An anti-Busiaists and anti-Busias running on a Busia seat: The case of NPP candidate for Wenchi

The lesson of history is that we all rarely learn our lesson from history.

If that were not so, NPP would not have fielded a candidate that is manifestly anti-Busiaist and an anti-Busia clan in the local politics of Wenchi and gamble its win. That is Mr Kwadwo Frimpong. Thus, NPP may be on the brink of losing Wenchi seat with such a candidate.

It is trite knowledge that the main sponsors and covert advisors of Mr. Kwadwo Frimpong are known anti-Busiasts within and outside the NPP party and anti-Busias, both locally and at the national level.

It is within this context that a view is gaining currency that Mr Kwadwo Frimpong is a Trojan Horse with a singular mission to destroy from within, especially, the Busias. Atafiakwa!!!

I am aware that these are weighty assertions, but bear with me, as I will make the case in due course.

Allow me to state at the outset that my concern with and rejection of Kwadwo Frimpong’s candidature on the NPP ticket for the Wenchi Constituency is not anything personal, since he is probably a good and competent person. Nor was any other person necessarily my preferred candidate; all the others were passable, I submit.

My position about this particular candidate as far as the Wenchi Constituency is concerned, is his anti-Busia stance.

I am in no way suggesting that a Busiaist should necessarily be a pro-Busias since the term “Busiaism” connotes an ideological category whilst the term “Busias” is a biological or familial category that refers to Busia’s blood relations who are just only the 10th and 11th generations of the aboriginal royal family of Wenchi with a long history, yefre tete; called the Sofoase Yefre Royal family, of Wenchi.

The NPP party prides itself on the political ideology espoused by Busia, Dombo, and Danquah. This political ideology is liberal democracy, a tradition that has been the defining characteristic of the various mutations of the party, i.e. United Party (UP), the Progress Party (PP), and the Popular Front Party (PFP).

Needless to say, a fundamental tenet of liberal democracy that the NPP professes is human rights, such as the right to a fair trial and all the other known liberties.

Unknown to many, through their scholarly works and politicians, the Founding Fathers of our party (Busia, Dombo, and Danquah), sought to link our pre-colonial political systems of governance, i.e. Chieftaincy, with the so-called Western liberal democracy with its preoccupation with the norms of human rights and all the other cherished liberties that have conventionally been associated with this political ideology.

Of the three stalwarts of our tradition, Busia was the most eloquent advocate of how Chieftaincy upheld the rule of law, human rights, and constitutionalism.

Specifically, in the classic, The Position of Chief in Modern Ashanti Political System, 1951, and later touched on in Africa In Search of Democracy, 1967, he shows how the democratic principles of nomination, selection, and enstoolment are played out akin to competitive politics of the modern democratic state.

To him, it is kinship (birth) and popular choice that determines who is a Chief in Akan society. Busia believed in the institution of chieftaincy and saw it as having an inherent capacity to be fair, participatory representative, and democratic.

Significantly, this is also an institution his ancestors have used to rule the people of Wenchi from their cradle at “Ahwenekoko” for millennia.

A reputable Historian, Ameyaw, in his treatise, “Oral Traditions” (1965) writes that Busia’s elder mother was the only direct descendant of the founding ancestress of the Wenchi State.

Busia, in his DPhil thesis (1941) which was later published boasts of being the direct descendant of the first Wenchihene and proudly named his first son after him, Nana Anye Amoapong Tabraku. This is all affirmed by real oral tradition and other scholarly works by historians such as David Apter (1955) and Ivor Wilks,( 1994). Esphon (1969)and many other Francophone I vorienne scholars.

What is the issue here, and link with Kwadwo Frimpong, the NPP candidate for the Wenchi Constituency?

Political Victimization of the Sofoase Royal Family – The Family Nakba.

Rivalry within and between royal families is commonplace, since after all, it is about contestation for power, a defining characteristic all types of polities. However, what is unique about the rivalry at Wenchi is that there is one family that has historically relied on government fiat to forcibly oust the Sofoase Yefre aboriginal family from the stool without regard to custom, tradition, and thus rule of law.

In a letter he wrote to his younger in July 1952, when he was the reigning monarch (Ohenekessie Nana Kusi Apea I, alias KB Busia)Prof Kofi Busia indicated that he was being compelled to enter national politics, inter alia, to defend the heritage of his ancestors from being “hijacked” by people he knew were “adopted’ as royals by her great grandmother (Nana Frema Tartuo I).

Truly, in 1958 by an executive order (Order 1958, L. N. 105/59) and mere radio famous 1 oclock announcement, Nana Kusi Apea I was removed from the stool and chased into exile by the CPP and was only reinstated in 1966 together with about 130 chiefs by NLCD 112.

This cycle of official government bias against the Busias continued when General Kutu Acheampong overthrew the legitimate government of K.A. Busia and immediately withdrew recognition from Nana Kusi Apea I. with the passage of Decree, 1973, NRCD 229. Following massive protests, the government hurriedly set up a Committee of Inquiry under EK Aikins as legal counsel in 1975.

The Committee’s report (what the Ahenfie Yefre family erroneously refers to as “White Paper”), contrary to procedure, was sent to General Acheampong instead of the appointing authority, The National House of Chiefs.

Expectedly, the National House of Chiefs’ Plenary rejected the report and assigned several reasons in law and fact to show why Ohene Kessie Nana Kusi Apea I, was the rightful Wenhcihene. The Plenary stated that categorically that “ Nana Kusi Apea I’s destoolment (in 1958) was not by custom and therefore invalid”.

Furthermore, the National House of Chiefs’ Plenary went on to state that “ In any event, once we hold that Nana Kusi Apea I’s destoolment was not valid, the stool could not have been vacant for a new chief to be installed if even the process of installing Nana Abrefa Mmore Bediatuo had not been defective since two chiefs cannot occupy one stool at the same time.”

Consequently, the National House of Chiefs concluded, that Nana Kusi was a chief even before the passage of NLCD112. See Reaction of National House of Chiefs To Report of Committee on Wenchi Stool Affairs, certified Report of the NHC, 1976.

Despite these clear findings by the House, General Acheampng went ahead to stage another coup in Wenchi by passing a decree (SMCD 64) to remove Busias brother, Nana Kusi Apea I, as Wenchihene and the sister the Queen mother, Nana Afia Frema Tartuo II, as Wenchihemaa, through SMCD 68; her wrongful act being Busia’s sister!

These are the two Nakbas (Palestinian term for catastrophe), of the Busia Family and to a great extent Wenchiman. They are not merely “cause or matter affecting chieftaincy,” but more, fundamental human rights violations and gross injustice.

In 2003, the National Reconciliation Commission, NRC, chaired by Justice Amua Sekyi, examined the Wenhci Stool Affairs case, among other issues of gross injustices meted out to Ghanaians by previous regimes, and in its findings agreed that the Sofoase Royal family of Busia and his siblings, has been unfairly treated.

Specifically, the NRC in its report came to the conclusion that Nananom Kusi Apea & Frema Tartuo’s removal by General Acheampong and the decrees passed thereof contravened democratic principles and were repugnant to known tenets of the rule of law. Thus, violation of their right to their heritage.

Curiously, this was even canvassed as an accepted practice in Wenchi in the case of Samengyedua & Or V Nketia Ors, 2011, that there is Wenchi exceptionalism, where the rule of law, customs established and known do not apply. General Achampong too, decreed this otherwise illegality into law, that in Wenchi, to be chief shall not be determined necessarily by the customs and traditions of the people, SMCD section 7, 1976.

Mr Kwado Frimpong & Endorsement of Impunity

This is the impunity of Wenchi that Mr Kwadwo Frimpong, the current NPP for the Wenchi Constituency, believes in and publicly endorses. The practice of circumventing the customs, traditions, and practices of the people of Wenchi and imposing themselves as Chiefs of Wenchi i.e. “patapaaa ahennie” is the sine qua non of the rival Ahenfie Yefre royal family which they have been wearing as a badge of honor since Nkrumah’s first intervention in the chieftaincy matters.

As far back as 1952 this tendency had been picked up by a reputable towering scholar, David Apter when he wrote that.

“the general public in Wenchi is on the side of the Busia family, considering the opposition royal family (Ahenfie Yefre) argument to be false or at least a distortion of customary tradition and lineage history” (Apter, 1955, p268).

Fast forward to contemporary times, in 2019, the people of Wenchi and the three royal families woke up in the morning on 22nd September only to see in social media pictures of one Mr Kwaku Abrefa swearing an oath of office in the sitting room of the grandmother and purporting to be the new Wenchihene, just as his grand uncles Bediatuo in November 1958 and others after him.

The three royal families, including his abusiapanin protested against this travesty of justice. The Sofoase Royal family took it to the Judicial Committee of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, and after the house agreed with the Sofoase family, granted an application for an injunction.

To him, the customs and laws on enstoolment are all not important insofar as one can give him support in his aggressive behaviour to occupy the stool. Kwaku Damoah, knowing he was not nominated and thus illegitimacy and illegality are the hallmarks of his so-called reign, has turned himself into one of the foot soldiers of a chief in Bono involved in a Shadow Boxing with the Otumfour Asantehene to save his skin, at least for now. This is a matter of public record.

A key benefit to Kwaku Damoah is that a man who was neither nominated, selected, nor installed by the Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act is through manipulations, intimidation, duress, harassment of some chiefs with support from the comical chief and his kinsman, in government secured a gazette.

In 2023 the Concerned Youth of Wenchi, in a Press Conference called the attention of the HE the President, Nana Akuffo Addo, to the possible conflict of interest on the part of the AG, Odame, a kinsman of Mr Kwaku Damoah, contrary to article 284 of the 1992 Constitution. And, this is because the AG appoints the legal counsels to the Regional and National House of Cheifs by Chieftaincy Act 2008 (Act 759) s22(4).

In the first week of February 2023, the content of an undelivered judgment by the Judicial Committee of the NHC was being broadcast on the streets of Wenchi, and the Ahefie Yefre folks boasted publicly of their source.

This has been reported to his boss, the President, Akuffo-Addo, and we await the reaction of His Excellency, the President.

The logical question everyone is asking is: on what basis has he been gazetted? This gives him an undue advantage, prejudices the case in his favour, and makes an issue not merely a “ matter of chieftaincy” but more fundamentally, one of access to justice and the right to a fair trial.

Mr kwadwo Frimpong, the man who wants to inherit the constituency of the Busiaist tradition of rule of law, constitutionalism, human rights, and fair trial, accompanied Mr Kwaku Damoah and jubilated, danced, and wined in celebration of this impunity and affront on such a day of shame, 17th August 2023.

As if that was not enough, Mr Kwadwo Frimpong, in his maiden speech on 2nd December 2023 following his victory in the NPP primary, stated his joy was akin to the day Mr. Kwaku Abrefa was fraudulent, as generally perceived, gazetted. To him, this was a full endorsement of the impunity the Busia, Dombo, and tradition fought against as I have indicated clearly throughout this piece. An open rejection of Busiaism and thus liberal democracy.

It is also an endorsement of the victimization of the Busias of Wenchi. Kwadwo Frimpong’s contempt for Busias is known to the public at Wenchi as multiple negative statements about the Busias have been attributed to him.

These anti-Busias sentiments were not because the late Obaapanin Ama Busia, a Busia and a Busiaist, the family matriarch and NPP former vice chair, and myself, necessarily preferred any particular candidate in the primary contest.

Frankly, because of Mr. Frimpong’s violent anti-Busias rhetoric, we all in the Busia bloc dreaded his win.

In fact, given her role in the NPP, it would be naïve for anyone to think that Obaapain Ama Busia had no access to some level of intelligence; she certainly knew why Kwadwo Frimpong was a non-starter for the NPP in Wenchi.

Let me state, without equivocation that no one who believes in Busiaism and the Busiais would commit a political suicide by voting for a character like Kwadwo Frimpong because of his open disdain for Busiasm and the Busia family.

Given the party’s decision to endorse an Anti-Busiaist character, I am seriously consulting with family, friends, and identifiable groups in Wenchi and in the country at large, to consider throwing my hat in the ring and contest the upcoming general elections as an independent candidate with the sole aim of preventing a possible loss in the beloved my town of Wenchi.