The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress Council of Elders of South Africa, Mr. Benjamin Kofi Quashie, has berated President Akufo-Addo for labelling members of the NDC as troublemakers.
He describes the president’s actions as very unfortunate and unfair.
Speaking in an interview on Monday, November 27, 2023, the NDC Council of Elders chair averred that, for the president to criticize the actions of people he finds unlawful is apt but lacks fairness if always directed at members of the NDC.
Highlighting some examples of incidents in which members of the NPP committed unlawful acts, but the president failed to raise a whisker, he narrated the situation where “Kennedy Agyapong openly ridiculed a judge when he used very unprintable words against him. The president was silent about it,” he emphasized.
Again, he recounted that at a public event when the president criticized a chief for sitting down when the National Anthem was being played, “we applauded him” for that show of statesmanship.
Coincidentally, after a week or later, his daughter did a similar thing, and the president hasn’t condemned it, adding the chief apologized afterward for his actions, citing ill health as the reason. But up till today, the President’s daughter hasn’t said anything concerning her behavior, neither has she apologized.
“Is it that there are different sets of rules for Ghanaians?; that if you’re an NDC person, the president sees you as a troublemaker?” he quizzed again.
However, Mr. Quashie concurred the president has the right to criticize any Ghanaian whose actions flout the laws of the land and have the tendency to jeopardize our collective peace but cannot pick and choose which one to criticize. To him, that is unfair, unacceptable and doesn’t befit a president.
He argued that the NDC members were at the former President’s office to embark on a cleanup exercise and it had nothing to do with violence, which the president chose to criticize.
“I think that it is brilliant to condemn actions that are deemed unlawful; it’s a good call and the call should be to all Ghanaians by the president, but he cannot pick and choose,” he affirmed.
Mr. Quashie claimed leaders who want their countries to grow and progress must be even in their actions, and our leader, the president, must be exhibiting the same tendencies, adding, “If you pick and choose, people don’t take your issues seriously,” he emphasized again.
Background
The Ghanaian Times reported that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has condemned the brandishing of machetes and weapons at the office of the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President John Dramani Mahama, stressing that no individual or group will be allowed to destabilize the peace and security of the country.
Thenewspaper added that the President was of the belief that the brandishing of those weapons was not a sign of things to happen in the 2024 election and that Ghanaians would be allowed to go about their duties without disturbances from any quarters.
“I want to state that under my watch, no person or group of persons, no matter their political coloration will be allowed to destabilize our country to destroy the peace all of us are enjoying. It will not happen,” he emphasized.
President Akufo-Addo, who was speaking at the valedictory service of the outgoing moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rt Rev. Professor Joseph Ofori Yeboah Mante, at the Victory Congregation of the church at Frafraha in Adenta yesterday, said, there was the need for all Ghanaians to pray for the country’s peace and unity in order to move forward as a people.
