{"id":367220,"date":"2017-11-01T06:38:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T06:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=367220"},"modified":"2017-11-01T06:38:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T06:38:29","slug":"maybe-ayisi-boateng-spoke-in-context-freddie-blay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=367220","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Maybe Ayisi Boateng spoke in context&#8217; &#8211; Freddie Blay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The much-criticized\u00a0pledge by Ghana&#8217;s High Commissioner to South Africa, George Ayisi Boateng, to prioritize the welfare of New Patriotic Party members before considering other Ghanaians, may have been taken out of context, the Acting National Chairman of the NPP, Freddy Blay has suggested.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ayisi Boateng&#8217;s\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"https:\/\/contextly.com\/redirect\/?id=8iXu8FnxoD:367033:2934:13:::sidebar:59f965ed3f1bc3-90772275\">resolve to put NPP members<\/a><\/strong><\/span> first came\u00a0 to the fore during a meeting with the party&#8217;s Tertiary Students\u2019 Confederacy Network (TESCON) in Kumasi.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;ibQGKpGOEaHV3qidpn92N4LPoA2N4d4v&#8221;]The comments have been met with outrage and calls for his dismissal from some sections of the public. But\u00a0Mr. Blay, who said he had not heard the comments yet,\u00a0said the missions obviously viewed all Ghanaians as equal.<\/p>\n<p>In his brief comments on the matter, the NPP chairman said, \u201cassuming that is what is said, maybe he is speaking within a context. Definitely, Missions are established not to serve partisan interests but to serve the interests of this country and the people of Ghana generally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ayisi defends comments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But Mr. Ayisi Boateng seems to be clear about what he said, insisting that there was nothing wrong with putting his party people first, who he described as \u201cmore Ghanaian than others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Kumasi-based Abusua FM on Tuesday after the public uproar, Mr. Ayisi Boateng said he still stands by his words.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_366799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-366799\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-366799\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/George-Ayisi-Boateng.jpg\" alt=\"George Ayisi Boateng, Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-366799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Ayisi Boateng, Ghana&#8217;s High Commissioner to South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t speak evil at all\u2026 When you have a large family but you first make your wife and children eat first before others, what is wrong with that? I am not divisive. E.T Mensah is my senior colleague, when he came to South Africa, find out what I did for him. I have not said anything bad, I stand by my words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Some former presidents of TESCON commended him for making public his commitment to Prioritising NPP members.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Calls for the axe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Minority spokesperson on Foreign Affairs,\u00a0Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to immediately <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/30\/sack-sa-high-commissioner-for-shameful-partisan-comment-ablakwa\/\">terminate Mr. Ayisi Boateng&#8217;s appointment<\/a><\/strong><\/span> as High Commissioner,\u00a0saying his comment is divisive and reprehensible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Guilty Akufo-Addo can\u2019t sack Ayisi Boateng \u2013 Avedzi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But the Deputy Minority leader,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/01\/guilty-akufo-addo-cant-sack-ayisi-boateng-avedzi\/\">James Klutse Avedzi<\/a><\/strong> <\/span>believes President Akufo-Addo will not be able to\u00a0gather the needed courage to dismiss under-fire High Commissioner to South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>He said the President Akufo-Addo, like Mr. Ayisi Boateng, has also demonstrated a commitment to prioritizing NPP members.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Kojo Agyeman &amp; Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The much-criticized\u00a0pledge by Ghana&#8217;s High Commissioner to South Africa, George Ayisi Boateng, to prioritize the welfare of New Patriotic Party members before considering other Ghanaians, may have been taken out of context, the Acting National Chairman of the NPP, Freddy Blay has suggested. Mr. Ayisi Boateng&#8217;s\u00a0resolve to put NPP members first came\u00a0 to the fore [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":342954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,11],"tags":[68,3,156,56],"class_list":["post-367220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-top-stories","tag-george-ayisi-boateng","tag-ghana-news","tag-nana-addo","tag-npp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}