General News of Monday, 28 January 2013

Source: Peacefmonline

Mahama's legitimacy does not lie in NPP's mouth

A member of the communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has posited that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot determine the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama.

Felix Ofosu Kwakye, who also doubles as an Oil and Gas Analyst, believes President Mahama does not need the opposition party to approve of his legitimacy because Ghanaians have already given that to him.

He was commenting on the NPP's boycott of the vetting proceedings of President Mahama’s nominees.

The opposition party insists that the 2012 General elections were rigged in favour of the NDC and thus do not consider President Mahama's administration as legitimate.

Consequently, they have filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the electoral results.

But speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, the NDC communicator stressed, “I have said that the legitimacy of President Mahama does not lie in the mouth of the NPP. They are not the ones who give President Mahama legitimacy. I cannot believe that a political party does not see that it is putting itself in direct conflict with the people of Ghana….”

According to him, the NPP's boycott of the vetting proceedings will not change anything as far as the nominees are concerned, adding “I think that their absence have actually led to the situation where we’ve not had the unnecessary heckling.”

“We, as a people, must not worry about what the NPP thinks when institutions are working. They (nominees) will not be any less legitimate if the NPP members were present. So to that extent, the NPP’s action is mute. It is only nice and proper that in a democracy like ours, all sides engage so that we get the very best out of everybody. But if they choose for very narrow parochial partisan reasons not to be part of it, I don’t think we need to weep over the process…” he said.