It is not clear what the National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Bawku-Central, Upper-East Region, means by his rather lame and vacuous argument that Mr. Peter Mac Manu, the 2016 Presidential Campaign Manager for the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is fueling speculation by not speaking out on the matter of his patently undiplomatic deportation by security operatives of the Kenyatta government, in the lead-up to Kenya’s August 8 general election (See “Mac Manu Deportation: Kenya Sacrificed Relationship with Ghana – Ayariga” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/12/17; also, “Mac Manu’s Deportation Will Affect Ghana-Kenya Relations – Security Analyst” Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/7/17).
This is a very jejune and amateurish approach to the issue, being that it is former President John Dramani Mahama, a globally known staunch supporter and bosom friend of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who ought to be explaining himself vis-à-vis why he had done absolutely nothing to prevent the deportation of Mr. Mac Manu, who was at the head of an observer mission from the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA), a recognized good-governance organization of democracy-loving political parties on the continent, which is also a member of the International Democratic Union (IDU), just as the now main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is also a member of the Socialist Union(SU) or Socialist International. We must also quickly point out that former President Mahama was in Kenya and at the head of a delegation from The Commonwealth.
In all likelihood, as I noted in a previous column, it was a traumatized and still reeling and vengeful Mr. Mahama who had instigated Mr. Kenyatta’s government to humiliate Mr. Mac Manu. Already the Kenyan authorities are widely reported to have said that the leader of the Democratic Union of Africa was deported because some opposition political parties in the country participating in the August 8 general election were also members of the DUA. The onus of proof of any suspicion of Mr. Mac Manu’s being poised to helping these opposition parties to play mischief with that country’s electoral process rests with President Kenyatta and/or his assigns, and not the vilified victim of deportation.
In other words, Mr. Ayariga is being inexcusably absurd by implying that, somehow, the Kenyan security authorities had good forensically sustainable reasons or evidence for preventing the DUA observer mission from participating in the monitoring of the election. Mr. Ayariga, who is also a known confidant and arch-lieutenant of President Mahama’s, is deviously attempting to deflect the obvious possibility of his former boss’ having been the mastermind behind Mr. Mac Manu’s deportation. At any rate, the most relevant question to ask the former Mahama Presidential Staffer and Minister of the Environment, Science and Technology, is why he has not provided any evidence to back up his support of the Kenyatta security operatives, if he feels so strongly that, indeed, the Kenyan authorities had legitimate reasons for causing what may aptly be described as an international incident.
Mr. Ayariga is also definitely right on the money, as it were, to observe that in so crudely humiliating Nana Akufo-Addo’s electioneering campaign point man, the Kenyatta government may very well have sacrificed the longstanding cordial relations between the two major countries on the African continent. Indeed, former President John Dramani Mahama may have a “relationship” with Mr. Kenyatta; but as far as President Akufo-Addo is concerned, it is purely a matter of official diplomacy. Nothing special, that is. And, maybe, that is the way it ought to be for the nonce.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs