The minority leader of parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, is astounded by accusations that he has been hurling insults at President Mills. But contrary to the accusation, Mr. Kyei Mensah-Bonsu says he will never verbally abuse the president. President Mills on Monday, while answering questions from senior journalists and editors at the Castle, bemoaned the spate of attacks on his person. He was responding to a question by Andy Kankam of the Informer newspaper. Andy Kankam inquired; “Mr. President, ever since you became the president of this country, the opposition, led by the minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu on [a] daily basis, have been heaping insults on you. I want to know if you hear those insults and how do you feel?” President Mills then replied: “I heard him. I forgive him for he is an honourable man. Indeed as a minority leader, he is even higher than an honourable man. He is Right Honourable minus one. Perhaps this is his style.” “My brothers and sisters, we have to watch our language. Sometimes when I watch people on TV or hear them on radio, I ask myself ‘what lessons do we want the younger generation to learn?’. Since I entered the faculty of law in 1963, I have been taught one thing; you can never win your case through insults, the use of intemperate language, verbal violence and the like,” the president said. He indicated that since he will never go to parliament and use abusive language on anybody, all players in the political space must also be decorous when criticizing his administration. “If you are engaged in an argument, what is required is logic, mental agility, power to focus and to make cogent deductions. No amount of insults or the use of violence or intemperate language can turn falsehood into truth,” the president posited adding, “let’s remember, we have a culture in this country. A country without a culture is a country that has no future. Let’s remember because, as I said, you can throw a ball at Atta Mills and it will not rebound. It will stay there, but a time will come when all the balls, which have been stuck to the wall, will come raining down on you.” But the minority leader would take none of that. Speaking to Joy News in reaction to the president's comments, Mr Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said “I am baffled by the president’s response, in particular when he said [it based on] a leading question that had been posed to him… I was disappointed by his response.” He said all the NPP has done is to evaluate the omissions and commissions of the Mills administration and that the president’s comments paint the wrong picture. “What have we done? We have critiqued, as we had often done, whatever steps government takes. I keep saying time and again that when we criticize, it is to reform and not to destroy. We have never used vitriolic language; we have never poured acid on the president,” he stated. He however stressed that the NPP will be very forthcoming with its criticism on the government’s performance no matter the circumstances.