The running mate to Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in the 2024 election, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has claimed that his contentious “mo Kwame Nkrumah” comment was misinterpreted and taken out of context.
The former Manhyia South MP stated on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday that the public outcry that followed the remark did not represent his intentions.
According to Dr Opoku Prempeh, also known as NAPO, the statement was made during a particular political period and shouldn’t have been taken as an assault on Ghana’s first president.
“At that time, you can’t go into the evidence, so I made a statement ‘mo Kwame Nkrumah’, and I subsequently had to go to Nkroful and speak to the Chiefs there and explain the contest in which the statement was made,” he said.
He clarified that leaders must accept responsibility when their comments cause misunderstandings because political communication may be easily misinterpreted.
“Because in politics, if somebody misunderstands, misquotes, or you allow your communication to be misread or to be misunderstood, you have to own it. So I owned it, and that is why I issued the statement,” he said.
To emphasise that he was not criticising Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Opoku Prempeh likened his comment to football jokes.
“Not that the context was wrong. I’m a die-hard fan of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. So if I’m teasing Olympic supporters and I said ‘mo Oly fuo no’, I’m not really insulting Olympic fans. I’m just upping Kotoko fuo because I am one of them,” he explained.
He maintained that the Nkrumah reference had been “totally misunderstood”.
The robust response that ensued was acknowledged by the NPP running mate.
“It generated a lot of uproar. Nkrumahists got furious, and I apologise to them,” he said. But he urged critics to reflect on Nkrumah’s own writings.
“They should go and read Kwame Nkrumah’s Last Days from Guinea and look at how he described his own Convention People’s Party (CPP). He said the CPP was dead. That’s Nkrumah’s own writing, so we don’t say these things out of lack of respect. You know me. I have friends everywhere,” he noted.
When Dr Opoku Prempeh was announced as the New Patriotic Party’s running partner in July 2024, he made a statement that no president, not even Kwame Nkrumah, had outperformed President Akufo-Addo. This statement caused a great deal of controversy.
His comment was deemed offensive by others, notably the Convention People’s Party. The incident rekindled worries about his “arrogant” public persona, as many opponents have described it.
However, Dr. Opoku Prempeh maintained on PM Express that misperception, not purpose, was the driving force behind the argument.
He emphasised that the statement was not an assault on Ghana’s founding leadership but rather political rhetoric.
NKONKONSA.com
