Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior, says it is time the New Patriotic Party (NPP) takes a second look at its image in the public’s eye.
He described as unnecessary some placards wielded during the “Yay3 d3n demo” in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi.
Two placards, according to Mr. Pratt read: “Remove capitation grant from Ashanti and send it to Bole Bamboi” and “Remove capitation grant from Ashanti and send it to the Volta Region".
“If capitation is bad in Ashanti, why should it go to Bole Bamboi? You say capitation is bad, and you don’t want it in Ashanti but you want it in the Volta Region. Are the people in the Volta Region not human beings? That is my worry! The message was completely wrong. It was not a message that promotes national unity and national cohesion. It was a message deliberately set out to divide our country…I think the NPP did itself a major disservice by getting clothed in regionalism,” he condemned.
He added that, “the NPP must be aware that over the last two elections, it has managed to win convincingly in only one region and marginally in another region (Eastern). It ought to be worried about its image.”
Mr. Pratt expressed disgust at spokespersons for the NPP, who spoke on media platforms to defend the demonstration.
He said it was wrong for NPP to purport that the Ashanti Region is being discriminated against in terms of development.
“It may not have been the decision of the NPP- and I do not want to believe it was the decision of the NPP- but the vast majority of spokesperson of the party who sought to promote the demonstration and to defend it ended up sounding so regional. It was frightening. At the end of the day, it appeared that the demonstration was about people in the Ashanti Region who feel discriminated against.”
“…And the question is, discriminated against by who? By the Volta Region, Northern Region, or Central Region? Or the whole of the country is discriminating against Ashanti. If the whole of the country is discriminating against Ashanti, why do they want to go to the Northern Region to continue the demonstrations? And indeed when they go to the Northern Region, what are they going to tell our comrades?” He questioned.
The Insight Managing Editor also commended government and the police for tolerating the demonstrators who failed to comply with the public order act of staging demonstrations.
The police was forced to withdraw its men after the demonstrators veered off the route approved by the police.
Mr. Kwesi Pratt Junior spoke on Radio Gold’s current affairs programme, Alhaji and Alhaji with Alhassan Suhuyini, Saturday.
