NPP Suame contest: Osei-Kyei-Mensah, Genfi in war of words (audio)
With just a few days to polls for the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary primaries on Saturday June 13, 2015, campaigns have been intensified.
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At the Suame Constituency in Kumasi, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is being fiercely challenged by two aspirants Messrs.’ John Darko and Mr Kwadwo Boateng Genfi.
Genfi is a son of the late Nana Kofi Genfi, captured by the Guinness Book of Records and nicknamed the “Hatman” for his collection of hats from the world over.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has been in Parliament since 1996 and is contesting the seat again. He had on some occasions contested the seat unopposed in the past but this time around he is being faced by strong opposition.
This is not the first time Genfi is making an attempt at the seat. In 2004 he made the move but was disqualified since his membership in the party was known at Ablekuma in Accra and not Suame.
In a bid to firm his grip on the seat, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had advocated for the NPP leadership to institute measures to protect his seat as a leader in parliament, arguing that it was not good for experienced parliamentarians to be ousted since if that happened, it weakened parliamentary business.
His argument was that, new members needed more time to learn on the job and that contributed to slowing down Parliamentary business, but the party did not heed to his call.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Kwadwo Boateng Genfi locked horns in a war of words on Accra based Okay FM.
Genfi had taken offence at a statement by Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that he had no parliamentary experience and knowledge to go to Parliament.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was said to have equated himself to Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Genfi to Bernard Don Bortey of Accra Hearts of Oak fame in football circles and suggested that there was no need for Messi to be substituted for Don Bortey to take over from him.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu accused Genfi of insulting him on his campaign rounds.
This, Genfi felt was insulting and concluded that after 20 years in parliament, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had nothing to show as his contribution to both parliamentary discourse and for his constituents at Suame.
He accused the minority leader of not being able to spearhead a stiff enough opposition for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament and therefore needed to hang his gloves, saying 20 years was enough for him to take a bow.
He said many old parliamentarians were giving way for new ones but others, “because of their selfish interest want to die in parliament.”
Listen to their arguments in the audio attached below
{mp3}npp_suame_contest{/mp3}
