Anane asks: What is wrong if NPP is an Akan party?

A former Health Minister, Dr. Richard Anane has urged members of the New Patriotic Party not to worry about the Akan tag attached to the party since Akans constitute the largest ethnic group in Ghana.

“If it were you, would you not even be happy that they are saying your party is made of the larger chunk of the population in the country?...Party is about quality... [Ethnicity] plays no role at all,” Anane told host of Morning Starr Kafui Dey on Starr 103.5FM Wednesday.

Opponents of the NPP have on several occasions described the party as an Akan party which offers little or no opportunity to people from other ethnic groups in the country.

A recently leaked tape drew a lot of criticism after a former finance minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Yaw Osafo-Maafo was on it bemoaning why people from less resource endowed areas of the country are the ones at the helm of affairs rather than Akans whose regions are rich in natural resources.

Some members of the governing NDC who went on a demonstration over Mr. Osafo-Maafo’s comments said the statements confirmed that the NPP is a party for Akans.

However, Dr. Anane, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso said he sees nothing wrong with the party being described in such ethnic terms even though he denies it.

According to him, that perception is flawed since the NPP has supporters across the country.

“We have friends all over the country; we move all over the country, we deal with people all over the country...when people say the NPP is an Ashanti party, let’s say it is true. So what? But you know it is not true”.