Bawumia’s religious claims unfortunate – Kwesi Jonah

Political Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah has described as unfortunate, the religious profiling of the Presidency by the vice presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in a speech on a campaign platform at Sissala East in the Upper West region urged residents of the area to vote for him and the NPP presidential candidate in the upcoming elections in order to ensure religious balance to the Presidency.

The comments have been criticised by many Ghanaians including the chairman of the National Peace Council.

Speaking to Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr Tuesday, Dr. Jonah said the former deputy governor of the central bank could have better represented his view than he did.

“Politicians in our continent, in our country in general, turn to feed on the politics of identity. You are addressing a certain audience and you turn to look at the particular identity of that audience and how you can appeal to them. They often want to make the maximum impact as possible.

“It is not unusual for African politicians to make use of this kind of identities. Dzifa Attivor, if she was not speaking to purely Ewe or Anlo people, will probably not have used those words and I am sure the kind of audience Bawumia faced at that point in time; he was also making use of a particular identity, that is the Muslim identity…but the comment is very unfortunate,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the communications director of the New Patriotic Party Nana Akomea says the party will meet over the comments and make its opinion known to the public.