Kofi Bentil, Senior Vice President of policy think tank IMANI-Africa, Kofi Bentil, has stated that he disagrees with the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) choice of the word “tyranny”, “despotism” and “authoritarianism” in reference to the government and President Nana Akufo-Addo.
He explained that such words could not be used in the nation’s democratic dispensation since the citizenry decided to elect President Akufo-Addo and gave him the powers he has saying “the people of this country also decided that we will give the New Patriotic Party (NPP) a majority in Parliament and we have given them the power, how they use it, is their prerogative.”
The Minority walked out of Parliament, on Thursday February 20, fulfilling their earlier promise of boycotting the 2020 State of the Nation Address.
Clad in black attires, the men and women of the NDC were protesting a number of issues including the government’s failure to release five per cent of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund and concerns they had raised regarding the Electoral Commission’s bid to create a new voters’ register.
During a press conference to explain the boycott, Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu said, since President Akufo-Addo assumed the reins of power, he “has conducted the affairs of state with the kind of tyranny, despotism, and authoritarianism that frightens many objective observers.”
But Mr Bentil disagrees with the statement and according to him, “if the Minority feels their grievances are falling on deaf ears, they need to strengthen their fort and work towards regaining power in the next general election and not to use such derogatory words in the nation’s body politic which are recipe for divisiveness.
“Again it is nation building, go and campaign hard, regain your Majority in Parliament, become the President next time but words like tyranny, nepotism, despotism and authoritarianism cannot be properly used in a democracy like ours because such words send wrong signals to deepen our democratic dispensation,” he cautioned. -myjoyonline.com
