Tribal comments don’t win votes – Edward Brenya

A political scientist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Edward Brenya, has said the resort to ethnocentrism by political parties will not necessarily win them votes.

According to him, voters have already decided on who they will vote for come 7 December.

His comment was in reaction to President John Mahama’s assertion that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will use and dump Dr Mahamudu Bawumia after the elections.

“…The 21st century voter knows what they want. Some of these rhetoric do not make the magic as we have seen in the past. The USA, with all its advanced technology and scientific analysis, got it wrong; the global society was shocked. …We are living in a global village; many of the candidates know what they want. We’ve heard some of the comments that [they’ve made]. …Whether or not what the president said is going to be able to resonate with the people so that it changes minds, whether or not Nana Akufo-Addo’s response is going to make him likeable to the people, we don’t know. But one thing is clear: the voters know what they want and the one that they can trust to do what they want is who they will vote for,” Dr Brenya told Class News.

Meanwhile, the Presiding Archbishop and General Overseer of Action Chapel International, Nicholas Duncan-Williams, has expressed worry over political leaders engaging in tribal and ethnocentric comments ahead of the 7 December polls.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Class News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson at the sidelines of the launch of the 2nd High Level Meeting of National Leaders Aimed at Strengthening Ghana’s Democratic Stability, Peace and Unity in Accra on Monday 21 November, Archbishop Duncan-Williams advised voters to choose leaders based on their competence, and not tribe or religion.

“We shouldn’t vote for people because of their tribe or their religion. You should vote for people because they are Ghanaians and they have what it takes to govern and to manage this country and to help move this nation forward and make it what we all want it to be. It shouldn’t be on the grounds of tribe or religion, but it should be on the grounds of what the individual is capable of doing,” he stated.