Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye’s comment that the presidency is not about being short or being bespectacled – a veiled swipe at the flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) – has been described by the governing party’s campaign spokesperson as a “figure of speech” rather than an insult.
“Hon. Nii Lante Vanderpuye used a figure of speech within a political context,” Mrs Joyce Bawa-Mogtari told Joy FM’s Kojo Yankson on Monday, 15 April, in an interview when questioned about the Youth and Sports Minster’s comments.
Pressed further by the host to explain that particular figure of speech, Mrs Bawa-Mogtari said: “I will leave it strictly in that context and I will not want to dwell on it. If you were reproducing the whole of the statement, you would not pick just that out of the context, you would have used it in the context in which he used it absolutely.”
At the NDC’s campaign launch on Sunday, 14 August, Mr Vanderpuye had said the race to the Flagstaff House in the 2016 elections would not be determined by “how short one is” or “the kind of spectacles” any presidential aspirant wore.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodio explained that God had ordained President John Mahama to lead and develop Ghana.
Without specifically mentioning names, he indicated: “Being a president is not about being tall. It is not about how short a person is. Being a president is not about the spectacles that one wears but the love for one’s country and its people and finding solutions that will benefit citizens.” The description, however, fits opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, who is the only presidential nominee in the race that is short and bespectacled.
Mr Vanderpuye has been widely criticised by activists of the NPP for his comments.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
