Leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sylvester Mensah, says Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia engaged in bad public relations when he spoke as a guest at the 2022 Hogbetsotso festival.

The vice president over the weekend was booed by some patrons while delivering his address at the festival held at Keta over the weekend.

Reacting to the incident in a Twitter post sighted by GhanaWeb, Sylvester Mensah, a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIS), said Dr Bawumia, amidst the current economic hardship, sought to make a bad situation look good.

“Vice President Bawumia would have escaped without a boo at this year’s Hogbetsotsoza Grand Durbar, but he failed to appreciate that public relations is not about making a bad situation look good but instead making a good situation look better,” Mr Mensah said.

Dr Bawumia became the latest victim of public booing against officials of government during the Saturday, October 5, 2022, event at Keta.

According to a member of the Hogbetsotso Planning Committee, Agbotadua Kumasah, the booing of the vice president started after Dr Bawumia spoke about the economy in his address.

“When he arrived, there was general calmness on the whole assembly ground. When the Asantehene spoke, people applauded him; when the Kwahuhene also spoke, people applauded him.

“And then when he started speaking, he spoke drawing attention to what the Asantehene said about unity between the Asantes and the Anlo State that people are enjoying and then they were clapping for him,” he said in an interview with JoyNews and monitored by GhanaWeb.

Vice President Bawumia would have escaped without a boo at this year’s Hogbetsotsoza Grand Durbar, but he failed to appreciate that public relations is not about making a bad situation look good but instead making a good situation look better.#Hogbetsotso2022 pic.twitter.com/3WmOmeUtmq

— Sylvester A. Mensah (@SylvestAMensah) November 5, 2022

Agbotadua Kumasah explained that when the vice president got to talking about the economy, then people began to agitate.

He added that the people gathered there, being aware of the current state of the economy, then started to boo at him.



“When he entered the economic situation, that is when the problem started. He mentioned, among others, that they built more airports than any other government, they built more roads than any other government, and the people who were there did not see the roads, the airports, the roads he was referring to,” he said.



You can also watch this edition of GhanaWeb Special:

 

GA/SEA