Presidential staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak, is calling on the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to disassociate itself from ‘ethnocentric comments’ made by its Ashanti regional chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako.
According to him, such comment from a leading member of the party reinforces the perception that the NPP is a “violent political institution”.
Dr. Apaak has, therefore, described Bernard Antwi-Boasiako also known as Chairman Wontumi as an ‘attention seeking freak,’ who government will not glorify at the expense of the bread and butter issues confronting Ghanaians.
“Chairman Wontumi is an aggrandizer, who is seeking attention so he wants to blow his ego out of proportion to get the attention of people in his party,” he stated on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme, Thursday, in reaction to claims of ethnocentric comments made by the Ashanti regional chairman of the NPP.
Chairman Wontumi, obviously frustrated by the socio-economic condition in the country, threatened to replicate the Tunisian uprising christened the Arab Spring in the Ashanti region.
Addressing a rally in Kumasi over the weekend, Chairman Wontumi said the decision to pilot capitation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Ashanti region is part of government’s plans to punish the people in the region.
He said he will do anything within his power to unseat the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 election.
“If he [Mahama] knows what is best for him, he will abandon this capitation policy otherwise in a month’s time; I Chairman Wontumi will call on two million people in the Ashanti region to join a big demonstration. What the Tunisians did, we are going to do same here in Ashanti region; I never rest until the NDC is overthrown,” he stressed.
Dr. Apaak further said government would treat with contempt the “outrageously embellishing statements” by the NPP regional chairman and focus on more important issues.
He, therefore, urged the NPP to disassociate itself from the “hawks” like Wontumi who has tagged the party as an Akan party.