NAPO can come out as brusque but he's not 'arrogant' – CDD's Dr. Sarpong Asiedu

Dr. Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, a Democracy and Development (D&D) Fellow in Public Health at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has acknowledged that although Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Dr. Bawumia's running mate, is forthright and can come across as brusque, the label of arrogance attributed to him is unfounded.

He described him as extremely hardworking, intellectually robust, and fearless in his debates, conceding that as an imperfect person, Dr. Opoku Prempeh has his shortcomings, but arrogance does not appear to be one of them.

"I have known NAPO since infancy. We were in University Primary School together. While in secondary school, I encountered him during vacation classes. Though he was ahead of me, we ended up at Tech together. I was at Tech when his issues in Unity Hall came up. Intellectually, he is robust and has been like that from our days in primary school.

My views on NAPO are these: he is forthright and often comes out as brusque. He can rub people the wrong way, especially when he feels provoked. He has strong views and debates them fearlessly, sometimes to a fault. Overall, he is extremely hardworking. When it comes to the tag of arrogance, he fits the classic definition of Ghanaians. But is the Ghanaian definition consistent with the dictionary definition of the word? Is he perfect? No," he argued.

"There is something about the wisdom of crowds; the wise know that the crowd's view mustn't be disregarded," he concluded.

Dr. Sarpong Asiedu's comments come in response to assertions by some individuals, especially those in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), that Dr. Opoku Prempeh is arrogant and therefore unfit for the high office of running mate and, by extension, Vice President.