Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah –Bonsu has rebuffed media publications that sought to create the false impression that he had insulted Gas with the claim that no Ga is fit and competent enough to be selected as Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate for the 2012 general elections.

According to him, his comments on the running mate matter had been taken out of context, adding that if “anybody listens to the full compliment of what I said on the tape, they would know that I have indeed been taken out of context.”

Speaking to the Statesman newspaper in an interview, the Minority Leader rejected the report, adding: “I have nothing against any Ga; indeed I have a lot of respect for Gas and it would interest you to know that I have been married to a Ga woman before. Indeed, we have two children; one of them is at home now and the other in school.”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said he would be the last person to play the tribal card, reminding the nation that somewhere in 1998 Kosi Kedem once said on the floor of Parliament that ‘Ewes would prefer the worse form of an NDC government to the best governance under NPP.

“Lots of people commented and the matter was laid to rest but in 2002 during some argument on the same floor when Kweku Balado Manu reminded him about what he had said some years back, his response was, ‘what makes you think I have changed my mind?

“What could be more ethnocentric than this? Is it that when the NDC make such statements they are allowed to pass but some journalists will do everything possible to skew what ever the NPP says, just to break division in our party?” he queried.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added, however, that if by the publications some Gas are aggrieved, “then I am very sorry. I have loads of respect for all Gas and what they did for our fore bears even before, during and after independence. I would want to plead that if there has been a communications gap or if I have been misunderstood in any way, then I am sorry.”

He explained what he actually said: “I was called by some three radio stations last Friday to comment about the fact that some newspapers had reported that the Minority caucus in Parliament had met and decided that Ambrose Dery should be the one to partner Nana Addo as running mate.

“I told the radio host that there had been no such meeting in the first place for such a decision to be taken on a running mate for the 2012 elections, so they asked me about my personal opinion, and I was consistent, that Nana Addo was from the South and that it would not be appropriate for him to choose his running mate from the South”.

His reason for saying that he supports a Northern running mate was that “Ghana is not matured enough to have two competent people from the same region or ethnic background to be president and running mate in the same government, so it would be better to have a northerner partnering him”.

The Minority Leader added that he was, however, of the view that the NPP could consider somebody from Southern Volta, Greater Accra and the Central Region but not an Ashanti. “I explained further to say that Volta because it bothers the northern and I went on to ask if we had any strong personality from that part. I further went on to say that central because the sitting president is from there so if we get a strong contender from there, it would have been appropriate,” he added.

On the same analysis about the chances of a Ga, “what I said was that if there was anybody who had attained the stature of Mike Ocquaye in the party, then such a person would have been appropriate, but Mike Ocquaye may not be appropriate because Nana Addo is a bit old, likewise the former, hence we can’t have two people who have reached that age as president and his running mate.”

According to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, he referred to the stature and competence of Prof Ocquaye in the party and added there is no Ga who had reached that stage in the NPP at the moment, insisting: “I have been seriously taken out of contest. I can’t be against Gas I know the contribution of Gas and I would be the last person to down play it.”