An Activist’s Warning: Mr. President, Your Faux Pas!

There is no other way this can be described: it is a major faux pas! If you get away with pardon out of respect, you do not insult the tradition you belong to by overturning its core values primarily because you happen to be its de facto leader. President Kufuor’s cabinet and ministerial shakeup that has been published widely makes for very interesting reading when viewed against the backdrop of recent media allegations of his purported support for “a particular presidential aspirant” Let me explain my point.

The current political dispensation of Ghana is a cross between the British Parliamentary system and the American presidential variant. Thus, Ghana’s constitution stipulates among others that a large number of ministers must necessarily come from within the chamber of the August house. With this in mind, the President is invariably constrained in the extent to which he could appoint members of his cabinet from outside parliament. It is at this point however that his faux pas becomes abundantly manifest.

Roots

Before Kufuor became de facto leader his party, the NPP was. It was ably given a life-line by the likes of Stephen Balado-Manu, Okechire Adusei, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu and Abraham Osei Aidoo in the rear while the likes of Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, Nana Akufo-Addo, Yaw Osafo Maafo and Dr. K.K Apraku graced our front bench under the able leadership of J.H. Mensah. So effective and lethal was this group that the NPP has been said to be stronger and united in opposition than it has ever been under the presidency of Kufuor. Our party activists loved to love the party and with it, implemented what can be touted as the most outstanding sacrifices ever made by any group collectively since the return to constitutional rule in 1992. Party people sold their houses to raise funds to prosecute campaigns, party people suffered indignities all in the name of fighting the NDC juggernaut frontally to relegate it into oblivion, party people would walk from Teshi to Indafa Park and on the way, post bills on anything that so permits bills to be posted on just to increase the visibility of our alternative to the NDC. Yes! Party people toiled and sacrificed to make Kufuor bear the title, His Excellency the President.

What do party people get in return? Insults. Insults in the form of this despicable weirdness of worrisome appointments that defy anything that a good conscience can proffer as an excuse. The truth is simply that every party must have a quota for what is called a “loyalty dividend”. The loyalty dividend is what party activists reap when they stay loyal, committed and dedicated both to the ideals of the party and its continuous functioning as a viable political entity. In Britain where the parliamentary system holds sway, those who get into cabinet do so as people who have understudied various party kingpins on the one hand and have performed party activities such as constituency tours, campaigns, picketing when the need arises and related actions all aimed at maintaining the image and boosting the chances of electoral victories. They are usually attached to cabinet ministers as special assistants in order to hone their seats, after which safe seats are sought for them to contest and then having cut their teeth, they are eventually rewarded with the very sensitive positions that they had been working within as special assistants. Thus, party activities in addition to a person’s educational background, skills and qualifications thus work in tandem to place such activists in good standing for political office, thereby practically demonstrating an aspect of the loyalty dividend. By so doing, others are encouraged to follow in the footsteps of the elevated so that the party rejuvenates itself with an army of activists at any given time, knowing that there is a ‘crown’ at the end of their toils.

Problem

There are over thirty people in parliament on the ticket of the NPP who have been in the August house since 1996. These are the people who bore the brunt of the NDC’s ‘bullying’ and yet never wavered in their quest to remain focused till ultimate victory was achieved. Many, such as Balado-Manu for example have ably handled committee work, maintained their constituencies and contributed in no small measure to keeping morale high despite the constant overlooking they have suffered as far as Kufuor’s appointments go. Now is it not an insult that others who rode on the backs of the NPP to prominence without doing any verifiable work for the party find themselves in cabinet simply because the president has some affection for them? What in the name of Busia is Kufuor doing with this whole thing of “Minister of State” which appears to be a pacific measure for people he has removed from positions of trust? Is the President not aware that this move could easily be interpreted as “jobs for the boys and girls” as the Minority Leader has already started alluding to? It is refreshing though that he has listened to reason and dropped the dangerous idea of elevating Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey with the Foreign Minister position. Although like many other women I believe in our empowerment, I fail to see what she would have brought to the table and what experience she possesses to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Nicholas Sarkozy and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. That is why one can applaud him on the elevation of Hon. Osei-Adjei who has gained enormous experience since he was sent to the Foreign Ministry during the very first reshuffle of the Kufuor administration. I hope you, my dear reader would no mistake in interpretation; this is not an attack on this lovely lady who by all standards, would make some man very happy: it is a direct question to the appointing authority, for many are those who were reading a more sinister meaning into her proposed but “dropped” elevation in particular for like Cecelia Dapaah, and Elizabeth Ohene before her, these are people widely believed to be reaping another kind of ‘loyalty dividend’!

Then there is the case of the equally beautiful Oboshi Sai Cofie. This is the person who this writer remembers vividly refused to be captured on camera when her father, the venerable Professor Sai launched his campaign to be NPP chairman at the old GJA office in Kokomlemle! Her excuse? “please, please you must understand. If I appear on GTV in this NPP affair, my company would lose all its advertising contracts”! Lose all her contracts? And today we reward such “fear fear” people because they are paying their ‘loyalty dividends’ above our heads? What have we done to you Kufuor, to spite us so wickedly? I mean if you would not elevate the marvelously hardworking Mercy Bampoe-Addo or promote a Cecelia Eguakun or an Esther Ofori, do you have to “inflict” such people on our wailing souls? How do you think older folks like Donkor Fordjour and da Rocha will think or younger people such as Odartey-Wellington or a Opata would feel after all they have gone through for this party to be where it is? Is it not enough for you to bring the Kwesi Ankamah’s from nobody’s to somebody’s and leave it at that? Why do you do this to us constantly?

Is it because we keep quiet just for the sake of party cohesion?

Prophesy

With all due respect, I make no pretensions of being either a prophetess or a prophetess’ daughter but I tell you this day, that yours would be an extremely miserable retirement. You see, unlike your main man Jerry Rawlings, you have no charisma and no truly dedicated loyalists around you to be there for you when you exit office. Mr. President, do you notice how Rawlings always gets people saying “we will die for you” from 1979 when he burst unto the Ghanaian political scene to this day, with the latest such statement emanating from the Honourable Minority Leader in parliament? Unfortunately for you, the people around you are feigning loyalty just so they can enjoy the crumbs from your table but for how long can you sustain that?

I prophesy to you again, that your man Kyeremanteng would lose the contest and with that your otherwise wonderfully beneficial tenure would be cast into the darkness bestowed by wickedness for the NPP would rise up again as it has always done in the face of adversity, only this time, the rising will be against you and your coterie of nouveau riche apparatchiks who are hell bent on railroading preferences that are inimical to the growth, stability and sustenance of our party in the first instance, as well as its retention of power in the 2008 elections. We are waiting for you at congress for it appears that despite all your political experience, you failed to learn anything from December 2005. Infact what you have done is to tell us all that you disrespect us for you stood at Koforidua and told us that the generation after you does not include your darling boy. You also said here in London in March that we should choose someone with the clout to take Ghana forward. Yet, you are doing everything possible “indirectly” as Kuuku Welson-Jones foolishly revealed to promote the cause of Alan Kyeremanteng! How can you think for a minute that we cannot easily see what you have done? You have removed Ambrose Dery, Yaw Barima, and Boniface who are alleged to be either Aliu or Akufo-Addo supporters and replace them so openly with alleged pro-Kyeremanteng aficionados? Are you telling us that “mo ka no kraa na me ye no more”? What at all is your fear so much so that you want to foist people who you know the party would never accept unto us? How different are you from Jerry Rawlings towards the end of his despotic and dictatorial rule?

You can be sure that some of us have given up on you, for you have confirmed that you do not care about us, the people on whose backs you rode to power and the party that brought you into your current situation. As a result of that, we shall punish you. Yes, we shall punish you and anybody associated with your weird move to impose unacceptable things and people on us. Our party as you well know is not for you, neither is it subservient to you. You just happen to occupy a position, which by the way is not permanent and unlike you who prefers keeping people on tenterhooks, we hereby serve notice that we shall deal you such a blow as to make sure that no other leader of our party, be he/she de facto or de jure, ever behaves in this dangerous manner ever again. We are resharpening the very tools we used to send Ntim into his rightful place and shall deal your darling boy an even bigger blow. From Tumu to Wenchi through Axim to Nkwanta and all that is in between, we shall ensure that you learn in your retirement, how not to bite the hand that feeds you for your wickedness is becoming legendary and with it, a threat to send us back into opposition. That, I assure you shall never happen for truly without the NPP in power, you are absolutely nothing and we defy you in the names of Danquah, Busia, Jato Kaleu, Abayifa Karbo and S.D Dombo and all those who have suffered although the party they sacrificed so much for is still in political office. You shall be presently sorry.