Minority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, has indicated his readiness to apologize to persons who feel offended by alleged reports that he has slighted the people of Ga-Dangme.
The issue of who will partner Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the 2012 elections has generated a lot of anxiety among members of the NPP.
Some Ga-Dangme personalities like Professor Felix Nii Lantei Odartey Wellington, Professor Ernest Aryeetey and Dr. Nii Okai Hammond have emerged as possible candidates.
Hon Kyei Mensah-Bonsu is reported to named Professor Mike Ocquaye as a possible candidate if the permutations were right.
But the Enquirer newspaper in its Monday edition quoted the Suame MP as saying no Ga-Dangme was currently fit enough to partner Nana Addo for the 2012 elections, a claim he has strenuously denied.
Explaining the genesis of the brouhaha, the Minority Leader who was speaking in an interview with Radio Gold, said he granted a lot of interviews on the issue of the running mate to Nana Addo, among them Pravda, a private radio station in Accra.
He recounts that he was asked if it was true that the Minority caucus had held a meeting and decided on Ambrose Dery (the MP for Lawra and Deputy Minority Leader), to which he responded in the negative, pointing out that it was not for the minority to even take such a position.
Hon Kyei Mensah-Bonsu was emphatic that he never said a Ga cannot be the running mate of Nana Akufo Addo, and even used Prof. Mike Ocquaye as a yardstick.
"I said we could have a strong personality like Prof. Mike Ocquaye but given his age, I thought that it will not be very good if we paired the two of them...if anybody should partner Nana in Greater Accra, the person should be younger...it was not like to disparage the Gas; I cannot do that...I will be the last person to do that...if you care to know, I have two Ga children and nobody will suggest to me that I should banish them..." he said.
He asserted that he cannot knowingly or unknowingly denigrate or look down on Ga�s since most of them are his buddies, especially Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, the NPP MP for Weija. To him, in selecting a running mate, the most important thing to consider is to find a competent individual who can hold the fort in the absence of the President.
"...I don't know whether this thing did not come out well but the yardstick that was used was Prof. Mike Ocquaye. I was using him (Prof. Ocquaye) as a yardstick. But if it didn't come out the way I intended it to be, I am prepared to apologize to people who feel offended...I will not run down any ethnic group...," the Minority Leader said.
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