The immediate past Education Minister and a presidential hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has distanced himself from former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s recent apology to Ghanaians.
According to the former Minister, who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bosomtwe constituency, he is not part of the failures of the erstwhile administration because he discharged his mandate with distinction.
He said the feedbacks he get from many Ghanaians show that he performed and he is appreciated because per his estimation, he discharged his responsibility creditably and so should not be counted as an appointee of Akufo-Addo who made mistakes.
Dr Adutwum said his opponent in the NPP presidential race is at liberty to apologize especially as the head of the Economic Management Team but that should end there. He said he should not be lumped together with others as non-performers.
“Personally, I am not part. I was appointed to the education sector to perform and many Ghanaians tell me they are pleased with my work. Some say if many others did what I was able to do…….What mistake? So long as you are working you are bound to offend people but for him as Vice President that supervised the Economic Management Team there is something he wants to apologize to Ghanaians for, I think he is permitted to explicitly say instead of lumping all ministers to beg on their behalf” he said in an interview.
Per his estimation, the sector under him performed so well that they were rated second in Africa and that considering where they picked the sector from, he cannot say he failed.
“For me, and in the education sector, I won’t boast but what we did and Mo Ibrahim puts us as number two in African where we started from and ended at that score I can’t say I didn’t perform. For education we did not deceive Ghanaians we really performed and Ghanaians can testify. As I speak I can be walking at the airport and be approached showering praises on me that Dr Adutwum God bless you. Some tell me my mother loves you let’s take a photo to show her because of what you have done in Ghana”, he added.
The comments by the MP and ex-Minister come amidst an apology Dr Bawumia rendered to Ghanaians while on a tour in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region last week
The former vice president and failed flagbearer of the NPP while in the region, a stronghold of the party, took the opportunity to express his profound apology on behalf of the government he served in.
In his view, the government did certain things that should not have be done hence the need to say sorry for these actions and inactions.
While speaking to NPP delegates, he asked Ghanaians to forgive the party and vote him as flagbearer and president, promising to do better and offer quality leadership in future.
“After the 2024 elections, we have done our research. We know the NPP government and the party made a lot mistakes in governance and the party made a lot of mistakes in government. There were things we needed to do which we didn’t, and others we did that, if we had had the benefit of background, we would not have done them”, he said in the Twi dialect.
Adding, “if by the grace of God, you make me the flagbearer and I become the President, these will not happen again. They will not happen again”, he pledged.
This is not the first time Dr Bawumia is apologizing to Ghanaians. In May this year, Dr Bawumia, he rendered a similar apology while addressing members of the party in London, United Kingdom (UK), acknowledging that in his view the NPP made missteps contributing largely to their humiliating defeat.
“The NPP did a lot of work, there’s no doubt about that, but we did not get everything right. We got quite a few things wrong, and I think that, on my own behalf and on behalf of the party, I apologize to all of you for us not getting the figure right”.
Meanwhile, the campaign team of another candidate in the person of Ken Agyapong has rejected the apology saying Dr Bawumia spoke for himself and not the entire party. In Ashanti.
By Gifty Boateng