Chiefs must express their views on political issues - NAPO

Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) running mate, has urged traditional leaders across the country to engage in Ghana’s political landscape.

He emphasised the crucial role chiefs play in shaping the nation and encouraged them to voice their concerns.

Speaking at a meeting with the Nungua Traditional Council in Accra, Dr Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as NAPO, urged the electorate in the area to consider voting for the NPP and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in the December polls.

“My campaign is different; I visit every royal house to tell them one thing. I tell them to help us, pray for us, guide us, counsel us, and give direction to us. So, the Ghana that we’re developing is a Ghana that will be developed in freedom.”

“I implore every traditional leader, the elders that this game called politics, have you realised that the politicians have turned around to tell you not to do politics, if we didn’t do politics how did we come by independence? I’m not saying wear NPP colours or NDC colours.

I’m saying that whether it is NPP or NDC, it’s your right to tell us what is right. It is not our right to tell you not to be part of us, it is your right, to crave it. The people of Nungua should crave Nungua, it’s theirs. Everything God put on Nungua was for the development of Nungua.”

Relatedly, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said that Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh is not a true royal.

According to Mr Nketia, the claim that Dr Prempeh, popularly known as NAPO, is a royal is false due to the Akan tradition of matrilineal inheritance.

“Where he [Napo] and his supporters have placed his campaign is wrong because we in the NDC believe in equality under the constitution, so we don’t care what region our president or running mate will be coming from, whether from a royal family or not, so long as he satisfies the constitutional requirement of being a Ghanaian. But Napo and his supporters appear to be pitching their campaign and asking people to vote for him because he comes from a royal family, but we in the NDC know it is his grandfather, Prempeh, who was once an Asantehene, but in Akan, inheritance is matrilineal, not patrilineal, so Napo is not a true royal,” Mr Nketia emphasised.

Speaking on CTV’s morning show, Dwabo, on Wednesday, 24 July 2024, Mr Nketia also said the selection of NAPO is advantageous for the NDC due to his perceived arrogance.