ACCRA, Nov 21 (Xinhua) -- A Ghanaian veteran politician has cautioned against "whipping up of tribal sentiments by leading political figures in the country," local media reported here Monday.
Kweku Baprui Asante, a diplomat in the First Republic, told local media that with just three weeks to the country's general election, peddling such sentiments could polarize Ghana.
This followed a week of heated exchanges by leaders of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Asante said Ghana is still a nation united by tribes and the least anyone could do is to unite the various tribes, not to tear them apart.
"We should stop it; we must fight for a united nation. The moment we start thinking about northerners, Akyems, Gas, we are disintegrating the country," he said.
President John Dramani Mahama reportedly told supporters in the Upper East Region that, as a candidate coming from that region, he would serve their interest better than the NPP.
President Mahama comes from Bole, a small town in the Northern Region, where the NDC secured 20 out of the 31 parliamentary seats as against 20 by the NPP in the 2012 elections.
While the NDC regards the Volta Region as its "world bank", securing 25 of the 26 seats as against zero by the NPP, the latter also secured 43 out of the 47 seats in the mainly Akan-speaking Ashanti Region where the NDC managed just four seats.
Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, running mate of the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had also reacted to Mahama's statement, saying he was not a good example of a president for the entire nation.
He also told supporters in the Upper East Region that a northern president that presided over corruption and supervised the running down of SADA, a policy initiative that was supposed to develop the north, could not be said to have the best interest of the people of the north at heart.
Francis Abban, another elderly statesman who served in the first republic under Dr Kwame Nkrumah, told Joy News that any "sensible, true politician" should not whip up ethnic sentiments just so he would become president.
He said such comments and conducts by the political leaders "reflect a lack of political understanding."
