Bugri Naabu Said Nothing New, Really!

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

Garden City, New York

Jan. 29, 2015

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Ever since some campaign operatives from the Kyerematen faction within the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) impersonated Mr. Hopeson Adorye, a staunch and diehard Akufo-Addo supporter, in a press release calculated towards the vicious character assassination of the three-time presidential candidate of the country's largest political party, I have totally lost respect for the mischievous likes of Messrs. Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong and Nana Ohene Ntow. After all, which NPP stalwart was not gobsmacked by Mr. Ntow's frenzied, albeit patently scandalous and feckless, attempt to derail the Akufo-Addo presidential primary campaign?

And now, predictably shameless and unfazed by their resounding defeat in Tamale last year, Mr. Ntow has, once again, resorted to deploying some of the dirty political tactics that he and his camp-mates are so notorious for: trump up false charges against their most ardent internal political rivals and opponents, and then pretend to be absolutely innocent of the same. Well, "gentlemen," get this from me - those of us who are determined to return good and clean governance to the Jubilee/ Flagstaff House are no pansies. We are equally determined not to be deviously derailed by mischief-making professionals like, you, Nana Ohene Ntow.

In his latest attempt at distracting the New Patriotic Party from its epic and indispensable Election 2016 campaign agenda, the former NPP General-Secretary is calling for the summary suspension of the Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Daniel Bugri Naabu, on the dubious grounds of evidence allegedly garnered from a secretly recorded audiotape from which the purported voice of Mr. Naabu is heard impugning the credibility and integrity of Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong, the NPP's National Chairman and the party's General-Secretary, respectively.

Now, the objective here is not to defend Mr. Naabu, who has already mounted a spirited and quite credible defense for himself, by vehemently denying that the voice allegedly captured on the audiotape impugning the credibility and integrity of Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong, and I understand two other close associates of these two men, belongs to him (See "Bugri Naabu's Tape 'A Gossip Corner Story' - Freddy Blay" Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/29/15). As I have already pointed out, there is credible evidence indicating that the Ntow, Afoko and Agyepong camp is far more likely than any other camp or faction within the New Patriotic Party to have concocted the purported evidence on the audiotape.

My own forensically sustainable theory on this subject is that having almost effectively put themselves out of favor with the overwhelming majority of the party's mainstream supporters and opinion leaders, Mr. Ntow and his ilk are attempting to fiercely fight their way back in a cynical bid to regaining their lost credibility. But, obviously, these men are desperately going about their dire search for redemption the wrong way, if also because cynically and viciously character-assassinating the unquestionably credible and loyal Mr. Naabu would only make their uphill battle even more difficult and complicated, if not virtually impossible.

What the leadership of the New Patriotic Party needs to worry about presently, is how to put the party's chances at the polls, come Election 2016, beyond dispute and the discretion or mercy of whoever is appointed to replace Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the outgoing Electoral Commissioner. In doing so, the NPP leadership needs to ensure that determined political nihilists like Nana Ohene Ntow do not hijack or hold the party to ransom. Like Mr. Freddie Blay, I am not the least bit convinced that the purported audiotaped voice of Mr. Naabu has any credibility beyond the figment of the fervid imagination of the latter's accusers.

If they can convice themselves that they have not received any V8 vehicles from the younger brother of President John Dramani Mahama, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, as the alleged voice on the audiotape is said to be claiming, then, of course, Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong have absolutely nothing to worry themselves about. At the end of the day, it all boils down to one's relationship with the particular subject's own conscience. Their flagrant and shameless partisanship/factionalistic bent in the heat of the party's most recent presidential primaries clearly points to the need for Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong to redeem themselves.

If I were Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia, I would set up a parallel administrative structure alongside the current system at the party's national and various regional, district and local headquarters, while significant internal issues and differences are expeditiously and constructively resolved. I shall shortly take up the meaning of the call by Mr. Ntow for the suspension of Mr. Naabu.

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