Pratt: Nana Addo Has Surrendered Leadership To Prez Mills

“…the most damaging part of his statement is the fact that he is waiting for President Mills to lead the way before he can comment. He says that it is President Mills who must lead and when President Mills leads then he will follow. This is a person who is contesting elections with President Mills but he wants President Mills to lead him…” these were the words of Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt, reacting to an interview the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo granted an Accra-based private radio station a couple of days ago. The NPP Presidential candidate maintained that President Mills must act as a responsible leader since the onus lies on him (Mills) in ensuring that the country’s political landscape is devoid of insults and rather focused on issues. Nana Addo, in an interview with Joy FM, a day after Dr. Bawumia's “State of the Economy” presentation at the 5th Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lectures, said: “Let the President show the way as to his desire for the politics of issues and discussions and the rest of us will follow.” Questioning President Mills’ commitment to free and fair elections following pockets of violence recorded at some biometric registration centres, the NPP flagbearer pointed out that President Mills has in his hands the instruments of law and order and any directives to the security agencies could go a long way in ensuring that there is law and order in the country. “Is that the free and fair elections we are going to have that we have seen in the registration?” Nana Addo asked. But contributing to discussions on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, Kwesi Pratt opined that Nana Addo’s remark clearly indicates he has surrendered leadership to President Mills.   Kwesi Pratt “He surrenders leadership completely to President Mills…His argument simply is that President Mills is the president of the republic and therefore he ought to show the way so that the rest of us can follow if we are to have peaceful elections. All leaders, in all manner of responsible positions, have the responsibility to ensure that this country does not sink into anarchy. Unfortunately for us, one of the Presidential candidates in this year’s election does not think that he has that responsibility. If you assume that President Mills is not showing leadership, why can’t others show leadership so that we can come to the conclusion that there is hope for this nation? All we expect is clear statement about the fact that politics is not just about winning elections but about standing up for principles and we are not getting that from the flagbearer of NPP and I think that this is most unfortunate…,” Kwesi Pratt said. Commenting on Nana Addo’s refusal to comment on the alleged ‘treasonable’ statement made by Kennedy Agyepong, the NPP MP for Assin North, Kwesi Pratt said: “the true situation is not that he is refusing to comment, but that all comments he has made reinforces Kennedy Agyepong’s position and actually supports them as being normal. Any political party which takes its reputation and public image seriously…and have a very serious stance against ethnicity, it will not have ended in condemnation of what Kennedy said it would have ended him being suspended…” the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper said.

Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline