I made a mistake by Osafo-Maafo
I made a mistake by claiming Asantes didn't support the Akyem-led Independence movement-Osafo-Maafo
I made a mistake by claiming Asantes didn’t support the Akyem-led Independence movement-Osafo-Maafo
Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Senior Advisor to President Akufo-Addo, has issued an apology for claiming the Asantes were not involved in Ghana’s independence war, which was headed by the Akyems.
The apology comes after a recording of him making the ethnocentric remark while speaking with several coworkers was made public.
On Friday, July 1, 2022, the former finance minister released a statement in which she claimed that the phrase “never was meant to stir up ethnic hostilities between Akyems and Asantes.”
“I don’t want ethnic tension for our nation or the NPP,” he said.
He admitted his mistake, “despite the nature and circumstances of the dialogue.”
He said, “I, therefore, like to express my heartfelt and unequivocal apologies for these words.
“Creating divides is not a thing I will strive to accomplish for a nation that I love and spent many decades serving as a public official,” he said of his many years of public service.
“I will continue to share a shared goal and vision for the nation, beyond party politics, even if the means of getting there may vary.”
This is the second time Mr. Osafo-Maafo has been recorded making remarks that are seen as being ethnocentric.
The first incident occurred in February 2015, when Mr. Osafo-Maafo was overheard on tape complaining that despite though 90% of Ghana’s natural riches are concentrated in the country’s mostly Akan-speaking areas, persons from resource-poor regions were now in power.
In advance of the 2016 general elections, Mr. Osafo-Maafo made the remark on an audiotape that was covertly captured.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo, who spoke Twi interspersed with brief English passages, was overheard lamenting the fact that Akan-speaking people, whose territories are wealthy in natural resources, are not in charge of overseeing those resources.
“…You have all the resources, but you have no control over how they are managed, which is what is taking place. “You can’t speak this publicly” outside of among Asantes, he warned. “Your progress relies on the one who has little resources.” “We should safeguard both our financial security and ourselves. Nobody who is the source of wealth, revenue, or resources gives someone who lacks those things the ability to reign over them. Nowhere in the world is it ever done. The party with the greatest resources generally controls the globe, not the other way around, he said.
According to a study at the time, according to him, “86.5% of Ghana’s resources come from five regions: Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern, Western, and Central. This is where 86% of Ghana’s resources are sourced. … Additionally, the oil was found in the West. It will alter the formula to somewhere around 90%. We can’t overlook these five areas. No, we shouldn’t.
While being vetted as a Senior Minister-designate on Friday, January 20, 2017, Mr. Osafo-Maafo clarified the remark before the Appointments Committee of Parliament, stating: “This is one of those twisted ‘cut-and-paste’ remarks.”
“I’m the Eastern Region Chairman of the NPP’s Council of Elders. We were campaigning on the economy in this election [in 2016], and I was delivering a number of economics lectures to different organizations in the area. When the Council of Elders’ time came, the regional chair, Hon. Hackman, and I all spoke, and I talked about the economics. However, you don’t speak about the economy by beginning with the location of the resource. I began by discussing how terribly our economy has been run, how our debt has increased from GHS9.4 billion to GHS110 billion at the time, how growth without oil was GHS1.9 billion and had decreased to roughly 4 percent, etc. I also remarked something I’ve said before in this room: “Ghana is not impoverished, and the country’s natural resource base is situated in five areas. I especially named the regions because I was making a solid economic point.”
People adjusted certain things to make it seem as though I began by discussing the locations of this thing’s resources, putting it forward, and making it seem as though I was being a tribalist and it was awful, and here is where I find people to be extremely cunning. You pull everything out of context and make it seem extremely tribalistic, therefore I believe that although it did occur and that inaccurate information was carried by the media, individuals should be ashamed of themselves when they use “cut-and-paste” techniques to mislead the public. Added Mr. Osafo-Maafo.
