Colins Dauda (L) & Mustapha Hamid (R)
The Spokesperson for Nana Akufo Addo has descended heavily on Colins Dauda for not, as he put it, being sincere when he addressed residents of the Zongo community in Koforidua a few days ago.
The Local Government Minister reportedly told his hosts in the Eastern Regional capital that Nana Addo would discriminate against Muslims when he is made President a remark Mustapha Hamid described as laughable given the fact that he as a Muslim and a Busanga or Bisa an ethnic grouping with its home base in Burkina Faso has been a confidante of Nana since 2008.
“I have been with Nana since 2008 to date. No one around him is more trusted than me and I am a Muslim. Colins Dauda is no better Muslim than me so what is he talking about?” he said.
Mustapha Hamid rubbished Colins Dauda’s campaign antics which he said is insulting to the intelligence of these people who he is indirectly telling, are not Ghanaians and stand the risk of being deported when that is actually not possible.
The spokesperson who is also a lecturer at the University Of Cape Coast and a learned Islamic cleric wondered why the National Democratic Congress would continue to operate on ethno-religious lines, their preference of many years standing.
The record of the NPP is unsurpassed in the area of engaging people of the Zongos in its affairs pointing at the Nasara Wing which is part of the party’s structure. “The Nasara wing’s first National Coordinator is Maiga, a Zabrama who is recognized as a Ghanaian and treated as such,” he said.
It is only the NPP, he went on, which had both the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran used in the swearing of the President and Vice President respectively at the Independence Square.
The history of the NPP is steeped in the collaboration between various parties, one of them an Islam-based political grouping until Kwame Nkrumah proscribed parties with religious or ethnic coloration, he said, explaining that the origin of the UP or United Party lies in this fact.
Turning to the Aliens’ Compliance Order which the NDC is fond of referring to as their weak evidence of the NPP’s so-called dislike for aliens, he explained that what the late PM KA Busia did was only ensuring a compliance to an existing legislation of which he was not the originator.
The origin of the expulsion of non-Ghanaians without the requisite papers was contained in a legislation initiated by Kwame Nkrumah to reserve some aspects of business for the indigenes of this country.
The Bisa and Busanga and ethnic grouping to which he belongs, he said, although belong to Burkina Faso, also live in Ghana.
“I am a Busanga or Bisa as is the late Hawa Yakubu. Baba Jamal is a Mossi as is Colins Dauda, an ethnic grouping whose home is Burkina Faso some of whom live here and are citizens of this country. Colins Dausa was challenged in his constituency not because of his being a Mossi as he seeks to portray it. There are Christian and Muslim Arabs and so in a situation where Arabs are being asked to leave the country it would be wrong to describe the action as one against Muslims” he said.
“Is Colins Dauda saying that Nana Akufo would breach the Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion or ethnicity as he seeks to put it?” he asked.
By A.R. Gomda