Battered Ablakwa fighting to save face in the SSNIT-Rock City brouhaha

Much of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s political persona and trajectory remain largely unclear, most probably even for the man himself. But one thing seems certain here: a seemingly endless cycle of shenanigans, personalised populism, and waves of notoriety has come to define his politics.

Oh yes, that Okudzeto Ablakwa has built his popularity in part on actively

manufacturing illusions, rhetoric, and laughable lies is never in doubt.

Even before becoming a mainstream politician, Ablakwa was already notorious for

being wayward with reality during his student politics days.

Over the course of his rise in Ghanaian politics, he has been dodgy, classless, and calculated in rattling the pillars of society, including the hands that fed him.

The thought of how this puppet and his enablers run down the founder of the

National Democratic Congress (NDC), Flt. Lt J.J Rawlings, and almost succeeded in

hounding him out of the party he founded is still fresh in our minds.

Then came his attacks on Martin Amidu and some other notable members of the

New Patriotic Party (NPP).

In many ways, this has been Okudzeto Ablakwa’s modus operandi. However, there’s

been a noticeable shift in his rhetoric this election season toward successful

Ghanaian businesses as against foreign entities.

Okudzeto-Ablakwa would rather have foreigners get involved with Ghanaian-owned

companies, rather than supporting enterprising Ghanaian entities.

Every right-thinking Ghanaian by now clearly gets it. We all get it that Rockcity actually topped the bid for the SSNIT hotels because its bid was the best on offer.

It is what it is, but Okudzeto-Ablakwa won't rest. His strategy is simple: wage a war of attrition on the entire process, on the truth, and on the fact that a certain Hon. Bryan Acheampong has a beneficial interest in Rockcity, then cry wolf when there's none.

At the heart of this strategy is a campaign of disinformation, vilification, and deceit.

In fact, Ablakwa has been deploying this gambit and his most morbid, ghastly, and predictable trick in the book to shift attention away from the real truth.

And on this SSNIT/Rock City matter, he and his fleet of outriders have taken lying from a character trait to a brutally effective political strategy.

Then again, given Okudzeto-Ablakwa’s propensity to twist information and his wishy-washy nature, I'm surprised his single-mindedness has quickly collided headlong with reality as he seeks refuge under the Right to Information (RTI) regime.

Isn't it intriguing for someone who claims he has all the Rockcity documents, including their GRA Tax Clearance Certificate, to do a one-eighty-degree turn to file a Right to Information (RTI) request to SSNIT, demanding evidence of Rockcity's Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) tax clearance certificate?

Did I hear he's also requesting a copy of the full evaluation report and all minutes of the tender committee meetings under the RTI regime?

How convenient can it get for the imbecilic Okudzeto-Ablakwa?

For someone who claims he's in possession of all the documentation, this latest RTI charade speaks volumes.

But the story doesn’t even end there. On a rainy Friday morning, June 21, three days after his so-called public manifestation against the SSNIT/Rock City deal, Ablakwa’s laughable lies became even more apparent. Contributing to the conversation on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana program, Okudzeto Ablakwa claimed he had intercepted the annual returns of Rock City Hotel and that they had made losses. In fact, on the show, he said he had it and made copies to be given to fellow panelist Andrew Egyapa Mercer and the host, Randy Abbey.

As I watched him banging on, his eyes oddly glassy as though looking for something just over the horizon, he strongly reminded me of Hitler's Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.

Of course, it doesn’t occur to him that the said document he was brandishing was actually a tax ledger for Rock City from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

But for Egyapa Mercer's swift intervention and education that a tax ledger and an annual return could not be the same and that, to determine profitability in terms of ratio, the annual return of the company must be the reference point, Okudzeto Ablakwa would have gotten away once again with his laughable lies.

Indeed, Egyapa Mercer’s forthrightness deflated the intent of Ablakwa’s stunt. You should see his sorry and subdued state after he was roundly exposed.

Oddly, Okudzeto-Ablakwa doesn’t seem to realise that Rockcity's bid actually

triumphed over the other bids based on its viable prepositions, financial strength, and enviable record as one of the biggest hoteliers in Africa.

And instead of getting to grips with the complexities of the deal and processes,

leading to Rockcity's successful bid, Okudzeto Ablakwa prefers to prioritise

embellishments and exaggeration over reasonableness, just so he can present

himself as being on the right side of history.

It’s objectively fun to look back on the collection of things this political weirdo has done to decent members of our society. But it gets considerably less fun when you look at it from his parochial, partisan perspective.

In his typical theatrical style, Ablakwa is painting the SSNIT/Rock City deal as a nexus of vicious crimes, so we forget his own personal grudges.

Okudzeto Ablakwa has been casting everyone involved in this deal as irresponsible.

He has been accusing everyone. He's ghoulishly trolling, and even when the details don’t match his grisly story, it doesn’t matter because, for him, it is all politics of attrition.

And all the planned attacks are pulled from his repertoire of ploys, like a hack comedian on the strip drawing from a roomful of old joke files.

Dela Coffie is a communications consultant and political activist.