Mixed reactions greet Mahama’s tribal comment

President John Dramani Mahama’s recent alleged ethnocentric comment has received mixed reactions from majority of Ghanaians including the clergy, academia, civil society groups and traditional rulers.

While some people believe the President erred by making such a comment, others particularly, supporters and appointees of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), think otherwise.

President Dramani Mahama, who is seeking re-election in the December 7 polls at a rally in Lawra on Friday, November 18, 2016 as part of his campaign tour of the Upper West Region, said he pities the running mate of the flag-bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, because, according to him, Mr. Bawumia will never be given the opportunity to be President in the NPP.

Using the late Aliu Mahama as an example, President Dramani Mahama 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.”

“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 Damango, who am I to stand here and call myself President of the Republic of Ghana?”

“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,” President Mahama said.

But responding to the comment our Brong Ahafo Regional correspondent, Michael Sarpong Mfum reported that scores of residents in Sunyani described it ”as infantile and a sign of desperation.”

He said they called on all well-meaning Ghanaians not to countenance such behaviours since, according to them, it has the tendency of dividing the country.

For instance, one Daniel Adomako, who could not understand why President Dramani Mahama made the comment said: “I’m aware many northerners served under President Kufuor… so what is the President saying”?

“Many northerners had the opportunity to serve the country under NPP. I can remember Moses Dani Baah, Mustapha Ali Iddris,Alhaji Malik Yakubu and many others,” he recalled.

For businessman Joeferry Kwarteng, he had a word of advice for politicians in the country.

He told them to do well and desist from the use of hate speech, unprintable words and tribal comments.

“This is unfortunate and it is cheap politics .We must learn from what happened to the people of Rwanda over similar ethnocentric comments by a certain tribe,” he asserted.

President Dramani Mahama was also not spared in Cape Coast as our Central Regional correspondent, Magdalene Abrobrah reported that Cape Coasters were deeply disappointed in the President’s comment.

According to them, President Dramani Mahama failed to live up to his status as the first “gentleman” of the land.

“He (President Mahama) should have known better that as President of the country, what he says or does has the tendency to make or break the nation, considering the fact that we have just few weeks to go to the polls,” they noted.

Majority of people in Cape coast, according to our reporter, chastised the President for erring at this crucial moment in the history of the country, and called on him to apologise with immediate effect.

They observed that his utterance was very absurd as it may end up pitching one ethnic group against the other thereby dividing the country.

The reaction of Greater Accra Region residents to the President comment was not different from the others.

Our reporter, Edward Blagogee, reported that one Ernest Nii Quaye, a worker at Avenor, was not in support of the NDC leader, and advised him to render an unqualified apology to Ghanaians.

“President Mahama’s comments were really needless because during the late President Atta Mills’ era, he gave him the opportunity to be his Vice until he met his untimely death which made him the Vice President, so I think the President should rather thank God for making him the President rather than throwing dust into people’s eyes,” he said.

But one Enoch Nkrumah who did not see anything wrong with the President’s purported tribal comment was surprised that it has been given too much space in the media.

In the capital city of Ashanti Region, Kumasi although the people are in a mourning state over the demise of their great queen, our correspondent, James Appiakorang Jnr., reported that they were not a bit enthused about the comment.

“If President Mahama says northerners should vote for him because he is their own then there is no need for him to come here (Kumasi) for our votes,” a trader at Kejetia, Ama Asiedu, told our reporter in an interview.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has backed President Dramani Mahama.

According to him, there was nothing wrong with the comment and for that matter there is no need for any apology.