A former firebrand member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Otiko Afisa Djaba, has reiterated that she has left the party, after she was reshuffled from her portfolio as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection.
However, in reiterating her estrangement from her party, she explains that the underlying reason is that the party is a useless misogynistic one.
“That is the character of the NPP. You can ask Ursula. They hate to see women at the height of decision making. What didn’t they do to Hajia Alima? And you have a bushman like Wontumi as the Chairman of Ashanti Region spewing rubbish about a whole Professor. Such a kamboo krachi!
“I am happy I left such a useless party,” Ms Djaba said on Accra based Asempa FM, where she also added that, “it’s time for change and Ghanaians must vote them out.”
Otiko Djaba’s reaction was to shocking misogynistic statements that Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the Ashanti regional Chairman of the ruling NPP had made against the person of Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Running Mate to the NDC’s Presidential Candidate, John Mahama.
Antwi Boasiako, an illiterate who made a fortune from illegal mining, responded to the naming of Prof. Opoku-Agyeman’s naming as Vice Presidential Candidate by describing her as someone who looks like a disappointment.
According to the illiterate galamseyer, from the top of the former University of Cape-Coast Vice Chancellor’s head, to the soles of her feet, she looks like she is disappointed in herself.
The shocking misogynistic attack was on radio where it was allowed to pass, and follows similar statements by Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who has said, the woman is not fit to govern a country.
NPP’s General Secretary, John Boadu, has similarly said the woman does not have what it takes to have a place at the decision making table.
The misogynistic attacks on the first woman in Ghanaian politics who has any real chance of becoming Vice President has led to condemnations from many quarters, except from the Presidency, where President Akufo-Addo has remained a spectator and not a citizen.
The attacks have also resonated with NPP women, like Otiko Djaba, who are now opening up about serious anti-woman attitudes within the inner sanctum of the ruling party.
The case of Hajia Alima Mahama, which Otiko Djaba refers to, has to do with sabotage that the woman suffered when President Akufo-Addo, while a Candidate, had attempted to name her as Running Mate. According to revelations, powerful women within the NPP were the most vocal opposers to the elevation of their fellow woman.
Allegedly, they wrote many letters in which Hajia’s non-Akan extraction was also played on to ensure that she was never made Running Mate of Akufo-Addo.
Meanwhile, Otiko Djaba’s reiteration that she has left the NPP appears to mean that the adieu is final. In 2018, when she was reshuffled from the Gender Ministry and nominated to be Ambassador to Italy, she declined and left for home, saying she was taking a break from politics.
Ms Djaba, a relative of former President John Mahama who took Mr. Mahama to the cleaners like none other, later emerged with a new found calling in television. On Accra based TV 3, she hosted a program, “Let’s Talk Disability,” in which children with disability were given the spot light.