First of all, the so-called Bolga Boys militant group is a veritable terrorist organization, just like its National Democratic Congress’ Azorka Boys posse counterpart, that ought not to be tolerated by the leadership of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). And so the very notion that this vigilante group would attempt to intimidate the NPP leadership ought to be swiftly put paid to by having the group immediately and summarily proscribed by the NPP’s National Executive Council (NEC). The party should promptly dissociate itself from the dastardly activities of the Bolga Boys who, by the way, had absolutely no appreciable impact on the Talensi by-election, let alone be taken seriously at their threat to eviscerate NPP support from the three Northern Regions (See “Plot Against Afoko: Bolga Bulldogs Go Wild” Today Newspaper / Ghanaweb.com 9/15/15).
Even as one citizen from the Northern Region recently riposted, there are No Three Northern Regions in the country but one, although listening to President John Dramani Mahama campaign for power on the Kayaye platform, one would think that there were actually three northern regions, and that the residents of these three regions were ethnically, culturally and economically homogeneous. Of course, there is one Northern Region, and then there are the Upper-East and Upper-West regions. Both latter regions used to be simply called the Upper Region, and they were never an integral part of the Northern Region, at least not in recent memory, other than during the British colonial era when the now-three regions were called the Northern Territories.
We must also emphatically point out that Chairman Paul Afoko is not being suspended by the NPP’s Council-of-Elders because he is a Northerner, but categorically because the Upper-East native has conducted himself in ways that are grossly incompatible with his position and title as National Chairman of a liberal-democratic party like the NPP. If what Mr. Afoko has been accused of doing or not doing were to have occurred among the fold of the key operatives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), we would not even be discussing the decision by the NPP’s Council-of-Elders to suspend Mr. Afoko until after the 2016 general election. If any reader harbors any doubts, let him/her review the inexcusably scandalous case of Mr. George Boateng, the 45-year-old Oyarifa, Greater-Accra, freight-forwarder, who dared attempt to contest President Mahama for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination.
Mr. Reginald Yussif Ayikambe, the man claiming to be the spokesman for the Bolga Bulldogs, would not have taken his grievances to the passionately pro-NDC Radio Gold’s studios. We must also quickly observe that Chairman Afoko stands accused of breaching NPP standing rules by flagrantly and nihilistically presuming to run interference for the Ghana Police Service (GPS) vis-à-vis the party’s internal affairs. But, of course, Mr. Afoko also made himself a political liability when he publicly concocted an alibi for his younger brother, 50-year-old Mr. Gregory Afoko, in the wake of the brutal acid-dousing assassination of Mr. Adams Mahama, then-Upper-East NPP Regional Chairman. Mr. Afoko has publicly acknowledged that he and the slain man had a raging bitter enmity at the time of Mr. Mahama’s death.
The circumstances leading up to the savage assassination of Mr. Mahama clearly point to the fact of the NPP National Chairman’s having decidedly exhausted himself of any remarkable or creative contribution to the development of the country’s largest party as a winsome major political organization in the lead-up to Election 2016. Mr. Ayikambe and his so-called Bolga Bulldogs cannot cavalierly presume to dictate to the rest of us how the New Patriotic Party ought to be run. They are definitely free to join the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress, where their unorthodox and terror-mongering services would be better appreciated. The progressive key operatives of the New Patriotic Party will not be intimidated into deleteriously and unwisely eviscerating its chances at victory in the lead-up to Election 2016.
As already observed and amply expatiated upon above, the Bolga Bulldogs would be better appreciated among the more radical and “revolutionary” National Democratic Congress. Besides, the current leader of the NDC is a “Northern Brother” like Mr. Ayikambe himself. The rest of us prefer to deal with our political deck of cards in terms of shared ideological persuasion and an anti-HIPC progressive development agenda for the country.
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