Opinion: NDC Should Not Blame Ghanaians for Reaping the Fruits of Their Own Misdeeds – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Ghana’s former President John Dramani Mahama/Photo: The Impact Crew

As usual, I read the news report in which Mr. Abu Afandi, described as a member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress’ Communications Team, was alleged to be claiming that in 2007, on a widely leaked audiotape, former President John Agyekum-Kufuor was heard to be warning Ghanaian voters not to vote for the then-New Patriotic Party’s Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, because the latter was a divisively violent man who could not govern the nation by bringing Ghanaians of diverse ideological suasions together (See “Kufuor Warned Us Not to Vote for Akufo-Addo – NDC” RainbowRadioOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/13/18).

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Well, anybody old enough does not need to be told about the fact that the Rawlings-founded National Democratic Congress (NDC) is the most violent political party in Fourth-Republican Ghana. Indeed, it was the same Rawlings-led junta of the so-called Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) that wickedly engineered the Mafia-style savage execution of the three Akan-descended Accra High Court Judges, namely, Justices Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Frederick Poku-Sarkodie, a justice of the Supreme Court under President Kwame Nkrumah; and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, and not any political party or organization founded or led by Ghana’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

We must also put it on record, at least for the sake of those lacking the necessary historical background, that it was Mr. John Agyekum-Kufuor who briefly served as a Rawlings-appointed cabinet member of the PNDC, and not Nana Akufo-Addo. And so in terms of proximity to political acts of violence, the former President is much closer to the proverbial eye-of-the-storm than his former Foreign Minister. This is not in any way to suggest or imply, in the least bit, that the alleged Akufo-Addo accuser is himself a violent man. It is essentially to point out that when it comes to the sticky subject of which of our Fourth-Republican leaders is the more prone to the political orchestration of violence, Nana Akufo-Addo is the least prone among the four Fourth-Republican leaders.

Then also, cynically and vacuously blaming Nana Akufo-Addo for the current high spate of armed robbery, murder and other forms of equally repugnant acts of violence in the country rather mischievously economizes with the truth. For example, we are all aware of the fact that it was under the watch of former President John Dramani Mahama that Akufo-Addo’s cousin and then-Akyem-Abuakwa-North’s New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament, Mr. Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, was brutally stabbed to death, in his own bedroom, in what clearly appeared to be a contract assassination. We also know that somebody higher up in the Mahama government was widely alleged to be neck-deep involved in the assassination of Mr. Danquah-Adu, because such was widely reported by the media quoting reliable police sources.

The Mahama-appointed Inspector-General of Police (IGP) at the time of Mr. Danquah-Adu’s brutal assassination, Mr. John Kudalor, has yet to fully and publicly explain the set of circumstances under which Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, the Commissioner of Police (COP) in charge of the investigation of Mr. Danquah-Adu’s death was abruptly and summarily taken off the case. Mr. Abu Afandi, the NDC’s Communications Team Member, could make himself much more useful by giving us some leads on this score. Needless to say, if his motive was to whip up factional sentiments among the rank-and-file membership of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Mr. Afandi’s efforts are obviously superfluous. For the NDC’s paid wag might have already noticed how the key operatives of the NPP are doing just that to themselves, even as I write.

Clearly, Mr. Afandi’s main grievance is that members and supporters of the main opposition NDC who attempt to solicit lucrative contracts from the Akufo-Addo Administration end up being rudely rebuffed, frustrated or even in some rare cases manhandled. Maybe rather than bitterly complain, Mr. Afandi and his NDC faux social democrats ought to critically examine his party’s general track-record vis-à-vis the treatment of members and supporters of the New Patriotic Party, while the latter languished on the sterile margins of political opposition. You see, Mr. Afandi, the man in the mirror rarely lies or embellishes the truth.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com  Ghanaffairs

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