Kwabre/ Manso saga - Akufo-Addo had a great opportunity to inspire hope - Smart Sarpong

A Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social Science Research, at the Kumasi Technical University, Dr Smart Sarpong has reacted to the comment passed by the President on the threat of no roads no vote by the people of Kwabre and Manso in the Ashanti Region.

According him, although the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was not wrong in saying that nobody holds anybody’s hand to decide who to vote for, he had a great opportunity to calm down the residents of the two communities following agitations over poor infrastructural developments in the area.

But the president did otherwise which he said is worrying.

Dr Sarpong made the comment on TV3’s Ghana Tonight monitored by GhanaPlus.com on Tuesday, October 18.

He said the president also had the opportunity to inspire hope and bring back assurance to the people who played a major role in his election as the president.

“I thought it was a very good opportunity to inspire hope, bring back assurance to the people and to assure that we have the facility because as we are speaking now, am told there is a facility meant for those two districts, specifically, kwabre East and Manso where some major road networks are going to see development even before the ends of the year,” Dr Sarpong said.

“…So I thought, perhaps, it was a very good opportunity the journalist gave to the President to assure and inspire hope into these two constituencies but he chose to lay the bare fact as it is and it is the truth, nobody actually, holds the hands of anybody to decide for him or her where he should vote,” he added.

Don’t tie you development demands to votes – Dr Sarpong

Dr Smart Sarpong advice communities in the country to learn not to tie their developmental demands to votes going forward.

“.. I think to our constituencies and various communities needing development, my bit is that when you tie your request for development to votes then you are losing the legitimacy of your demand, you need the roads, you need the roads whether it is NPP in power or NDC in power.

“So next time, I think the lessons is that we don’t have to tie it, then it becomes like a bate, then it becomes like blackmail,”he advised.

It’s your choice if you want to vote for NDC in 2024 – President tells Ghanaians

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo while responding to no roads, no vote threat made by the people of Kwabre and Manso in the Ashanti region on Otec FM said he is not perturbed by the threat.

He also said he is not frightened by the threat adding that nobody holds anyone’s hands to make a choice during voting.

“No problem, no problem, Am saying people make those kind of threats, me they don’t frighten me because yes somebody votes for you, somebody support you is because they want you to do things for them so I understand that,” Akufo-Addo said.

“There is no need for people to say if I don’t do it this and that, that one is your own problem….. If it comes that in the election if you decide to vote for the NDC that is your own business, that is not mine choice. Nobody holds your hands to cast your vote, it is your own job,” the President said in a viral video sighted by GhanaPlus.com.