Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo Must Reassure Ghanaians That No Part Of Ghana And Its Indigenes Will Face Discrimination If He Becomes President

I listened to the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) candidate for the 2016 presidential election, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, attempting to use humour to lessen the impact of the controversy caused by the phrase "All die be die" contained in a campaign speech he delivered at Atewa, years ago, during a recent radio interview on Starr FM (if I remember correctly), which was replayed on Peace FM's mid-day news, today.

Unfortunately, having effectively dealt with the issue of the  controversial phrase from his Atewa campaign speech, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo then went on to try and also use humour to make light of Yaw Osafo Marfo's lament that southerners,  whose part of the country contains most of Ghana's natural resources, did not dominate Ghana politically, when it was proper and fit that they should do so, in his opinion.

Yaw Osafo Marfo's outrageous comments should never be made light of by his party colleagues - as this is a nation of diverse ethnicity in which all Ghanaians have an equal stake. His remarks were deeply offensive and unpardonable.

The NPP's leading lights need to understand that  there are many fair-minded Akans who felt uncomfortable with the "Yen Akan fuo" phrase uttered by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, in that selfsame Atewa campaign speech, in which he used the "All die be die" phrase.

No ethnic group in this country has a divine right to dominate Ghana politically. Osafo Marfo's foolish remarks betray an attitude of mind that evokes resentment in independent-minded Ghanaians who are nationalistic and patriotic - who have no time for the atavism of  tribal bigots: who in their view pose an existential threat to Ghana as we know it.

 It is precisely such backward and tribalistic attitudes of entitlement that led to the civil wars in the DR Congo and the Ivory Coast, and to the genocide in Rwanda and the pogrom in Darfur in western Sudan. This is the 21st century - no tribe is superior or inferior to another in Nkrumah's Ghana. No politician in today's Ghana must ignore that reality.

The natural resources of Ghana do not belong to the indigenes of the areas they are located in. They belong to the state - which holds them in trust for the benefit of all Ghanaians. That right to benefit from Ghana's natural resources, no matter which part of the country Ghanaians hail from,  is non-negotiable. The Yaw Osafo Marfos had better revise their notes accordingly.

What Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo ought to do - instead of making light of Osafo Marfo's tribal-supremacist worldview - is to focus on reassuring all Ghanaians that any government formed by the NPP, should he become president after the 2016 presidential election, will provide the needed resources to develop all the ten regions of Ghana, and that he will personally ensure that no region in Ghana and its indigenes, will be discriminated against, during his tenure.