The Deputy Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress( NDC) Edem Agbana has declined to speak at this year’s National Students Awards(NSA) Ceremony because Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party(NPP) Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako alias Chairman Wontumi is also a speaker at the ceremony.
According to Mr Agbana, he is unable to speak on the same platform with Chairman Wontumi who has been described by civil society organization, the Media Foundation for West Africa, as one of the most abusive politicians in the country, adding that Chairman Wontumi has been identified as sexist in his commentary about women.
“The individual in question over the past years has been the most flagged public speaker identified as a threat to gender progress, political decency among other reasons which I do not consider fit for purpose both as a matter of personal principle and in a capacity as a role model who should be spotlighted for young people desirous of pursuing politics to emulate.
According to the Media Foundation for West Africa ( MFWA), the politician you seek to make him address the youths on the day is the one public figure who is mostly fond of using “abusive language on radio” in our recent political history.
Many Civil Society Organizations have called him out and condemned the sexist comments he has meted out to many top female personalities and role models including the first female Running Mate on the ticket of a major political party in Ghana, the venerable Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, the first female Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Charlotte Osei amongst other instances of unsavoury, vituperative, intemperate and incendiary language he continues to employ in his line of politicking,” Mr Agbana wrote in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the NSA Awards 2020 and copied all media houses.
Mr Agbana noted that empanelling Chairman Wontumi will be a wrong example for the youth since Mr Wontumi could be a source of encouragement for others to engage in unacceptable politicking.
“As the fourth estate of the realm, the media has taken up the gatekeeping role and moral curator to exclude the gentleman from very sensitive and culture-centered shows which may endanger decent political engagements.
By empaneling such a flagged personality, I find that your platform will become one of those emboldening opportunities for such deviants to continue to serve bad examples for our teeming youths,” he noted.
The National Students Awards is organized yearly to award deserving students who have excelled in various fields of endeavor.
