Press Release from NPP Weija Constituency Communication Team

“Separating the Facts from the Lies”

We have decided to come out with this press statement as a result of a creeping tension that is gradually escalating within some members of the Christian faith and the Muslim faith as a result of explanations by the Deputy Minister of State for Finance and Economic Planning in his recent fallout from the US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks.

We carefully monitored his submissions on various media stations, and all he sorts to do was to compound the issue and further create confusion between Muslims and the Christians.

However, we would want to set the record straight. Npp as a political party is very much aware of the fact that, Ghana is a secular state, and for that matter irrespective of ones religious affiliation be it Islamic or a Christian, that person fully qualifies to stand for any position in our great Party.

For the record again, President Kuffour’s choice of his Excellency Aliu Mahama was not a token to the Muslim community, but it was as a result of the latter’s credibility, and the believe and respect the party has for the Islamic religion. This is evident in the party’s consistent choice of a Muslim running mate since 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2008. With authority, we would want to state empathically “there is no where in the NPP’s Constitution that has been enshrine that a Vice President automatically becomes the flag bearer of our party after the tenure of the President”. We in the NPP do not know if NDC as a political party has this clause in their constitution.

For the record again, the then Vice President Atta Mills did not take the baton from President Rawlings in the year 2000 through a democratic process. We have not forgotten the famous Swedru Declaration where the then President Rawlings actually impose Prof. Mills on NDC party against the will of the members of the party. Fiifi kwetey should spare us his homiletics about “George Bush Snr took over from Ronald Reagan, Al Gore took over from Bill Clinton and Mbeki took over from Mandela among others.” This scenario can not actually be a reference point in this case.

In any case, we are throwing a challenge to Hon. Fiifi Kwetey to provide us with the reasons why NDC dropped Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni who was the running mate for the then candidate Mills in 2004. Was he dropped because “Christians would not vote for a Muslim”, and that his Excellency John Dramani Mahama who is a Christian was the better choice over the Muslim candidate? Or because his Excellency Dramani Mahama could pull “the non-Mills votes” so he brought him to deceive Muslims that there was a religious balance in his selection of a running mate?

Once again, why did the NDC as a party reject Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu at their Presidential Primaries? Was it also as a result of the position of their party that a Muslim can never become a president in Ghana?

In lieu to all these issues, we are therefore calling on Fiifi Kwetey to come out and render an unqualified apology to Christians and Muslims for such derogatory statements about our religion and with immediate effect stop the propaganda he has been trying to put to the issue so far.

We are also calling on President Mills to FIRE the Deputy Minister of Finance for his unsavory utterances and attempts to put a twist to the issue and sow animosity among these religious faiths. Failure on the part of President Mills to do so, would therefore attest to the fact that, President Mills and some of his Ministers of State and NDC as a political party do not have respect for the Islamic faith and this was evidential in the way and manner he and his party executives rejected Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni (in the run up to election 2008), who was the obvious choice of Muslims and went for a Christian in the person of his Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

Signed:

• Wonder M Jiaggey

• Paa Willie

• Enoch Ofori

• Collins Odame

• Rakia Aidam

• Richie Asiedu

Dated 07/11/2011