Members of a group calling itself the Okyeman Youth For Development, have threatened to embark on a demonstration exercise today, September 9, 2020, at Asamankese in the Lower West Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The protest is to register their displeasure against flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Mahama, and the MP for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, for referring to some political figures who hail from the area as “Akyem Sakawa Boys.”
“We expect thousands of Akyem people to come and support the demonstration,” the convener for the group, Nana Yaw Osene Akwa, told Citi News.
Mr. Adongo used the descriptor in a write-up critiquing the Agyapa Royalties deal. The write-up was shared on John Mahama’s Facebook page.
Both politicians have been lambasted over the tag, which has been deemed ethnocentric.
The group in the Lower West Akim Municipality comprises youth and chiefs from Akyem Abuakwa, Akyem Kotoku and Bosome.
Mr. Akwa insists that they want Mr. Mahama and Mr. Adongo to apologise for the purportedly ethnocentric comments.
“All the Akyems who are not happy with the comment Mr. Mahama shared on his Facebook wall are coming to demonstrate against him for him to retract and apologise to Okyeman and the three paramountcies,” Mr. Akwa said.
Mr. Mahama’s comments and his subsequent defence of the tag have been condemned by President Nana Akufo-Addo who said: “that is the kind of language we don’t want in our politics.”
The President also said he expected more outrage over the comments.
“Sometimes one would hope that when things come out, people will comment on them. The comment made by my opponent, Akyem Sakawa people, I have not heard any public figure in this country or anybody comment on it,” he said last week.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, also urged Mr. Mahama to apologise for endorsing the comments.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has been one of the observers to condemn the comments.
The foundation said Mr. Mahama’s sharing of the article on his Facebook page “amounts to republication and an endorsement of the ethnocentric comments.”
