The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has endorsed the action of its supporters who carried a coffin bearing posters of the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in Sunyani, Brong Ahafo over the weekend.
At the official launch of the ruling party’s manifesto, the supporters provocatively carried the NPP leader’s ‘coffin’ as if he were dead in the full glare of President John Mahama, his Vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, as well as all the NDC leaders at the Sunyani Coronation Park.
Nobody was able to call the errant youth to order.
Kofi Adams, the 2016 Campaign Coordinator for President Mahama, virtually endorsed the sacrilegious acts of his party faithful yesterday on radio, saying “it is not new in our politics.”
The coffin was said to have been brought from Bole, the home town of President Mahama.
“Without condoning the act, I must say it is not new in our politics. This is done in both the NDC and NPP, even sometimes it happens in internal elections,” Mr Adams, who is also the National Organizer of the NDC, told Okay FM in Accra.
“I saw this same act being done in our recent primaries in one of the areas that I visited. The carrying of Akufo-Addo’s coffin was mere symbolism and wasn’t part of our programme,” he said.
Mr Adams partly blamed the media for exaggerating the episode, saying “the media is always quick to bring such things on the front burner.
“Our focus on the day was selling our transformational agenda to the public which will see the living conditions of Ghanaians, including Akufo-Addo being enhanced.”
On his part, Mustapha Hamid, a spokesperson of the NPP leader, described the action of the youth as ‘reckless’ and ‘unfortunate.”
On Facebook, Hamid said “until we raise our game as young people in active politics, politicians will never respect us.
“Mahama brought these young guys to his manifesto launch; all he could do was to ask them to engage in this. Find a coffin and put Nana Addo’s poster on it and exhibit such crass buffoonery!”
He said, “Elsewhere young people are playing key roles in political campaigns in formulating policies to provide alternative direction to build their nations. In the NDC, the young people are trained to be dispensable buffoons- used and dumped and used again when it is elections. I bet 100% of these guys are jobless. Even after carrying this coffin, they’ll leave Sunyani jobless.
“How many times haven’t the NDC pronounced Nana Addo dead and how many times has God proven to them that He alone decides who lives and who dies?” Hamid quizzed.
“The NDC will never learn. Instead of finding ways of retrieving the DKM monies from Lordina to pay those poor customers, they waste time on praying Nana dies. I now understand why the rains came.”
