Sir John is a real ‘kokoase kurasini’ – Kobby Acheampong affirms

Former Deputy Interior Minister Kobby Acheampong says the Supreme Court’s recent scolding NPP General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, also known as Sir John, vindicates his “kokoase kurasini” comment.

“Kokoase Kurasini” can be loosely translated to mean an uncouth person.


Mr. Acheampong used the phrase to describe Sir John’s persistent radio attacks on former President John Evans Atta-Mills a couple of years ago.


The former communication lecturer suffered an avalanche of criticism after his comment and was accused of attacking people of Akan origin, particularly, indigenes of the Ashanti Region where Sir John comes from.


Mr. Acheampong, however, told XYZ Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu on Friday that Sir John could have been saved the shame and humiliation he underwent at the Supreme Court over his criminal contempt hearing, had he heeded his advice to shun the “kokoase kurasini” way of talking.

“…People misconstrued what I said. Today, he insulted the president, got away with it, got [em]boldened and took on a Supreme Court Justice and for that matter the entire Supreme Court and that is where it has ended him. “If he had taken a cue from what I said in the beginning and toned down, used more accommodating words and not used these kind of “tweaaaa!!!” “apiiitoooo!!!!” and those things, he would have learned something out of it, but today look at where it has taken him,” Mr. Acheampong noted.


When asked by Host Moro Awudu whether he felt vindicated by what transpired against Sir John at the Supreme Court, Mr. Acheampong said: “Off course, I mean nobody has to tell you”, but however added that: “It’s not a question of me feeling vindicated; that episode in the Supreme Court where he had his hands behind his back and humbly looking at the Justices berate him, drilling him and questioning the source of his power for which he could provide no answers [but] had to rely on an Attorney to bail him out, make a case for him when he himself is a legal professional shows that ‘yes’ it gets to a point where you are a mountain, you can become a mole hill or an ant hill, that’s exactly what happened”.


Again, when pushed by Moro Awudu as to whether he was not ‘a pot calling the kettle black’, Mr. Acheampong said: “…I don’t insult; no no no no no; you see, I describe your action that is what I do; that is not insulting. But that is typical Ghanaian mindset; you use a word [and] they think it’s an insult. I described his action. I said ‘he reminds me of [a kokoase kurasni]’; ‘you are reminding me of’ because of what he was doing. “Using words like ‘apiiitooo’, ‘tweaaa’ and those things and it was misconstrued and it was translated to insulting a whole tribe.


“How could that happen when I was dealing with one person from the beginning. And we let this thing go on. We brooded over it. We just glossed over it and today it ended him where he found himself…I was calling him to order at that point but he didn’t see what I was saying. If he had stopped at that point, I don’t think he would have been bold enough to go and insult a Supreme Court Justice [and] call him names”.