A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Arthur Kennedy, has suggested that persons who want Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to be the flagbearer of the party are the ones making the flagbearership race about religion and tribe.
Dr. Kennedy indicated that even though a recent comment by a supporter of Alan Kyeremanten, Hopeson Adorye, suggested that northerners can only be running mates in the party, it is people from the camp of Bawumia who are making the campaign about ethnicity and religion.
In a Neat FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr. Kennedy urged supporters of the various camps in the flagbearership race to stop making the race about where the contenders for the position come from.
“I think that Hopeson Adorye’s comments could have been framed better. He did not speak well. But it also leads to the fact that people want to eat their cake and have it. The ethnic and religious angle is being pushed by people on behalf of the vice president, and I think that is not good. The problem is that when we put ethnicity and religion on the table, people will spin it in their own way.
“My advice to all the camps is that we should stop talking about who comes from where and who wasn’t there and talk about what people can do. Let us be meritocratic and look at who can win and govern well regardless of where they come from,” he said.
Hopeson Adorye, a leading member of Alan Kyerematen's campaign, is reported to have said that the NPP Vice President position is reserved for people from the Northern Region.
Mr. Adorye, leading a walk in Kumasi dubbed a “Walk for Alan” allegedly said: “There is one thing I am going to say. The NPP has a tradition. Our tradition is Busia, Danquah and Dombo. Danquah represents Eastern Region and the bottom (south), Danquah represents Ashanti Region and the Bono areas, while Dombo represents the Northern Region.”
He continued: “Whenever a Dankwa leads the party, the Busia side steps aside, but there is a Dombo; and whenever a Busia leads, the Dankwa side steps aside, but there is a Dombo. As for the Dombos, they are always there.”
Other members of the party, including the former organiser hopeful of the party, Musah Superior, have attacked Adorye for the comments he made.
In a statement, Musah Superior asked Mr. Adorye to "retract his divisive, despicable, and derogatory remarks on northerners and render an unqualified apology to all NPP members of northern extraction and the Party largely".
Watch Dr. Kennedy's interview below:
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