Folks, I thought once the NPP won Election 2016, it saw its path in governance and dominance in Ghanaians politics clearly enough not to flinch at the challenges posed by its opponents. After all, its show-boating, grand-sanding, and all that has happened under its watch so far suggests that it has the key to solving Ghana’s problems and has no challenger or need to look over its shoulders.
So, why such a conference when least expected? Governance of the country has nothing to do with it; not so? Could it be for stock-taking? Over what? And so soon? And proceedings at the conference had more to do with mocking of the Mahama-led administration than any serious appraisal of the very challenges that Akufo-Addo’s own rise to power have raised.
This Conference (or Congress?) of the NPP in Cape Coast came to some of us as either misplaced or indicative of something ominous to be confronted just 8 months into the Akufo-Addo administration’s reign.
No matter what the organizers may say in justifying it, there seems to be something niggling that has to be interrogated. Was this meeting planned long in advance 9and when was it decided for it to be held on this date in Cape Coast)?
Why hold a national conference/congress of this sort at the time that the momentum for the Akufo-Addo government was expected to be either gathering or spinning? What exactly would such a conference/congress offer the government to put it on its toes to do what it has been elected to do?
We have heard all the noise made at the conference and can say that all the talk about streamlining procedures for office-holding and whatever else, including a possible revision of the party’s constitution, suggest more of an inner feeling of apprehension for Election 2020 than anything else. Constitutional review may be done, but what difference will it make when Freddie Blay (the longest-ever Acting Chairman of a substantial political party in Ghana) has already damned Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong as those whose recall will endanger the NPP?
He has made it clear that with him in the saddle, the NPP stands a better chance of hanging on to power. Something must be simmering to make him go this way. Of course, Kwabena Agyepong’s presence at the Congress/Conference was obviously noticed and his cries to be reinstated heard. He maintains that he still has the NPP in focus and wants his job back. A poor cry-baby he remains, even though he had contributed materially to the NPP’s campaign toward Election 2016 (donating bicycles and what not).
Paul Afoko was not reported as attending the Congress/Conference or indicating his interest in the position that he had been mischievously nudged out from. Probably, he is satisfied with what he is doing with Asante Kotoko, even as his brother languishes in jail for a crime of murder that the lethargic Ghanaian judicial system cannot come to terms with. Pathetic beyond belief!!
(Despite Paul Afoko’s insistence that his brother is innocent, who cares? He was ousted because of this very allegation against his brother. Interestingly, he allowed himself to be “bought” with this Chairmanship of the Asante Kotoko Football Club that has cut him off from the political stream. He can’t return to post as the NPP’s National Chairman for that matter. Too much of the4 machination going on here that he doesn’t comprehend or cannot fight against—a poor victim of his own misunderstanding of the kind of political situation in which he is embroiled in the Asante-Akim Mafia network!!.)
Meantime, the sworn “Yen Akanfuo” ethnocentric elements in the NPP have confirmed their disdain for “Northerners”, reinforcing their characterization of them as “difficult people and liars” (thanks to the NPP Deputy Minister of Agriculture). Forget about his hasty afterthought of an apology and a retraction of that obnoxious comment. It is a Freudian slip that invariably confirms all that has sustained the Danquah-Busia political nonsense all these years. The addition of the “Dombo” after-thought to that political trash of an ideology (if it qualifies as an ideology at all) makes this Asante-Akim political cabal more odious to those of us who have all along spat on them as traitors to Ghana’s cause. These are not nation builders. They are divisive elements to be pooh-poohed.
Back to happenings at their national congress or whatever it is dubbed. One prominent feature was the excessive noise made by former President Kufuor, much of which can pass off as the last words of one of the pillars of the Danquah-Busia political nonsense. Kufuor is the only character on whom Akufo-Addo can lean now to redeem himself. Interestingly, all the acrimony between him and Kufuor seem to have been swept under the rug just because Ghanaians favoured Akufo-Addo to be in power. We have records of everything and will continue to assess the situation as time unfolds.
Interestingly, Kufuor made it clear to the NPP followers how they could do things to keep the party in power for the next 12 years. I wish he would be alive then to see things for himself. No more. Nature beckons.
Other aspects of utterances at the conference revealed the myopic nature of Dr. Borrowmia who is still finding it difficult to recognize himself as the Vice president of Ghana who has constitutionally mandated functions to perform instead of remaining fixated in the electioneering campaign mode to flog the dead horse that he has turned the Mahama administration into. His jaded comments that the NDC doesn’t even know the names of the members of its economic management team and others reveal how hollow he is. Does solving Ghana’s problems in an era of the NPP administration have to do with recalling the names of the NDC government’s team for managing the economy?
I am not surprised that he is still stuck on the “rally ground talk” that Justice Atuguba had warned him against in 2012. That’s the mark of a political neophyte who delights more in the errand given him to run by his superiors than what he knows his status enjoins him to do per the national Constitution. A glorified messenger!!
The truth is that while he goes about doing the sideline assignments and running the fool’s errands given him by his handlers to entrench himself as a puppet, the real substance of governance as far as the role of the Vice president is concerned is in the hands of the basket-Mouth Yaw Osafo-Marfo and his team of Akim mafia operatives. Has Dr. Borrowmia heard anything from Kennedy Agyapong and the charlatan Owusu-Bempah? Does he not know of any Man-of-God of Northern Ghana extraction to open his eyes?
So, after all, what was this NPP national delegates conference/congress meant to add to governance when all that was poured out by Akufo-Addo and his bootlickers was about the stale stories condemning the NDC administration? Nothing new to evolve?
I hear there are grumblings all over the place in terms of proposed constitutional amendments. The Majority Leader in Parliament (Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu—what a mouthful of a name!!) has already stepped out to sound the alarm bell:
“Eight months into the inauguration of Members of Parliament, I am aware that in the backyard of many MPs including even first-time ladies legislators some NPP members have started conspiring to remove these MPs… We should reflect and they should pause to consider the repercussions and think of the party in the future elections” (See https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/NPP-executives-scheming-to-kick-out-MPs-Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu-574137).
Naniama. Fear catch am already. And there are many others who will be caught pants down. Of course, when a gang of such self-righteous people think that they can stoop to peep into the backside of those above them, the forget that in their own nudity, those beneath them will see all that they bare!!
This group of self-righteous people constitute a danger to our democracy. Until they know themselves to shape up, it shouldn’t be difficult for the electorate to ship them out at the polls when they fail to accomplish the promises that they gushed out to entice the electorate into voting them to power. Eight months may be too short a period for assessing them, but enough has emerged to give hints of what they are not worth to warrant being rooted for. Gradually, the journey of a thousand years has begun with just one step, and we are monitoring every manouevre. If a national delegates conference/congress can be held so early but nothing concrete put forward to show how the NPP will refine itself to be all-inclusive, what hope is there for it?
And from the “Yen Akanfuo” ethnocentric drivel to Osafo-Marfo-s incitement (not to talk about what came from Kennedy Agyapong for Asantes to kill the Ewes and Gas in their midst) to what the deputy Minister of Agriculture has just blurted out, it is clear that the NPP has a terrible public image problem to solve in addition to all that Akufo-Addo and Dr. Borrowmia have challenged Ghanaians to heap on them. As we watch proceedings, we caution against anything that will divide the country and set up needless time-bombs (Already, the steps toward creating additional regions is setting a terribly bad tone. Caution needed!!).
I shall return…
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