“I don’t want to make NDC an Ayigbe or Northern party… the leadership position has never been taken by an Ashanti before. Not chairman, not president…”

The above are the words of the former mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), accredited architect of the Unity Walks, and Flagbearer hopeful of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Kojo Bonsu as MyNewsGH.com gleaned from Good Evening Ghana Thursday night.

Asked by host Paul Adom Otchere if he believes it was time for Ashantis to take over the NDC, he answered in the affirmative, pointing out that he is the one to do just that.

Mr Kojo Bonsu said there is the need for Ashantes to also take prominent positions in the NDC and now is such a time.

Mr Kojo Bonsu’s declaration has led to a barrage of attacks on him, key being his former ally Joshua Akamba who has called Mr Kojo Bonsu a ‘self-seeking treacherous betrayer’, and no less from Ade Coker, the opposition party’s Greater Accra Regional Chairman and more insulting, Appiah Stadium who said Mr Kojo Bonsu bears all the curses in Kumasi on his head.

But as MyNewsGH.com observed, Mr Kojo Bonsu responded with respect to all of them, telling Paul Adom Otchere it was a democracy and he respected the views expressed by all of them.

Mr Kojo Bonsu said even NDC founder, Rawlings, found his candidature exciting because of the Ashanti factor which had been missing in the party.

Tribalism alert

While Mr Kojo Bonsu has been accused in some quarters of seeking to further his ambition on plain tribalism at the cost of NDC’s unity, even if former president John Rawlings welcomed his candidature as “refreshing”, Mr Kojo Bonsu has denied all the tribalism charges. He called it democracy.

In another interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com with Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, the business magnate said he is running the race on his own merit and not his ethnic affiliation.

“I’m not playing the card of being from Ashanti or an Ashanti, I’m here because of the democracy in the party and so the delegates will decide. Rawlings has made his statement and that’s him,” he stressed.