A political activist and physician, Dr Arthur Kennedy, has expressed dissatisfaction with Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh’s apology over his supposedly denigrating comments about Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
The running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2024 election, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, also known as Napo has apologised for downplaying the achievements of Dr Kwame Nkrumah against incumbent President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
On Tuesday, July 12, Napo declared that no president had developed the nation like President Akufo-Addo.
Reacting to the public uproar, Napo in a statement on Friday July 12, said “The statement reflects my personal opinion about President Akufo-Addo’s impact relative to other Presidents we have had.
According to Napo, his statement was not meant to disrespect Dr Nkrumah or any of the country’s former heads of state.
The apology, according to Dr Kennedy,” rubbed salt into the wounds of those who were offended.”
“Kwame Nkrumah is our Kwame Nkrumah. He is Africa’s Kwame Nkrumah. Africa’s man of the Millennium, and I think that a genuinely humble and regretful apology would have been nice,” he said.
Dr Kennedy expressed disapproval of the way Napo handled the matter, particularly in light of prior concerns about his perceived arrogance.
“Remember the whole week before he was named, there were people talking about his perceived arrogance, and actually, I was disturbed because the people who were defending him seemed to give the impression that arrogance is a virtue from some of the comments that they made.”
“And the Asantehene, to his credit said I brought you up, people say you are arrogant but I don’t see that. Go out there and prove to them that you are not arrogant,” Dr Kennedy said.
According to the political activist, Napo’s words confirmed his perceived arrogance.
“I can tell you that I think President Kufuor has been the best president of the fourth republic, and President Kwame Nkrumah will be the best president for eternity. There is no conceivable scenario in which we will get a better president.
“So I think that Napo made an unfortunate start. He needs advice. He needs humility and he needs to tread carefully going on,” he said.
This apology comes after he had defended the comments despite public condemnation.
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