<\/p>\n
Ernest Owusu-Bempah<\/strong><\/p>\n The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is behind the boos and chants of \u201cAway! Away!\u201d that greeted President Akufo-Addo at the Global Citizen Festival celebration in Accra at the weekend.<\/p>\n The ruling party, in a statement, indicated that much as\u00a0boos and chants by the crowd at the Independence Square might pass for a natural reaction to the President, there is \u201ca twist to this disgusting enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement, which was signed by the NPP Deputy Director of Communication, Ernest Owusu-Bempah, described it as\u00a0\u201csponsored NDC\u2019s evil machinations.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the NPP, as President Akufo-Addo began to give his speech at the Global Citizen Festival celebration on Saturday night, the crowd\u2019s mood appeared normal.<\/p>\n \u201cMoments later, the boos emerged and as that kindling took light, chants of \u2018away, away\u2019 echoed throughout the place,\u201d the statement noted.<\/p>\n It explained that \u201cquite frankly, in normal sporting or entertainment events, fans boo. It might not be printed on the ticket, but fans believe the price of admission includes a right to express themselves about pretty much anything that goes on at the ballpark, stadium or arena.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey whistle, jeer and taunt, and no one \u2013 players, coaches, other fans, even mascots are immune,\u201d the NPP added.<\/p>\n The statement asserted that for anyone to think that President Akufo-Addo would be spared that kind of reception, or be outraged that he was not, is \u201ceither na\u00efve or sanctimonious.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTruly, politicians don\u2019t expect to be popular all the time. Getting on with running the country is a job where you have to make difficult decisions a lot of the time. There\u2019s nothing wrong if President Akufo-Addo goes to an event and receives a cold reception. That\u2019s a normal occurrence,\u201d the statement pointed out.<\/p>\n The NPP, however, indicated that for the NDC to allow politics to take centre stage at such an event and unfairly single out the President for political point scoring raises serious concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cTo put it more bluntly, it is pure evil and utter disgrace for the NDC to organise its supporters to go and shout down the President in the manner it happened,\u201d the statement stressed.<\/p>\n According to the NPP, as a matter of fact, \u201cthe mean-spirited treatment\u201d of President Akufo-Addo with \u201cloud and sustained boos and jeers from the partisan NDC crowd at the Global Citizen event crossed some bright lines.\u201d<\/p>\n The party said the question of political civility is a common debate topic in Ghana\u2019s political economy, to the extent that \u201cresponses almost feel predetermined.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut this relatively predictable moment still felt worrying and, given the venue, particularly a global event of this magnitude, we ought to speak out,\u201d the NPP stated.<\/p>\n For the ruling party, \u201cnever before in the history of this country has a president, who by the way, has done more than any other president in recent times, and for all demographics been treated so unfairly and disrespected.\u201d<\/p>\n Gyampo\u2019s Condemnation<\/strong><\/p>\n Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has also condemned the action of the crowd, saying, \u201cWe do not like how the country is being governed, but we cannot suddenly also throw our culture of courtesy, respect and civility to the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n He wrote on his Facebook wall, \u201cThe position of the presidency must be respected by all, regardless of its occupant.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof. Gyampo, however, noted that the handlers of the President ought to have done some intelligence gathering to enable them to have gauged the mood of the audience before letting the President to address them.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone failed and caused this monumental embarrassment,\u201d he said, and added that \u201cunfortunately, the President cannot even reshuffle, let alone sacking anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n By Ernest Kofi Adu<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ernest Owusu-Bempah The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is behind the boos and chants of \u201cAway! Away!\u201d that greeted President Akufo-Addo at the Global Citizen Festival celebration in Accra at the weekend. The ruling party, in a statement, indicated that much as\u00a0boos and chants by the crowd at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1211717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1211716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}