[ 2016-11-21 ]

Tribal Politics: ‘Mahama Erred Badly’— Bentil
President John Mahama erred badly in his tribal
comments against Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the
vice-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Mr Kofi Bentil, Vice President of
IMANI Ghana, has said.

President Mahama, addressing party supporters in
Lawra as part of his campaign tour of the Upper
West Region, urged the electorate not to be
deceived by the role Dr Bawumia was playing in the
NPP because he will never be given the opportunity
to lead the party.

He said: “Alhaji Aliu Mahama was vice president
under the NPP government. He served faithfully
under President Kufuor and, so, when eight years
was up and President Kufuor was leaving, the
natural order of succession is that he should have
been given the opportunity to lead that party, but
17 people contested him and defeated him and that
is why I say NDC is a party of opportunity because
if NDC wasn’t, who am I? A boy from Bole born in
Damongo, who am I to stand here and call myself
president of the Republic of Ghana?

“[The NDC] is the party that opens its
opportunities to all Ghanaians irrespective of
what your ethnic affiliation is. Sometimes I feel
sad when I see some of our northern brothers
running around and also doing this. … They will
use you and dump you. I want to live and see the
day. Let anything happen today and let our brother
Bawumia say he is standing for president in NPP.
They will never give it to him, I can assure you.
When the misfortune hit us and our father
Professor Mills passed away, the constitution said
the vice president should take over, I did. But
then we were close to an election. If it was
another party, they would have insisted that there
should be a congress and in that congress I would
have been contested and they would have given the
leadership to somebody else.”

But in a Facebook post, Mr Bentil said: “Tribal
politics is never a good idea; let’s all eschew
it. ... Mr President, you erred badly... See…if
northerners were to consider what their kin have
done against them in SADA and related scandals,
they would vote massively against NDC. ... If
Akans were to vote as a tribal unit for NPP, no
party would win any election in Ghana!!!”

He added: “Say no to tribal politics!!”

Source - Classfmonline

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