Former President John Dramani Mahama has defended an opinion piece authored by Bolgatanga Central constituency Member of Parliament Isaac Adongo which has sparked some controversies.
The short article which was in response to the debated Agyapa Royalties Agreement has generated heated reactions from stakeholders after it was posted on the official Facebook page of the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress.
Though Mr. John Dramani Mahama has been accused by President Nana Addo and members of the governing New Patriotic Party of acting in bad fate by sharing the article, the former President has mounted a defence for both the author and the opinion piece.
“I shared the post of one of our very fine and brilliant MP’s for Bolgatanga Central that is Honorable Isaac Adongo. In that post Adongo described certain people in Akufo Addo’s government [You know he has a lot of members of his family and friends in his government]. So Isaac Adongo described those behind a certain shady and untidy deal in the government in a particular manner. I will be the last person to disparage any tribe or ethnic group,” Mr. Mahama said in an interview on Woezor TV.
Though President Nana Addo has described the comment as an attack on a group he belongs to, the NDC leader insisted that it did not refer to an entire ethnic group.
While citing examples of leading members of the National Democratic Congress who come from the Akyem tribe, the former President stated his resolve and commitment to eschew ethnic sentiments in the lead up to the 2020 polls.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on separate occasions described as shameful, the comments shared on the facebook page of Former President John Dramani Mahama which referred to some government officials and known private persons as fraudsters popularly known as ‘Sakawa’.
He reiterated his disappointment at the silence of clergymen and other independent figures in the country who have failed to condemn John Mahama’s comment.
“I expected that by now civil society groups and religious leaders would have told the former President he is wrong. If any of the leading members of NPP or myself had said something similar about Gonja tribe there will be an uproar in this country. It is a pity,” he said.
