The running mate of the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has described his boss, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as incorruptible.

“One thing I can say is that I serve a flag bearer who is not corrupt”, he said and added that Dr Bawumia would not be corrupted by power or cover up corruption,” he stated.

Dr Prempeh stated this when he received two copies of the book, “The President Ghana Never Got” authored by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure, at his campaign office in Accra on Tuesday.

The book discusses President Akufo-Addo and has a chapter on Dr Opoku Prempeh. One of the two autographed books was donated to Dr Bawumia.

Dr Opoku Prempeh assured the author that he would write the book and get back to him for a thorough discussion.

He was passionate about the fact that the word corruption had been in many instances unfairly applied to many leaders, making them take defensive posture whenever the word was used.

Perspective

Touching on the book, Dr Opoku Prempeh noted that perspectives differed depending on where one stood and stated that some people might disagree with the author’s perspectives of some of the renditions of events captured in the book.

“Others may equally agree with you. Others might be indifferent. But nevertheless, it's your perspectives that you are rendering,” he added.

Regarding the author’s preference for the running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag bearer, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang and the reasons adduced in support of that, he said that was another personal perspective, noting that “You know the criteria you set to come to that.

I hope that the book itself is objective, is balanced and is fair”.

 “And as I live a life of revelation, I know that given the chance, when a new set of empirical data is provided to you, you will come to different conclusions because it is not set in stone. And I would always say, watch the space,” Dr Opoku Prempeh added.

He noted that juxtaposing the work done by Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, former Education Minister, with what he did during the first Akufo-Addo Administration at the same ministry, “I start from her own write-up, that is the handover notes that she gave me, without knowledge of her and like I say, we did way better.

But then again, as I said, it is perspective”.

Dr Opoku Prempeh commended the author for writing the book and revealed that he was currently writing three books; one about his life, two about his work at the ministries of Education and Energy and hinted at a fourth one.

He expressed the hope that Ghanaian leaders would take to writing and also encouraged them to keep diaries which would aid in putting their memoirs out in the form of books, and suggested that writing of the books should be done early.

He recounted an experience: a book shelf at the airport in Nigeria where he counted about 10 books about former President Olusegun Obasanjo and indicated that Nigerians and their leaders loved to write, and quoted the American philosophy of publish or perish. 

Difference

“The nature of our work is such that, as you rightly mentioned, perspectives differ. If I sat where you sit, I might see things differently. And if you sat where I sit, you might see things differently,” Manasseh noted.

“But at the end of the day, when we are able to communicate, we are able to convince one another, or we are able to understand one another better,” he added.