Akufo-Addo’s real enemies are in the NPP, not elsewhere

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Folks, the government has acted swiftly to deport the three South African undesirables from the country (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Three-South-African-ex-police-officers-deported-426650). If Capt. Koda and Akufo-Addo are MEN, let them bring those undesirables back. Those talking about breach of the due process (because the matter involving the deportees is still before the court) can bite off their tongues and spew them out—for all I care!!

I have heard a lot of arguments from members of the NPP who claim that their flagbearer is the target of a covert (or overt?) effort by the Mahama-led administration to be harmed physically, which explains why it is appropriate for the NPP to seek whatever means to establish a ring of protection around him. To them, that “threat” also justifies the need for the activities in Ghana by the three South Africans. Who knows what else they have put in motion but hasn’t yet been exposed?

One main strand in the arguments is that Akufo-Addo needs personal protection, which the NPP doesn’t trust Ghana’s orthodox security establishment to give him. There is also the claim that the NDC administration would rather have Akufo-Addo dead than give him the personal protection that he needs to sustain his kind of politics. Oh, how pathetic?

In truth, Akufo-Addo is either his own enemy or the enemy of those in the NPP on whose toes he has trampled. Knowing what has transpired within the NPP since he took over as the flagbearer, I can say with all certainty that he is neither prepared to know that the path that he is charting is crooked nor to listen to those telling him about it. And those telling him so are in his own party, even if being intimidated left and right. Putting all together then, we can say that he has more enemies within than without. Those in the NDC don’t wish him dead; they wish him to be alive and kicking to be defeated again at the polls. It is rather those in the NPP regarding him as odious who may want him out of their way. Will he see things clearly and stop fighting the whirlwind that he has wrought?

An aspect of that whirlwind is the case of the three South African ex-combatants now in the grips of Ghana’s laws. We have said a lot in response to the lopsided jerk reaction of the NPP apparatus to the events surrounding the arrest of these South African mercenaries for their prime role in the NPP’s attempt at creating a military-oriented institution to promote its political agenda. We have made it clear that the step taken by the NPP is wayward and politically suicidal. In making our voices heard, we haven’t lost sight of the fact that the NPP under Akufo-Addo has lost its bearing and is now not only a threat to itself but also to Ghana’s democracy. Its benighted buffs may not ever be able to comprehend or accept this fact until Election 2016 proves why their kind of rogue politics has no place in contemporary times.

They cannot see the real issues involved to know that the action being taken has more to show them the right path to tread in a democracy than to clip their wings. In a democracy, there is no need for anything of the sort that Akufo-Addo is leading the NPP to do. Nobody is fighting for freedom in our Ghanaian situation. So, why recruit characters to be given the kind of skills that have the potential to subvert democracy? Why go that way as if it is Akufo-Addo's duty to lead any fight for freedom in Ghana? Do we not already have freedom to enjoy, protected by the legitimate and orthodox security apparatus that has been in place since the creation of Ghana?

We know that the murky circumstances surrounding the “importation” of the South African security “experts”—who are nothing but incendiary fallouts from the mercenary exploits of a disgruntled sociopathic system—are still in contention. There is a lot to come out for Ghanaians to know that those ex-combatants aren’t as innocent as the NPP hierarchy is painting them. If one takes a critical look at how South African-grown mercenaries of their sort led destabilization efforts in the Comoros, Mauritius, Cape Verde and other parts of Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s, the picture should become clearer to Ghanaians to know why what the NPP has set in motion is not commendable but damnable.

To all intents and purposes, the attempt by the NPP hierarchy to rationalize the matter and to create the unfortunate impression that the real danger to Ghana is not their importation of those ex-combatants but the manner in which the government is handling the situation is laughable. It is as porous as cannot be accepted.

The picture is clear: For whatever reasons best known to themselves, the NPP leaders contracted those ex-combatants to do a lot more than they are willing to tell Ghanaians. That lot has to do with security issues. How come that Akufo-Addo and his henchmen will go for these three ex-combatants and others yet to be exposed without regard to the fact that Ghanaian security operatives with equally good acumen exist to give them whatever they might be looking for to sustain Akufo-Addo’s air of importance and need for personal security?

If for nothing at all, Captain Koda exists and has contacts with all the fellow cowards in the security system of Ghana that tried to subvert Rawlings without success. More than that, there are many others nursing their own grievances and ready to offer their own kind of expertise. Why won’t they be attractive to the NPP?

I’ve asked these questions because of the bizarre claim by Fraudie Blay (the Akufo-Addo-imposed Acting Chair of the NPP) that the Mahama-led administration has moved in to deal with the security threat posed by the NPP just because it wants to create fertile grounds for the Islamic State terrorists to attack Ghana (See http://www.myjoyonline.com/politics/2016/March-27th/govt-wants-to-provoke-isis-to-attack-ghana-freddie-blay.php).

What is the connection between the case of the South Africans and the ISIS to warrant this weird association by Blay? Not only is Blay leading the NPP pack to go haywire, but he is ably supported by so-called lawyers put together by the NPP to defend its cause as far as the South African undesirables are concerned; and they are abroad, making all kinds of obnoxious comments to deepen their own woes rather than redeeming themselves and their sacred cow (Akufo-Addo). The muddying of their own waters is being done with an unprecedented alacrity to alarm the peace-loving Ghanaian populace. Yet, they can’t read between the lines to hasten slowly in their foolery. What next for them? Folks, the conjecture is yours to make.

Having analyzed the situation so far, I can say with all certainty that the greatest threat to Akufo-Addo doesn’t come from the NDC and the other political opponents but from within his own camp. The “aboa” that has been biting him and will continue to do so is openly moving about in his own loins. Does he have the gift of common sense and vision to see it and behave as such?

Folks, I have all these years maintained my anti-Akufo-Addo stance because I am more than persuaded that Akufo-Addo is not fit to be what he is running head-over-heels to bend arms for. He knows it himself but is beguiled by whatever his fevered imagination might have him see about himself as Ghana’s President at all costs. His parents must be really chafing in their graves. I respect Edward Akufo-Addo for all that he did and left behind for Ghana; his wife, Adelaide, didn’t hog public space to behave as Rawlings’ wife did but she left her lasting imprints on the minds of those who saw her in her capacity as Ghana’s First Lady under the titular Presidency of her husband. They did all they could for their son (this William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) to effortlessly step into those footprints; but by his own misguided acts of omission or commission, he has ended up complicating issues and turning the table against himself. And ever since he got defeated by the Fates, he has been fighting against the wind. Pathetic.

Folks, there is no way that the one bent on destroying his own house can be helped to build that house. That is the truth for Akufo-Addo. And clearly, he won’t be helped to replace President Mahama just because he and his followers have the monopoly over lies, falsehood, and plain roguery in contemporary politics.

The situation that he has created with the importation of these South African undesirables only exacerbates his political reckoning. Indeed, if Akufo-Addo needs security, he shouldn’t go far. There are many people and institutions in Ghana to secure him. He should look up to the Ghanaian Establishment and not outsiders who are looking for monetary gains and nothing else. They don’t bond with him as Ghanaians supporting him may do. Who even says that their activities will make Akufo-Addo impregnable?

To be honest at this point, let me say that the situation for Akufo-Addo is clear: He has succeeded in turning friends in the NPP into bitter enemies who will have no compunction getting rid of him if pushed further to the wall. That may be why he is frantically looking for a security network to keep him afloat. In truth, then, his real enemies are within the NPP, not elsewhere. If he doubts it, let him find out why despite all the problems that he created under Rawlings (with his useless human rights advocacy and the series of purposeless “Kume Preko” street demonstrations and its aftermath) he wasn’t snuffed out.

Today, he has found Rawlings to be an ally in political mischief. If Rawlings had disposed of him as he did all the undesirables (in the military or civilian sphere), where would he have been today? Indeed, it is not difficult to dispose of him, though, especially if he puts himself where he doesn’t belong. His real enemies are in the NPP to do so. No amount of security training for those intended to protect him can safeguard him against anything of the sort. He had better look within to advise himself on the extent to which he carries himself. Times are rough and he should tread cautiously. After all, Ghana can do without him.

I shall return…

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