The director of communications of the governing New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, has taken on the Minority in Parliament for boycotting the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Akufo-Addo yesterday.
He said the conduct of the NDC MPs was disgraceful and a huge disappointment to the followers of the party.
The members of the Minority caucus, clad in black, chanted parts of the national anthem as they walked out of the chamber, shortly after President Nana Akufo-Addo took his seat in Parliament.
They explained that their walkout was in opposition to supposed threats against the democracy of the state.
They claimed that their action was in reaction to a number of decisions adopted by the government that pose as threat to the gains of the country’s democracy.
Mahama behind boycott
But Yaw Buaben Asamoa, who is also the Member of Parliament for Adentan, lashed out at the Minority.
“The NDC leadership has disgraced itself today, it has disappointed its followership and it has detracted from the democracy that we all want. However, we [NPP] stayed behind and we have enjoyed ourselves,” he told the media in an interview.
He further accused the flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama, of instigating the boycott.
He said the issue of the voters’ register, which formed one of the basis for the minority’s boycott, is not an issue they should still be contesting.
“Only the NDC is insisting on this old register. 64% of Ghanaians say they want a new register. The EC has demonstrated that it is practically impossible to go back to the new register.
Everybody supports the EC except for the NDC who insist and, then you come to Parliament, you are advised by John Mahama to abandon parliamentary proceedings and the entire group follow John Mahama’s advice and leave?
What kind of leadership is the NDC having now? This is probably the worst collective leadership of the NDC I have ever seen,” he said.
Mr Buaben Asamoa, however, said the absence of the NDC enhanced the atmosphere in Parliament “because it wasn’t unruly, it was serene, and it was beautiful.”
