Deputy Minister of Information, Mr. Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwah, has expressed regret that despite public condemnation of his “ethnocentrism” and infamous “all-die-be-die” comment, Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, seems unrepentant in offering an apology, but is rather crisscrossing the country campaigning.
To him, this clearly betrays the mentality of the NPP flagbearer; that he, by design, made that particular outburst to send the country to the Neanderthal ages.
“It is regrettable that he has still not come out to apologise…Let us just say he is human and he’s bound to make mistakes. If he has refused to apologise, then he intentionally said it and that is his mentality. He wants to take us to the dark ages but I am happy that Ghanaians have shown their disagreement over the issue and very soon they will leave him in the corner that he finds himself,” he said.
Speaking in reaction to a press conference held by the NPP Presidential Candidate in Ho in the Volta Region, on Asempa FM‘s current affairs programme Ekosii Sen, Okudzeto Ablakwa castigated the opposition party that six months after electing their flagbearer, the NPP has “not launched their vision, manifesto or blue print that they will follow to ensure that the mistakes they made when they were in power for eight years will not be repeated, should they win in 2012.”
“…we don’t hear of that, rather, if it is not all die be die then it is we Akans and all kinds of trivialities that does not go to the core of the challenges facing our people…We don’t have to be desperate. We don’t have to create the impression that we need power at all cost. We, as a nation need to remain focused on the Better Ghana Agenda as the president said. Politics is not everything,” he said.
The deputy Information Minister described as ironic the fact that though President Mills’ statement that he has put the security agencies on “red alert” and under strict instructions to deal decisively with anybody or group of persons who will attempt to disturb the peace and stability of Ghana, was made in a general context and did not mention Nana Akufo Addo by name, the NPP Flagbearer of all the opposition elements in Ghana chose to react to it by holding a press conference.
“He (President Mills) made his statement in a general context because no matter who we are, we are all under the law; from the President to every citizen throughout the country, we are all under the law,”
But the NPP Member of Parliament for Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, Hon. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, who was a panelist on the show, countered that President Mills, instead of telling us what he had been able to achieve since he gave his last State of the Nation Address, rather chose to focus on attacking the NPP Presidential candidate.