By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
The greatest mistake that the executive membership of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) committed early this year, if memory serves me right, was to have invited Prof. Agyeman-Badu Akosa to deliver its J. B. Danquah Memorial Lectures. The notorious pathologist has in the recent past described the putative Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian Politics as a "terrorist" and a "nation-wrecker"; and so unless he had anything worthwhile to reveal about Dr. Danquah to Ghanaians, and the global community at large, there was absolutely no meaningful reason for the Academy to have so inexcusably and cavalierly presumed to desecrate the memory of the legitimately recognized founding-father of the country's flagship academy, the University of Ghana, Legon.
In this column, however, we have decided to focus on Prof. Akosa's intemperate dresssing down of the country's main political opposition, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), for the latter's laudably principled decision to boycott the National Democratic Congress-sponsored so-called National Economic Forum (NEF). At the same time that the motor-mouthed and vitriolic critic and member of the rump-Convention People's Party (CPP) claims that the NPP operatives had absolutely no meaningful ideas to offer the Mahama government, Prof. Akosa would also have Ghanaians believe that the NPP operatives are so cynical and self-centered that they only care about their own personal interests and aspirations, thus their decision to boycott the Senchi charade.
If Prof. Akosa is so sure of his accusations, why would he impugn the patriotism of the NPP exectives, knowing too well that having any of them participate in the NEF would have been a total waste of time and scarce resources? In short, my suggestion here is that Prof. Akosa, a former director of National Medical Services, may be in dire need of immediate psychiatric examination and prompt therapy. It is also rather annoying to hear the man accuse NPP leaders of having "no respect for Ghanaians other than themselves" (See "NPP Have Nothing to Offer Ghanaians - Prof. Akosa" Graphic Online / Ghanaweb.com 5/14/14).
The logical question to ask here is: "What worthwhile and emulative example did the Nkrumah-led Convention People's Party set by having the Show Boy declare Ghana to be a one-party state, and Mr. Nkrumah himself Ghana's President-for-Life? Or maybe the Asante-Mampong native supposes Ghanaians to be pathologically bereft of any memory capacity. It is also rather outrageous for Prof. Akosa to expect the NPP, just like the erstwhile United Party (UP), to be robbed silly and raw at the polls, and then doubly slapped by sheepishly consenting to pinchhit or doing the heavy-lifting job of governance for their muggers from the margins of the political process.
The fact of the matter is that Ghanaians had a clear choice between voting a progressive and proven economy-growing New Patriotic Party into the august and democratic seat of governance, on the one hand, and a pathologically regressive neo-communist National Democratic Congress, on the other, and chose the latter. And so what is so wrong with key NPP operatives asking those who voted the NDC into the Flagstaff House to live with their choice of leadership? In sum, it is rather irresponsible and unwise for perpetually screaming political thugs like Prof. Akosa to expect to reap where they have not sown. This is the true definition of wanton and abject disrespect.
The governance record of the 8-year stewardship of the New Patriotic Party is readily available for the scrutiny of all levelheaded and well-meaning Ghanaians. And so Prof. Akosa can spare us his off-putting nonsense about the NPP having short-changed Ghanaians on their watch. Does Prof. Akosa own a National Health Insurance card? Case closed! At any rate, what is the rural development record of the Nkrumah-led CPP, short of recklessly doling out our hard-earned monetary resources to other countries, Santa Clausianly, in furtherance of his own megalomaniacal ambition of lording it over continental Africa?
Then also, how much rural electrification did the CPP undertake before deciding to supply our neighboring countries with Akosombo-generated electricity?
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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Board Member, The Nassau Review
May 14, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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