The National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye popularly known as Nana B, must apologize to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia following an organizational lapse during the June 25 final rally of party before the Assin North by-elections.
This is the view of former Member of Patliament for Suhum, Fred Opare Ansah, who believes beyond Alan Kyerematen who was rudely interrupted when Bawumia arrived, the Vice President also suffered some dent by the incident.
"Bawumia and president Akufo-Addo left an event at the same time and were headed to the same place. The president takes precedent over everyone and by protocol, he is the last person to arrive before an event starts.
"So the organizers wanted to find a quick route to the dais for Bawumia," he said of the incident before adding: "so, it is not his team, neither is it himself, the blame should lie squarely on the organizers.
"And I am happy that the national organizer of the party has come out clearly and apologized to Alan, except that I feel the apology should be extended to the Vice President to say, ‘look, I know it is not your fault but sorry for causing you this embarrassment.”
The former lawmaker, contributing to Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show on July 3, advised those trying to make capital gains out of the incident against Dr. Bawumia or Alan Kyerematen to desist from it.
"Those who are trying to take political advantage of this in their campaign should realize that if you cause disaffection or public ridicule for someone, it doesn't impact on just one person. It is a ridicule on the entire party", he cautioned.
Nana B, speaking about the incident to Accra-based Okay FM, attributed the mishap to lack of communication between the handlers of the vice president and the campaign organizers.
“I have seen some of the circulating videos and I must say that in every organization, we get some of these lapses. There was a lack of communication between us the organisers and the handlers.
“When you pay close attention, the explanation to it is that the president was coming. So, the vice president’s handlers out of good fate, which one would have thought that the vice president will leave the stage before the president comes. However, the time they took to do that didn’t go well,” he said.
The National Organiser, Nana B further added it was not intentional to publicly embarrass the former minister.
“I will not offer a lot of explanation but as a National Organiser, I was not visibly happy that Alan kyerematen is speaking then this happens.
“I will want to use your platform, and, in all humility, what happened was not because someone planned it. In all humility, let me apologise unreservedly to Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen for the small hitch that happened when he was speaking at the Assin North constituency campaign. It was a lapse that happened,” he added.
The incident, captured in a viral video, showed Alan Kyerematen addressing constituents at Assin North when Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia joined him on the platform.
Veep was introduced to the crowd while Alan Kyerematen was still speaking.
The scene was not pleasant for the flagbearer hopeful, who was also a contender against the vice as both are vying to be the party's flagbearer.
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