No need to lobby for running mate, it’s disrespectful – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has cautioned against lobbying for the running mate position, saying it’s “disrespectful” to the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said the flagbearer should be given the space to choose his running mate, adding that she was not interested in lobbying for the position.

“I think it’s even disrespectful for people to be lobbying as if he (Bawumia) can’t make a choice,” she said.

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, has always maintained that if the two leading political parties – NPP and NDC – are interested in expanding the space for female participation in politics, they should take deliberate policies to field women in their strongholds and get them to Parliament.

When asked how she feels about her name coming up as a possible running mate, she said, “I am absolutely against any act of seeking for such position. It is an appointed position, and I think the flagbearer should be left to decide who he thinks can best partner him in both the elections and in governance.”

She added, “So people may speculate, but I, Ursula Owusu, haven’t told anybody that I am interested in any position. If the flagbearer thinks in his wisdom that I can assist him in this position, why not? But I’m certainly not putting myself up.”

When asked if she feels the need to come out when her name is put out in the media as a possible running mate, she said, “No media person can ever say anywhere that I have contacted them to put my name out there or anybody for that matter.”