Former Energy Minister and New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2024 Presidential hopeful, Boakye Agyarko, has berated President Akufo-Addo for his haughty response that he doesn’t care if people vote for the NDC.
According to him, when they were in opposition, they begged Ghanaians to vote for them, so it is totally wrong to now say they don’t care who people vote for just because they are now in power.
He was responding after an angry Akufo-Addo said people in Kwabre and Manso can vote for the NDC if they like, after a listener to a radio station asked the President to fulfil his promise and fix their roads or they would abandon the NPP.
Akufo-Addo, who begged Ghanaians to try him when he was in opposition, this time said he doesn’t care and if people want to vote for the NDC then that is their own problem.
“People make those kinds of threats; they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, and somebody supports you. It’s because they want you to do certain things for them. I understand that. But there is no need for people to say that if I am unable to do this and that… those are their own issues to deal with. Of course, I will do it (the road),” he said.
“But if it comes to the election and you choose to vote for the NDC, that is your own issue that is not my worry because nobody holds your thumb to vote; it is your own work. The important thing is that I understand my responsibility, and we will deal with it,” the president said during an interview on Kumasi-based Otec FM
However, Agyarko said the President’s comments are unfortunate and apologised to the residents of Kwabre.
“I wanted to turn it off because I didn’t want to hear it in my ears. When I heard Akufo-Addo’s words, I wanted to run away from the video clip. When you are a politician, you hear a lot of ‘no this, no that’s.’
“In 2014, Kumasi people were saying; No Nana, No vote. In 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, I went for all of these campaigns – myself and others like Lord Commey, we’ve been on so many campaigns compared to others. We didn’t go to tell these voters during these campaigns that they can vote for whoever they want and that if they want the NDC, it is their own issue. That’s not what we told them. We went with strategy, sweet words, and pleas, to relay our messages to the voters.
“For instance, at Sehwi Akontombra, Twifo Praso, it was raining but we still stood in it, begging for votes. We even got teased by Mahama that we were going round, begging for votes, Akufo-Addo told him that the votes belong to the voters and that we need to beg them for it; and he was right.” he said.
Agyarko continued: “We didn’t tell them that if they wanted to vote for the NDC, it was up to them. So in 2024, are we going to tell them that where they choose to send their votes is up to them? No. We went to beg with pledges, but if we haven’t been able to do it, it doesn’t mean we should say what we want,” He went on to apologise to the people of Kwabre for the President’s utterances.
“To the people of Kwabire and everyone else who got offended by these statements, we apologise. This was one person’s utterances; the party does not belong to one person. The thing about this tradition and party is that, it does not belong to one person,” he said.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
