The 1st vice chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. F. F Anto, has described as “rubbish” the recent tribal comments made by Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on who leads the NPP as presidential candidate going into the 2024 general elections.
Chairman F. F Anto who hails from the Ashanti Religion chastised the majority leader in a meeting with party grassroots on Wednesday, April 8, 2024, in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region.
The meeting, which recorded almost all the NPP national executives, forms part of the thank-you tour being embarked upon by the executives across the country.
Mr. Anto’s condemnation comes in as the latest from party bigwigs who have reacted to the majority leader’s view that it will be unwise to field another Akan presidential candidate after Prof. Adu Boahen, J. A Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo.
Addressing the gathering of party faithful, Mr. Anto bemoaned the majority leader stating that “the majority leader should know better”. He added that “such unguided comments are divisive” and entreated party leaders to be circumspect in their commentary. Reacting to the statement by Mr. Anto, the party Chairman, Freddie Blay, together with other national executives present including the General Secretary, John Boadu, the National Organiser, Sammi Awuku, took the opportunity to condemn the comments of the majority leader asking the party men and women to disregard such comments.
It will be recalled that the Hon Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in a recent interview with Joy News TV remarked that after having fielded three Akans as presidential candidates for the New Patriotic Party, it would be unwise for the NPP to field another Akan as flag bearer for election 2024. According to the majority leader, the purpose of his view is to deal with the “akanistic” tag being propagated by the opposition NDC.
The majority leader's opinion has since been met with fierce opposition and condemnation by members of the NPP and many Ghanaians. Most critics of the leader’s comment on both social media and traditional media platforms are unhappy with the majority leader for focusing on tribal and ethnic considerations to the neglect of competence, character and charisma, which can win power for the party.
Notable stalwarts of the New Patriotic Party who have expressed strong disagreement with Hon Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu are Hon Boakye Agyarko, former Minister for Energy, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, a founding member of NPP, Lawyer Obiri Boahen, the current Deputy General Secretary of the NPP and a host of youth groups in the party.
