Asiedu-Nketia Should Ask Veep Amissah-Arthur

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General-Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), may well be behind the recent assassination attempt on the life of President John Dramani Mahama. He may be loudly railing against operatives of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in order to mask up his guilty conscience (See "NPP Must Be Quizzed Over Mahama's Gunman - NDC" Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/31/15).

Well, for those who may have forgotten it so soon, it was Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, popularly called "General Mosquito," who told the host of a radio program that President Mahama won the 2012 presidential election because New Patriotic Party polling agents and officials had not been vigilant enough. In other words, in the well-considered opinion of General Mosquito, had Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan fairly conducted the 2012 polls, Mr. Mahama would be the opposition party leader today.

We must also note the fact that both Messrs. Charles Antwi, the alleged would-be assassin of President Mahama, and Mr. Asiedu-Nketia hail from the Brong-Ahafo Region. It may also be a classical case of "Oyaa-Suro-Oyaa" or "One Afraid Of The Other." For as the old, tired maxim goes, it takes one would-be-assassin to know/recognize another. Mr. Asiedu-Nketia may well be seeing himself in 36-year-old Mr. Antwi, and may well be frightened by the image of the man in the mirror.

The NDC General-Secretary's argument that because the "Won Gbo" demonstration, sponsored by operatives of the NPP, was led by a known lunatic, or madman, it also follows that Mr. Antwi had been recruited by some NPP operatives to rub out President Mahama is characteristically absurd. Indeed, as I pointed out in an earlier column, the bloody political record of the Rawlings-minted National Democratic Congress makes the NDC far more likely to have recruited Mr. Antwi, that is, assuming that, indeed, somebody other than the now-convicted gunman himself hatched the idea of liquidating Mr. Mahama.

Interestingly, there is a striking connection here between the tragic misfortunes of Mr. Antwi, who is reported to have been deported from Italy, and the gunman's decision to kill the man he may very well have had good reasons to fault for causing him to lose his taxicab, his main source of income, as well as his motorbike. In the case of the madman alleged to have led the "Won Gbo" demonstration against the rankly corrupt and woefully under-performing Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress, a legitimate case could be made that it was the socioeconomic and political depravity of the President and cynical and diabolical associates like Mr. Asiedu-Nketia that precipitated the mental incapacitation of the "Won Gbo" demonstration leader, as may likely have also caused the ill-health of Mr. Antwi.

Then also, the former NDC-Member of Parliament from Seikwa may very well be in dire need of psychiatric examination. Not only does the cross-dressing General Mosquito show signs of a remarkable degree of mental incapacity - he had earlier maintained that Mr. Antwi was clinically insane - Mr. Asiedu-Nketia is clearly confused about the mental capacity of the would-be Mahama assassin. Now, like Justice Francis Obiri, the Accra High Court judge who scandalously sentenced Mr. Antwi to 10 years' imprisonment in less than 72 hours after the gunman's arrest, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia is reported to be claiming that his "homeboy" ought to remain behind bars, because Mr. Antwi "was fully aware of what he intended to do."

Well, if, indeed, most of Mr. Antwi's civil rights defenders appear to belong to the ideological camp of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, this may primarily be because the NPP operatives tend to be more intellectually and morally refined in temperament, compared to the leaders of the NDC who almost invariably tend to be brash and petulant in their attitude. Let's put it this way: if, indeed, Mr. Antwi wanted to "harm our President," as General Mosquito insists, then it was partly also because the gunman must have heard the former deputy cabinet minister tell the nation on radio in December 2012, that the then-Interim/Transitional President John Dramani Mahama stole the 2012 presidential election. Significantly, however, ought to be mentioned, at least in passing, that Mr. Charles Antwi has been widely reported to have claimed that he wanted to emulate Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, who twice shot his way to power. Does the name "Rawlings" ring any bells in the Eustachian Tubes of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia? Go Figure!

The real punch line, though, is as follows: Why would any sane person scheme to so facilely eliminate President Mahama, knowing full well that short of a complete government takeover, it is Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur who would likely become the prime beneficiary? Indeed, those of us who have been studiously watching Mr. Mahama publicly and politically make out with Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh, have absolutely no doubt that there is little simpatico between the two men. And so why look elsewhere for the serpent that would unleash the deadly bite?

Then also, why has President Mahama yet to inform the nation about precisely what killed his immediate former boss? Now, let's talk real conspiracy talk, General Mosquito!

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