Senior Minister-designate Yaw Osafo Maafo has denied ever saying or implying that only Ghanaians from five resource-rich regions in the country should lead Ghana.
In February 2015, Mr Maafo was reported as saying even though about 90 percent of Ghana’s natural resources are concentrated in mainly Akan-speaking regions of the country, it is people who come from regions without resources who are governing the country.
The comment was contained on an audiotape secretly recorded two years ago as the former Finance Minister, who is also the Chairman of the New Patriotic Party’s Eastern regional Council of Elders, was addressing some party members ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Mr Maafo, who spoke the Twi language punctuated with some English, was heard bemoaning why Akan-speaking people, whose regions are rich with natural resources, are not the ones at the helm of managing those resources.
“…You have all the resources, but you have no say in the management of your resources and that is what is happening. Your development depends on the one who has no resources,” he said, cautioning: “You can’t say this openly,” except among Asantes. “We should protect ourselves, we should protect our income. No one who is the source of income, the source of revenue, the source of resources allows another person without those resources the chance [to rule over them]. It’s never done anywhere in the world. In the world over, it is the group with the most resources that rules and not the other way around,” he added.
In his estimation, as reported at the time, “86.5 per cent of resources in Ghana come from five regions: Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern, Western, and Central. This is where 86 per cent of the resources of Ghana come from. … And the oil was also discovered in the West. It will change the formula to about 90 per cent. We cannot ignore these five regions. We should not.”
Clarifying the comment to the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday 20 January during his vetting as Senior Minister-designate, Mr Osafo Maafo said: “This is one of those distorted ‘cut and paste’ statements.
“I’m the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the NPP in the Eastern Region. We were fighting this election [2016] on the economy and I was giving a series of lectures on the economy to various groups within the region. When it got to the turn of the Council of Elders, the regional chair spoke, Hon Hackman spoke, I spoke and I spoke on the economy, but you don’t talk about the economy by starting with the resource location; … I started by talking about how poorly this economy has been managed that we have gone from GHS9.4bn debt to GHS110bn debt at the time, and how growth, without oil, was 1.9bn and had dwindled to about 4% etc., … And I said something which I’ve said in this room: that Ghana is not poor and that the resource base of this country is found in five regions and I mentioned the regions specifically because I was making a strong economic argument.
“Now people removed all that I said about the poor management of the economy and then made it look like I started by talking about the resource locations of this thing and put it forward and changed certain things to make me look like I was being a tribalist and it was bad, this is where I find people very mischievous; … You take the whole thing out of context and make it look very tribalistic, so, I think, yes, it happened, newspapers reported something wrong and I think people should be ashamed of themselves when they do this kind of ‘cut and paste’ to create that wrong impression in the system…” Mr Osafo Maafo clarified.
Source: classfmonline.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Rawlings should be ashamed of himself. this is the type of people you helped to win against your own party who have defended you. Very soon the sort of confusion that engulfed between you and ex president kuffour will surface again between you and akuffo addo. because the later believes he is more educated than you and of akan tribe.then you rawlings will noticed how ***barred word*** he has been to help an opposition. time will tell, ndc party members just keep quite and watch as events will unfold very soon
if he said, he has said it. so what. is he not an Akan? is it not true that all the rich resources comes from the Akan areas? is it also not rational the natives can manage it better? check the North, even with free education, they still prefer killing each other than rational debate. how can you entrust management of resource to such persons. check Voltarians, they prefer undermining authority and earning their incoming, engaging more into JUJU as means of achieving successes. wake up.i do not believe in ethnicity but if any one go there we would not shy away. check the heirachy of the Police department. mostly ewes. please spare us the hanky panky buuall s**t. boot for boot
SO WITH THE NUMEROUS SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES CONFRONTING THIS DEAR NATION OF OURS AND WE THINKING DEEP HOW TO OVERCOME THEM AND MOVE OUR DEAR NATION FORWARD WE ARE EMPHASISING ON TRIVIAL ISSUES.PLEASE LET'S UNITE AND MOVE GHANA FORWARD.
ARE YOU NOT A ***barred word*** AND A ROBBER,IF YOU USE OTHER PEOPLES RESOURCES TO THEIR DETRIMENT. IN MY SECONDARY SCHOOL DAYS,PEOPLE WHO HAD NEVER SEEN COCOA NOR WORKED ON COCOA FARMS HAD CMB SCHOLARSHIPS,EVEN THOUGH WE RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH THEM ACADEMICALLY,AND AT TIMES WERE MUCH BETTER THAN THEM. THESE INEQUALITIES MUST STOP.'THE BABOON DE WORK MONKEY DE CHOP' SYNDROME MUST BE RECTIFIED, RIGHT FROM THE 'ARTICLE 71 HOLDERS' TO LEAST PUBLIC SECTOR WORKER. THIS 'INTELLECTUAL' AND 'POLITICAL' ***barred word*** MUST STOP, AND NOW.
you totally did proudly hoist your tribal colors and while this is generally not surprising with the NPP, I was ashamed to hear it come from you, Osafo Marfo, a man I had come to respect for no reason at all. if people like you have joined the masses of the NPP in such lines of thought, then it will indeed be too much to expect your government to rise above petty tribalism. I pity the likes of Bugri Basabasa Nabu and Bawumia. only God knows what you say behind their backs.
Mcheew or whatever you call yourself, that is not the way to talk. Such ***barred word*** talk breed divisions. Even if Mr. Osafo Marfo said it but now denying it, it shows that he sees it as not right to say that. Why do you continue to hit on it? Look, without the regions, Accra can't be Accra. What does Accra as a geographical region produce in terms of natural resources? It is what it is because Ghana as a unitary state brings all its resources from the regions to Accra. This was a reason why some people agitated for a federal constitution some time back in our history. We don't need divisions, so PLEASE Mcheew and others, be civil.
such ***barred word***, if that s the case they should live in their hometowns and develop their hometowns with their endowed resources and not come to Accra
THE ELDERLY MAN HAS SPOKE THOSE WHO STILL LOVE LIES CAN GO AHEAD AND PERSUE THE LIES AND MISINTERPRETATIONS OF REAL ISSUES. SENIOR MINSTER ALL THE WAY
Omafo Safo.. you ain't man enough.i thought you will stand up to your own comment and defend it. in fact that comment you made on that tape is an open secret held by the likes of you and as an Akan myself i know the resentment people like you have for non Akans your only fear is that if you dare show it openly your party will never win any fairly held election in this country.you must be bold to admit you said so and apologize.
Look at an old man telling lies. You said it and today you telling lies to beautify it. We are watching and looking. Indeed the table has turned round. we will see everything one day. Just be reminded that GHana belongs to all.