The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) should focus on its core mandate of educating the electorate and Ghanaians in general on their civic duties instead of calling on voters not to throng polling stations with Kalyppo Fruit Juice when voting, Franklin Cudjoe, president of IMANI Ghana, has said.
His comment follows an appeal by the Ashanti Regional Director of the NCCE, Alhassan Yakubu, to Ghanaians to desist from taking the fruit juice – which has been recently linked to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) – to polling stations on December 7.
Kalyppo got some nationwide prominence in the lead-up to the 2016 polls after a photo of the NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, sipping the juice while on electoral campaign in 2012, was posted to social media by his opponents to mock him. But the move backfired, with several supporters and sympathisers of the opposition leader taking shots of themselves sipping on the locally produced drink and sharing on social media sites.
According to Mr Yakubu, this could spark political violence which could mar the electoral process and derail the nation’s democratic gains.
But Mr Cudjoe, responding in a Facebook post on Monday November 28 said: “I am mortified by the reasoning of the NCCE that voters drinking the famed fruity ‘Kalyppo’ will be unduly influencing the vote or possibly courting trouble.
“Since when did a drink for quenching thirst and quite delectable to the human palate become a terror tool? I would think that the NCCE should do what it knows best – civic education – and leave such absurd reductio to the company of clowns. I’ll be voting with my Kalyppo in hand.”
