letter from the founder of the party, former President Jerry Rawlings before he allows him to join the 2012 campaign.
Mr Nketia appears to be waging a personal battle against the NDC founder as he sets a new rule for Mr Rawlings before the latter can be allowed to stand on the party’s platform.
“Time changes everything and in the past we never wrote a letter to invite him to attend NDC functions, but I can say that certain changes have popped up in this year’s election…henceforth, the relationship which would exist between us would be based on official letter writing,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Okay FM.
This was after the spokesman for Mr. Rawlings, Kofi Adams, made suggestions to the effect that the former President had changed his mind from his initial position of not campaigning and had now decided to join the NDCs campaign trail after meeting with some former executives of the party.
But a statement issued from the office of the former President, moments after Kofi Adams made the announcement, contradicted his claim, with Mr. Rawlings saying that “I am four years older than I was in 2008 and all the exertion plus my international roles mean I am a tired man.”
Mr Rawlings said he was hoping to retire after the last election but “unfortunately things did not fall into place the way they should have”.
Though he expressed the wish that President Mahama would win the upcoming elections, Mr. Rawlings stated, “As a party we have failed in several aspects of governance, particularly with respect to offering confidence to the people that they will receive justice at all times.”
However, the NDC General Secretary virtually said the founder had to indicate by writing before he could be allowed because of previous experiences where the former president had distanced himself from party programmes, warning them not to use his name to win support without getting clearance from his office.
“Whatever we do that we have not sent him an official invitation, you realise that those in his office would put it on the radio (news) as if it is a new thing but it wasn’t like that previously,” Mr Nketia said.
“So now that we have realised that we can only deal on official basis, then when everything is coming [from him], then we expect that they will also follow the rules that they have established for us to understand how they’ve made their minds.”
Though he admitted that he and his colleague members of the National Executive Committee of the party had not heard or received any such communication from Mr. Rawlings himself , he noted, “If we hear any such thing from him, whatever response we have; we will communicate it to him.”
Asked why the demand for Mr. Rawlings to submit an official letter or communication before being made to join the campaign, Mr Asiedu-Nketia said, “It has become important and I think that his office has come to realise that henceforth we will be dealing with them on documents.”
Mr Asiedu-Nketia, a former Seikwa-based banker, did not agree to suggestions by some members of the party to the effect that the election of US President Barack Obama automatically meant a win for their candidate, President John Mahama.
That, he said, was in view of the fact that Americans did not vote in Ghana.
That notwithstanding, the former Seikwa Presbyterian Middle school teacher indicated that some lessons could be drawn from the American elections, claiming that the Republicans destroyed the US economy whilst the Democrats came to fix it.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Mosquito Sacks NDC Rebels

Published in Daily Guide on November 8, 2012 

 

Johnson Asiedu Nketia

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The General Secretary of National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Asiedu-Nketia, has issued a seven-day ultimatum for party members who have filed to contest as independent candidates to rescind their decision or lose their membership.
It follows the decision by some members of the NDC including Dr Ato Quarshie, Michael Teye Nyaunu, Albert Zigah and Andrew Okaikoi to contest as independent candidates.
Dr. Ato Quarshie, who is a former Roads and Highways Minister, is contesting the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem constituency. Michael Teye Nyaunu, the incumbent NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya, and Albert Zigah, NDC MP for Ketu South are contesting as independent candidates in their constituencies. Andrew Okaikoi, husband of former Information Minister Zita Okaikoi is contesting at Okaikoi North.
But at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Mr Asiedu-Nketia said, “The decision of the National Executive Committee with respect to these candidates is that we are giving them one week from today to decide whether they want to be part of the NDC in which case they will withdraw these nominations.”
H noted, “After one week from today (yesterday), they would have abdicated from the NDC.”
This, he said, was in view of the fact that the party intended to present a united front in the upcoming election which was barely a month away.
General Mosquito, as Asiedu Nketia is affectionately called, stressed the need for all card-bearing members of the NDC who had filed nominations to contest the 2012 parliamentary elections as independent candidates to withdraw their candidature.
He however fell short of saying whether or not the decision to go independent would affect the chances of the party in the upcoming election.
Attempts to speak with some of the independent candidates proved unsuccessful, with some declining to comment.
Political observers believed a member of the party contesting as an independent candidate, against one fielded by the party itself, could seriously affect the fortunes of the party since it would split most of its votes.
The NDC has fielded parliamentary candidates in all the 275 constituencies, unlike in the year 2008 when the party failed to present candidates in parts of the Ashanti Region, the stronghold of its main contender the New Patriotic Party (NPP).