Koku Anyidoho, a former NDC Deputy General Secretary, has weighed in on the growing use of insults in the country’s politics, warning those encouraging young people to insult political leaders and spread lies.
According to Koku Anyidoho, Ghana belongs to all Ghanaians and not any particular family or group.
He argued that the growing use of insults in Ghana’s politics is exposing young people to behaviour that could have serious consequences for the country.
Koku Anyidoho noted that political leaders, pastors and traditional leaders are now being subjected to insults.
He further warned those he described as orchestrators of the conduct to be prepared to face the consequences of their actions.
Speaking on OKAY FM, Koku Anyidoho stated, “Those people who brought this into Ghana politics because they wanted power and have gotten it. Look at where it has gotten to now; do you know what our children are being exposed to?”
“Pastors, traditional leaders, the president, the former president, and other leaders are being insulted. How?” he questioned.
Koku Anyidoho added, “Any person who is encouraging the youth to insult people and tell lies in this country should be prepared for the day of judgment, just like how Ahab and Jezebel died [in the Bible]”.
“This thing will end because we know what we are doing in prayer. Ghana will not belong to anybody or any family. It belongs to all of us, and nobody- family or group of people will be allowed to kill this country, especially using scoundrels… This nonsense must stop,” he added.
In related news, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has condemned the arrest and remand of nurse and mother of three, Salomey Bafoh Awiti.
According to Dr Bawumia, it is worrying that the nurse was picked up in the middle of the night by national intelligence officers and subsequently remanded for two weeks.
The NPP flagbearer said he has consistently opposed the use of insults in political discourse and urged political actors and citizens to engage one another respectfully.
He also raised concerns about what he described as the selective application of laws, arguing that similar conduct by different individuals should attract equal treatment.
Dr Bawumia disclosed that when allowed to lead Ghana, intelligence agencies will not be reduced to chasing citizens for insulting the President or anyone.
In a social media post on Friday, September 18, Bawumia wrote, “The story of how a Techiman-based nurse and mother of 3 (including a 4-year-old), Salomey Bafoh Awiti, was picked up in the middle of the night by national intelligence officers and has been remanded for two weeks on suspicion that she is abetting the publication of false news is very worrying to read.
This is not the Ghana we want to build. I can assure Ghanaians that when given the opportunity, our intelligence agencies will not be reduced to chasing citizens for insulting the President or anyone else.
I have always disavowed a politics of insults and will remind all in the political space of the need to be decorous. The ideas we need to transform our nation won’t come from insults. But I also remind the NDC government that any infringement on the right to free speech pushes our democracy backwards. Free speech, as unpalatable as it may be sometimes, is the foundation of our democracy.
Even more worrying is the government’s continuous selective application of our laws. Some citizens can insult and walk freely, and others are jailed because the government doesn’t like the target of their insults.
Please release Salomey Bafoh Awiti and others who have been similarly charged and jailed.
God bless our homeland Ghana and help us to resist oppressors’ rule!”
Watch the video below:
@ghnow_ EOCO Officials Attempt to Arrest Lawyer Nana Adjei Baffour Awuah at Accra High Court #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Watch as EOCO officials reportedly attempt to arrest lawyer Nana Adjei Baffour Awuah, counsel for Nurse Salomey Bafor Awiti, at the Accra High Court. #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
