I did not insult our chiefs – Kweku Baako

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April 24, 2016 5:29 AM

“I said they are not wise; I won’t lie because what they are doing lacks wisdom,” he said, adding that he is willing to apologise “if it is the language that is wrong.”

The editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has defended comments he made describing chiefs who endorse presidential candidates as unwise.

Mr. Baako was widely criticized for insulting Ghanaian chiefs after the acting Kwahumanhene III openly declared his support to President John Mahama who visited the area during his ‘Accounting to the People’ tour in the Eastern Region last week.

Justifying his comments during a panel discussion on Accra-based Joy FM, the ace journalist explained that the nation’s laws make a clear distinction between commendation and endorsement of presidential candidates which is what formed the basis of his comments.

“There is a distinction between a chief commending the President or a government for delivering development projects to his community and a chief endorsing a presidential candidate or a president going for re-election…and asking his people to vote for a candidate,” he said.

“I was saying that those that are going beyond mere commendation and endorsing and virtually soliciting votes for a candidate – whether President or not are not displaying wisdom which is actually one of the attributes of chieftaincy,” he explained.

Mr. Baako insisted that his comments only sought to clarify that chiefs who have in recent times been promising presidential candidates certain percentage of votes from their area “lacked wisdom; I didn’t say they were not wise, I didn’t say they were foolish, I didn’t insult them.”

“Let our chiefs rise up to the occasion and let their attributes expected of them reflect in what they do,” he remarked.

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