INTRODUCTION
“Suspended National Chairman and General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Awentime Afoko and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong respectively are expected to be reinstated by the party anytime soon…
“The party is also considering a return of the second National Vice-Chairman, Sammy Crabbe who is also on suspension…
“The NPP, our source hinted, have come to a conclusion that it is only when the suspended national executives of the party return that the party can strategically position itself to win the upcoming general elections considering the large followers of the trio…”
WHAT WE THINK THE REAL ISSUES ARE
We hope this is not another NPP’s and some mischievous journalists’ planted agitprop canard to bamboozle and hoodwink gullible readers into believing the party and its present leadership still have a streak of democratic liberalism in them.
This is a party whose National Executive Committee (NEC) behaved in the unmistakable likeness of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, both of which the hypocritical capitalist kleptocrats within the NPP have consistently attacked, in the discharge of its responsibilities in suspending Afoko, Crabbe, and Agyepong.
It appears Akufo-Addo and the NEC may have finally realized the political stupidity of their unpopular verdict against the trio and hence, the diplomatic volte-face, a last-ditch face-saving effort to reform the largely ethnocentric and undemocratic party.
The NEC, a politburo of old-fashioned and anachronistic ethnocentric politicians who are obviously out of tune with inclusive democracy, decided to silence the trio because the corrupt atmosphere of political ephebiphobia which they had created to sustain their clannish hegemony over some purported enemies of Akufo-Addo within the party hierarchy would clash head-on with the candid and intelligent political vision which the trio represented.
First of all, the ethnocentric politburo silenced Afoko, the first NPP National Chairman of Northern extraction, under the flimsiest of trumped-up excuses in order to reinforce the lowly station assigned to non-Akans in the party.
Then, to neutralize popular backlash from the party’s overt allegiance to political ethnocentrism in connection with the Afoko suspension, however, the politburo resorted to suspending the party’s Akan General Secretary, Agyepong.
Then followed the ominous suspension of Crabbe, possibly a Ga.
And yet this is a party that prides itself on and preaches inclusive democracy, though its true political ideology is fundamentally one of Asante-Akyem duopolistic hegemony and dictatorship. The Kufuor-Asante faction and the Akyem-Akufo-Addo faction are all too clear, a fact that does not necessitate elaborative auctorial expenditure here.
And talking about Crabbe being possibly of a Ga extraction, the strategic token allotment of Prof. Mike Ocquaye, a well-known fifth-columnist revisionist historian and a self-described Baptist pastor, and Ayikoi Otoo, a comedic legal Father Christmas for the NPP, both non-Akans and possibly all Gas, to prominent positions within the hierarchy of the ethnocentric party bespeaks the party’s failed Affirmative Action policy propaganda.
Not even Prof. Ocquaye and Otoo will deny this.
That managed semblance of ethnic inclusiveness within the partisan ethnocentrism of the NPP constitutes a mere Machiavellian shadow in ethnic relations across the political landscape of the body politic.
Yet, Ghanamma, a web portal, quotes Prof. Amoako Baah, the parochially celebrated intellectual Donald Trump of the NPP, pontificating about the People’s National Convention (PNC) as follows:
“The problem of the People’s National Convention (PNC) is that its leadership is northern-based…The political science lecturer said the PNC does well in the north but not in the southern part of the country because its leadership is northern-based…Dr. Amoako Baah said the PNC should find a way to make itself a national party instead of having its support base in one area of the country. He said the PNC must find a way to entice non-northerners to join their ranks, especially its leadership.”
Well said.
Excellent advice!
But Prof. Baah should also have directed this advice to the leadership of the NPP under the stewardship of Akufo-Addo. Ex-President Kufuor won more regions during his two terms only for Akufo-Addo to win just two regions, a dismal electoral performance which may have derived partly from the latter’s and Kennedy Agyapong’s infamous rhetoric of political ethnocentrism.
As a matter of fact, no one should tell us President Mahama stole the elections. No one did! President Mahama won the 2012 elections hands down! The Supreme Court hearing of electoral fraud in relation to the 2012 general elections was a complete waste of precious time and national resources.
What is more, Akufo-Addo’s “Yen Akanfuo” and “All-die-be-die” and Kennedy Agyapong’s anti-Ewe and anti-Ga rhetoric are memorably and indelibly etched into Ghana’s political history and public psychology. It is however deeply regrettable that, politicians such as those two have refused to see the political arithmetic of ethnic diversity and numbers in calibrating electoral success.
This is where Afoko and his Northern constituency come in, as well as those of Agyepong’s and Crabbe’s. It is not as though we are giving special privilege to or promoting ethnicity over meritocracy.
Our primary concern here is one in which the political arithmetic of ethnic inclusiveness gains on the moral strength of political meritocracy. This point we have harped on elsewhere in many essays.
Namely, the thrust of our arguments is that the political arithmetic of ethnic diversity and the political economy of numbers feature prominently in the calibration of electoral success, two clear definitions of political realism.
On the other hand, if the NPP can somehow capitalize on a renewed philosophy of ethnic diplomacy to rebrand its image and to neutralize the indelible tag of its being a party whose political ideology and partisan intellectual philosophy partly promote a dangerous dichotomy of internal ethnocentric duopoly, it will certainly help move it from its southern-based geopolitical ethnocentrism to an inclusive national party, with an appealing character of sympathetic solidarity.
Notwithstanding the above, there is no question in our minds that Kennedy Agyapong has done more harm to the NPP brand and the party’s political fortunes than Afoko, Agyepong and Crabbe combined. In fact, the political crimes which this trio is alleged to have committed did not merit the institutional heaviness of punishment meted out to them. Yet he remains tall and almost untouchable in the party’s hierarchy. Impunity is probably the greatest return one could ever expect on excessive monetization of multiparty politics, and here we are pointing to Agyapong’s direct financial contributions to his party’s electioneering outlay, a factual given in the public arena.
The fact is that the trio could simply not accede to the creeping democratic dictatorship of Akufo-Addo and his cabal of manipulating political gangsters, hence the unmeritorious sanction of the trio.
When all is said and done, it is Akufo-Addo’s political capital that is at stake. And here we are referring to his reputational, rather than to his representative, political capital. At least in theory, a politician stands a better or greater chance of some electoral success at the polls if he or she can build a formidable political capital and manage to sustain it through electioneering roadblocks.
It probably is certain the “Yen Akanfuo” and “All-die-be-die” politician and Bawamia, Dr. Pink Shit, a comical constitutional expert on “You and I Were Not There,” who also only knows how best to play second fiddle to the NPP’s Julius Caesar Akufo-Addo, do not seem to understand this simple fact of political realism on account of their political and emotional immaturity.
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS IN THE EATING
Truth be told, right from the beginning we had a nagging hunch that the April 5, 2016 Ghanaweb publication “NPP to Reinstate Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong” could as well have been a journalistic and partisan fraud insidiously visited on the reading public by some undefined or shadowy corrupt elements.
There is however another attractive possibility that the agitprop canard could also have been planted in the public domain by elements sympathetic to the trio. Still, no sooner had this questionable publication appeared in the public domain than Nana Akomea, the NPP’s foremost “intersexual” Communications Director, moved to dismiss it out of hand. Here is what he wrote:
“The attention of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been drawn to stories on one or two social media portals that the party intends to reinstate Mr. Paul Afoko and Mr. Kwabena Agyepong.
“At the last steering and National Executive Committee meetings, this issue did not come up at all for any discussion, much less a decision.
“Any such report on this matter is mere speculation.”
The phrase “mere speculation” does not necessarily represent a strong refutation of the contents of the publication already referred to, and as a matter of fact, it leaves some room for additional speculative corollaries as to the real intent of Akomea’s facile diplomatic rebuttal. In our opinion, a stronger diplomatic phraseology such as “outright lies” in place of “mere speculation” could have done the trick. Akomea did not even ask the public to disregard the said publication.
Nevertheless, both Akomea’s unconvincing diplomatic overture and the said publication under review could have been strategically planted in the public domain, to take the pulse of the NPP’s grassroots constituencies sympathetic to the camps of Akufo-Addo and his confidants and the trio.
One is therefore at pains to know who is actually lying and who is actually telling the truth.
Moreover, having an encounter in the form of intellectual flirtation with Ghanaian journalism and the lying escapades of the nation’s hawkish and vulturine partisan communicators, one certainly cannot ignore the fact that the proof of the pudding is truly in the eating. More information should be forthcoming to settle this matter unambiguously in the public domain.
WHERE PAUL AFOKO STANDS IN THIS CONTROVERSIAL MATTER
On the other hand Nana Yaw Osei, spokesperson for Afoko, says his boss “wishes to state that he is not in any reconciliation talks with any person or group of persons either within the party or outside of it in respect of a so-called reinstatement. The National Chairman is assuring the general public especially party members that he is in the court of law to challenge what he considers being an illegal…Please, do not be swayed by stories whose value cannot go beyond negative propaganda purpose…”
If this statement is indeed only true, then Akomea’s can only be indeed true as well. We want to see how the drama of legal tussle unfolds as the days go by. The legal tussle has already come to a head as Ghanaweb and other web portals report on the continuing confrontation between Afoko and his party’s detractors:
“Starr News Wilberforce Asare who was in court today reports that the lead lawyer for the NPP, Godfred Dame, sought to convince the judge hearing the case between the Party and Afoko to give an order to stop the embattled chairman from running media commentaries on the matter. The lawyer, according to Asare, also threatened to cite Afoko for contempt if he continues to prosecute his case in the media…
“However, the presiding judge, Anthony Yeboah refused to comment on the matter after hearing Afoko’s lawyer, Safo Boabeng.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
We cannot deny that we have any intimate empirical or forensic knowledge of or insights into the political arithmetic of Crabbe’s, Agyepong’s and Afoko’s following, and whether this, if it actually exists in any measurable degree of numerical preponderance, can genuinely enhance Akufo-Addo’s political fortunes, including his political capital, is another matter. Granted, if indeed Afufo-Addo and his top advisors were any wiser they would give the following advice serious attention:
“The financial resources of the trio especially Mr. Afoko could be pull (sic) together to assist in financing an effective electioneering campaign…Their return,...,would foil any plans of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make capital gains of their situation during the electioneering campaign, especially, when they mount the platform in the strong holds of the NPP.”
Those who have claimed that Paul Afoko, Kwame Mpiani, Sammy Crabbe, Arthur Kennedy, Nyaho Tamakloe, Kwabena Agyapong, Charles Wereko-Brobby…are NDC moles planted in the NPP are yet to adduce an convincing evidence to back their allegation.
It does not, however, appear to those rumor-mongers that Freddy Blay and Kennedy Agyapong, to mention but two, could actually be NDC moles planted in the NPP since they probably pose the greatest threat to the strategic and tactical interests of the NPP. This is what Bob Marley said on “Who the Cap Fit”:
“Man to man is so unjust, children…
“Ya don't know who to trust…
“Your worst enemy could be your best friend, and your best friend your worst enemy…
“Some will eat and drink with you, then behind them su-su 'pon you…
“Only your friend know your secrets, so only he could reveal it…
“Some will hate you, pretend they love you now…
“Then behind they try to eliminate you…
“Hypocrites and parasites will come up and take a bite…
“And if your night should turn to day, a lot of people would run away…
“And who the stock fit let them wear it!...
“Who the (cap fit) let them (wear it)!...
PETER TOSH ON BUILDING A BETTER NATION
On the track “Fools Die” Peter Tosh sang:
“The lips of the righteous teaches many…
“But fools die for want of wisdom…
“Why do you fight each other?...
“Why do you kill your brother?...
“Then your reward will be the cemetery…
“We got to build a better nation…
“Or there will be no future for you, you and me…
On the track “Wisdom” Bob Marley sand something similar:
“The lips of the righteous teach many…
“But fools die for want of wisdom…
“The rich man wealth is in his city…
“Do you hear, do you hear, can you understa-and?...
REFERENCES
Ghanaweb. “NPP To Reinstate Afoko And Kwabena Agyepong.” April 5, 2016.
Ghanaweb. “Afoko, Agyepong Won’t Be Reinstated—NPP.” April 6, 2016.
Ghanaweb. “NPP Seeks Court To Gag Afoko.” General News. March 24, 2016.
