The running mate to Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in the 2024 election, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, says his controversial “mo Kwame Nkrumah” remark was taken out of context and completely misunderstood.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, the former Manhyia South MP insisted that the public outrage that followed the comment did not reflect his intent.
Dr Opoku Prempeh, aka NAPO, said the statement was made in a specific political moment and should not have been interpreted as an attack on Ghana’s first President.
“At that time, you can’t go into the evidence, so I made a statement ‘mo Kwame Nkrumah’, and I subsequently had to go to Nkroful and speak to the Chiefs there and explain the contest in which the statement was made,” he said.
He explained that political communication can be easily distorted and that leaders must take responsibility when their words create confusion.
“Because in politics, if somebody misunderstands, misquotes, or you allow your communication to be misread or to be misunderstood, you have to own it. So I owned it, and that is why I issued the statement,” he said.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh compared his remark to football banter to underscore that he was not attacking Kwame Nkrumah.
“Not that the context was wrong. I’m a die-hard fan of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. So if I’m teasing Olympic supporters and I said ‘mo Oly fuo no’, I’m not really insulting Olympic fans. I’m just upping Kotoko fuo because I am one of them,” he explained.
He maintained that the Nkrumah reference had been “totally misunderstood”.
The NPP running mate acknowledged the strong reaction that followed.
“It generated a lot of uproar. Nkrumahists got furious, and I apologise to them,” he said. But he urged critics to reflect on Nkrumah’s own writings.
“They should go and read Kwame Nkrumah’s Last Days from Guinea and look at how he described his own Convention People’s Party (CPP). He said the CPP was dead. That’s Nkrumah’s own writing, so we don’t say these things out of lack of respect. You know me. I have friends everywhere,” he noted.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh’s comment in July 2024—stating that no president, including Kwame Nkrumah, had outperformed President Akufo-Addo—triggered widespread backlash when he was unveiled as the New Patriotic Party’s running mate.
Critics, including the Convention People’s Party, described his remark as disrespectful. The episode reignited concerns about what many opponents have called his “arrogant” public posture.
On PM Express, however, Dr Opoku Prempeh insisted that the debate was driven by misinterpretation rather than intent.
He stressed that the statement was political rhetoric, not an attack on Ghana’s founding leader.
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