NDC can't be blamed for unfortunate boos at Akufo-Addo - Addai Nimoh tells NPP

A former Member of Parliament (MP) for Mampong, Francis Addai-Nimoh, has described as "unfortunate" the booing of President Akufo-Addo at a recent event.

The president, who delivered a keynote address at the 2022 Global Citizen Festival at the Black Star Square in Accra, was met with loud boos and hoots from spectators.

The crowd can be heard chanting 'away, away . . .' immediately, he started speaking.

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of orchestrating the unfortunate incident.

Deputy Director of Communications Ernest Owusu Bempah Bonsu, in a statement said, "to allow politics to take centre stage at such an event and single out the president unfairly for political point scoring raises serious concerns. To put it more bluntly, it is pure evil and utter disgrace for the NDC to organize its supporters to go and shout down the president the manner it happened".

Addai Nimoh speaking on New Day show on TV3 on Tuesday, believes jeering at the president was wrong.

However, he has disagreed with his party, saying it cannot be true that the NDC was behind the "unfortunate" incident.

Meanwhile, a Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Yaw Gyampo, has condemned the action.

In a release, he stressed, "I insist we cannot throw our culture of courtesy, respect and civility to the dogs".

"The President's speech writers who are obviously out of touch with the economic miserization of the people, keep writing flowery and utopian speeches for the president in a manner that plays on the emotional keyboards of Ghanaians. But I end by insisting that we are still Ghanaians, a well-cultured people and must go back to our values that found a decent way of expressing dissent," Prof. Ransford Gyampo has indicated in a statement.

He concludes, "We know the lines between disagreements, criticisms and disrespect, and we must keep the boundaries. We also know the lines between the PRESIDENCY and the president as well as the OFFICE and the PERSON who occupies it. Let us keep these boundaries for the sake of national cohesion and development. This is my position both as a Normative Political Scientist and a Logical Positivist."