'I can’t speak on the same stage with abusive, sexist Wontumi' – NDC Deputy Youth Organiser

A Deputy Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana has declined to speak at this year’s National Students Awards (NSA) ceremony because the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako is also billed to speak.

According to Mr Agbana, he is unable to speak on the same platform with Chairman Wontumi who has been described by civil society organization, the Media Foundation for West Africa, as one of the most abusive politicians in the country, adding that Chairman Wontumi has been identified as sexist.

“The individual in question over the past years has been the most flagged public speaker identified as a threat to gender progress, political decency among other reasons which I do not consider fit for purpose both as a matter of personal principle and in a capacity as a role model who should be spotlighted for young people desirous of pursuing politics to emulate," he said.

Agbana noted that having Chairman Wontumi speak on such platforms will be a wrong example for the youth.

“As the fourth estate of the realm, the media has taken up the gatekeeping role and moral curator to exclude the gentleman from very sensitive and culture-centered shows which may endanger decent political engagements," he said.

"Many Civil Society Organizations have called him out and condemned the sexist comments he has meted out to many top female personalities and role models including the first female Running Mate on the ticket of a major political party in Ghana, the venerable Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, the first female Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Charlotte Osei amongst other instances of unsavoury, vituperative, intemperate and incendiary language he continues to employ in his line of politicking,” Agbana wrote in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the NSA Awards 2020 and copied all media houses.

By empaneling such a flagged personality, I find that your platform will become one of those emboldening opportunities for such deviants to continue to serve bad examples for our teeming youths,” he noted.

The National Students Awards is organized yearly to award deserving students who have excelled in various fields of endeavor.