A respected Chief and a political analyst, Nana Oteatuoso Kokobeng II, has responded to comments by Abdul Malik Kweku Baako that some Chiefs are behaving like kindergarten kids for declaring their support for political parties in the country.
According to him, with the comment attributed to the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, he goofed and classified it as one “below the belt”.
“Probably you don’t travel around Ghana so you don’t know the development going on in the country. You hit below the belt. Maybe no chief would reply you but bear in mind that you goofed. Should the chiefs praise the president in their bedrooms?” he sarcastically quizzed.
Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, in an interview on an Accra based radio station which was monitored by Wontumionline.com, stated that “let us be bold and tell our chiefs that they are wrong… What kind of nonsense is this?…The chiefs can appreciate developmental projects brought to their communities, but to proceed to endorse and declare electoral support is wrong. Even though the chiefs are educated they are behaving like kindergarten kids“.
But in a reaction on the Wontumi Morning Show, Nana Oteatuoso Kokobeng II noted that it was wrong for Mr. Baako to have described the chiefs as “kindergarten kids”.
He made it clear that the seasoned journalist is free to make his point but to be minded that “if any Chief has said something you don’t like, please don’t go there. Don’t repeat it again; Chiefs are not like kindergarten kids.”
Nana Oteatuoso Kokobeng II explained that as a Chief, he knows that his other colleagues who hold the same title are sensible and wise and know what every sitting government does to improve the condition of their subjects, making it possible for them to declare and praise a political party of their choice.
In a polite message to Kweku Baako, Nana Oteatuoso Kokobeng II stated that “I have respect for you and you are my senior brother. I won’t ever attack you and I am sure you won’t repeat it again. The chiefs have been suffering and it took the government of President Akufo-Addo to save them from all this.”