You have no business hooting at the President – KT Hammond slams over hooting at Global Citizens Festival

Member of Parliament for the Adansi Asokwa Constituency, Kwabena Tahir (KT) Hammond has condemned the heckling of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Global Citizens Festival.

The President was heckled at the Global Citizens Festival, an annual international music festival where fans take actions toward ending extreme poverty held in Accra on Saturday September 24.

The President was heckled when he mounted the stage to deliver his speech at the event  watched acrosed the globe and monitored by GhanaPlus.com.

The participants numbering thousands asked the President to exit the state using the popular word “away”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I extend a hearty Akwaaba, our word of welcome, from a very hospitable people. To all of you, who have come from afar and wide, to our vibrant city of Accra, Ghana’s capital, to join us on this great occasion,” the President said at the event amidst the heckling.

But 3news.com report said speaking  to Journalist on Tuesday, September 27, Mr KT Hammond said the citizens had no business heckling the President no matter what their concerns were.

He described the development as scandalous and as such must not be entertained in the country’s body politics.

“That was scandalous. I don’t think that, as a nation, we’ve gotten to that stage. I was petrified when I heard that.

“I didn’t understand it. I haven’t seen anything of this sort before. We shouldn’t be setting precedents that cannot be handled.

“Whatever the issue is, people have no business hooting at the President. There should be some respect because that isn’t democratic,” KT Hammond said.

A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has also condemned the development.

According to him, Ghana is a country of cultured people and must go back to its values.

“Yes, we are hungry but we cannot eat with both hands when we find food. A few party appointees are enjoying, even in times of hardships, and are asking the rest of us to keep tightening our belt. The President’s speech writers who are obviously out of touch with the economic miserization of the people, keep writing flowery and utopian speeches for the President, in a manner that plays on the emotional keyboards of Ghanaians.

But I end by insisting that we are still Ghanaians, a well cultured people and must go back to our values that found a decent way of expressing dissent. We know the lines between disagreements, criticisms and disrespect and we must keep the boundaries.

We also know the lines between the PRESIDENCY and the President as well as the OFFICE and the PERSON who occupies it. Let us keep these boundaries for the sake of national cohesion and development. This is my position both as a Normative Political Scientist and a Logical Positivist”, he said..

Source: GhanaPlus.com