AFAG condemns Asiedu Nketiah's sectarian comment in Central Region

The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has condemned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah's Sectarian Comment in Central Region describing it as shameful.

The NDC Chairman, during a recent campaign tour of the Central Region expressed his displeasure with the residents.

In a video shared on TikTok, Asiedu Nketiah, addressing a crowd at an NDC event in the Central Region, reproached them for not rewarding the party with votes during elections, despite the party consistently selecting its flagbearer or running mate from the region.

"Today, I have come to look directly into the faces of you, residents of the Central Region, and speak the truth. What I want you people to know is that you are royals in the NDC, but you are behaving like people who don’t value their worth. This party was founded by celebrated personalities from the Central Region, including Kwamena Ahwoi, Kwesi Botchwey, Ato Ahwoi, and others.

"In our first election, we chose someone (K.N. Arkaah) from the Central Region as our running mate. In our second election, we selected Prof. Mills as our running mate, and in our third election, Prof. Mills became our flagbearer. In our fourth and fifth elections, Prof. Mills was our flagbearer. He won and became President.

"When he died, John Mahama took over and selected someone (P.K. Amissah-Arthur) from the Central Region to be Vice President. After Amissah-Arthur, today, we have Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang from the Central Region as our running mate and soon-to-be Vice President," said the former Deputy Minister for Agriculture during the Rawlings regime," Asiedu Nketiah said.

He continued, "So, you have a lot of valuable assets, but you are discarding them. Why are you throwing out your intestines and replacing them with rubbish? There are regions in Ghana where the flagbearer of a party comes from, and ever since, the people of those regions have consistently voted for that party. But you, the people of the Central Region, who helped form the NDC, in all eight elections held in this Fourth Republic, there has not been one in which a person from the Central Region wasn’t a flagbearer or running mate. Yet, during elections, you vote against the NDC. Think about this carefully. If you don’t make it to Heaven, don’t blame Jesus."

AFAG, in a statement noted that Asiedu Nketia is on record to be fanning a dangerous and blatant politics of tribe and ethnic extraction, which can invariably heighten tribal hatreds and regional suspicion.

The group said the results of this kind of politics can be terrifying as has been observed across many African countries, particularly in Kenya and very recently, Nigeria.

"This divisive political tactic is a very slippery road and a threat to the peace and unity of Ghana. AFAG is against any form of politically masked sectarian ethnic interest, like the one being propagated by the NDC in the Central region.

"This backwards style politics that is being systematically introduced into our body politics by Asiedu Nketia in his quest for political power is shameful and distasteful.

"The Central region is a vote-rich region in Ghana’s political landscape, and the residents therein are at liberty to exercise their franchise as they deem fit. The attempt by the NDC’s national chairman to maul them because of their choice of vote pattern is undemocratic and unconstitutional," the statement stressed.

"We implore the national chairman of NDC and any other person on this tangent to not deliberately plant seeds of discord among the various ethnic groupings simply because he desires political power for his self-aggrandizement," it added.

AFAG noted that the good people of Central region have always known what is good for them, and this is observable in the vote pattern since the beginning of the 4th Republic.

It therefore called on the general public to condemn the national chairman of the NDC whose stock in trade is fanning tribal politics during each election cycle as his family remain, and continue to live comfortably in Canada, adding that "This shameful practice must stop now."

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