Can’t Akufo-Addo win political power without sacrificing Afoko and Agyepong?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Monday, May 25, 2015

Folks, I have been pondering the trouble shaking the NPP out of joint and wondering why there is so much venom against Paul Afoko (National Chairman) and Kwabena Agyepong (General Secretary) and why backhanded moves are being made to remove them from office—as if kicking them out will be the solution to the problems hindering Akufo-Addo from becoming Ghana’s President at general elections.

My conclusion is straight-forward. To win political power, the NPP doesn’t have to eat its own babies. It is not a party born out of a revolution to do so. Only revolutions end up eating their own babies. For the NPP, eating up its own children is a sure way to grab political power in our time.

The truth is that putting Akufo-Addo in power needs more than side-swiping Afoko and Agyepong. They are not the stumbling blocks. They are just people caught in unfortunate circumstances wrought for them by their own overzealousness in pursuing a political cause that they barely know how to relate to.

Of course, a brief look into the circumstances that shot Afoko and Agyepong into the NPP’s kind of politics will serve a good purpose. I will attempt doing so now, even if minimally, to prove that they are mere victims of circumstance, suffering the kind of sad fate that awaits those who don’t stop to look and listen before leaping in the turbulent waters of Ghanaian politics.. They are not threats to Akufo-Addo. It is the Ghanaian electorate that is threatening Akufo-Addo because he isn’t who they think will solve their problems.

Winning political power shouldn’t have been so difficult for Akufo-Addo. After all, he has done all he could to establish himself as a force to reckon within Ghanaian politics, even though the forces arrayed against his quest for power are unyielding.

The results of opinion polls organized by different bodies (most of which have turned out to be his own ventriloquists) indicate that he is “the most influential” Ghanaian politician in our time. So, why is it difficult for that acclamation to translate into his ascending to the Presidency to consummate his long-held ambition of becoming Ghana’s President “at all costs”? For the records, his own father accomplished it all—being one of the famous “Big Six” in Ghanaian political parlance, becoming Ghana’s Chief Justice and titular President before the Acheampong-led coup threw the Danquah-Busia political crop into disarray.

We acknowledge here the conspiracy of the anti-Nkrumah military/police toads in the rise of the Danquah-Busia cabal to the ultimate status; but we admit also that Edward Akufo-Addo really distinguished himself in all that he set out to do in life. He was principally endowed with the brains and personal attributes/composure to be a successful lawyer and politician. For the records, let’s admit that he, Peter Ala Adjetey and Francis Akpaloo made Ghana proud as the first crop of lawyers to be trained at the Middle Temple in London. They earned their bragging rights as such and distinguished themselves in their service to Mother Ghana. Both Justices Akufo-Addo and Akpaloo ended up as Chief Justices of Ghana while Peter Ala Adjetey excelled in law and politics, becoming the National Chairman of the NPP and leaving behind a rich legacy to be admired.

Of all, though, only Edward Akufo-Addo used his influence to pave the way for his son (caught up in inexplicable circumstances of erratic behaviour) to enter Middle Temple with a 3rd class under-graduate degree. Middle Temple doesn’t admit such candidates. The rest of the story can be uncovered in the ill-fated suit filed against Akufo-Addo by Justice Francis Kpegah, which the mafia in the Ghanaian judiciary scuttled.

Interestingly, the use of the “mafia” network by Akufo-Addo isn’t limited to the judiciary. It transcends all other sectors of national life, wherever he has a high stake that is threatened by better-qualified material.

Happenings in the NPP that have culminated in the fracas now tearing apart the party take their root from that groundswell.

Flashback: The Alliance for Change and its series of street demonstrations (beginning with the “Kume Preko” one and ending with the Wie me Preko” version) that Akufo-Addo joined hands with Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe and others to mastermind ended up filling him with the vain expectation that he could become Ghana’s President. His insistence on having the last laugh has torn him away from those who would otherwise have made it easy for him to realize his childhood ambition. Akufo-Addo lacks traction today because of his own miscalculations, leading to the point where sacrificing his own party’s National Chairman and General Secretary has become the most attractive option. Read this report here if you are in doubt: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=359553.

Here and now: Picking on Afoko and Agyepong is the last desperat34 kick in Akufo-Addo’s political death throes. As the manipulation of the situation continues, he is wont to reap the whirlwind produced by the wind of political intolerance that he has sown in his own party. How does he hope to achieve his ambition by dividing his own house against himself?

Afoko and Agyepong have turned out to be easy targets (sitt9ing ducks to be picked at will) for those expecting nothing but a Pyrrhic victory in their own political camp. Such a Pyrrhic victory won’t lead to the seat of government. It is designed to be local and will remain so. Stifling Afoko and Agyepong will ensure such a Pyrrhic victory.

Flash forward: Many questions, then, arise: Isa Akufo-Addo really more interested in such a Pyrrhic victory? Why? More questions than answers here.

I want to tell him that there are better and more conducive ways to chalk electoral victory toward the Presidency than what he is using to kick out Afoko and Agyepong, officers of the NPP duly elected by the party’s delegates. Can Akufo-Addo not think of better ways to win Election 2016 than sacrificing Afoko and Agyepong? Of course, he cannot because he doesn’t know what it takes to win the Presidential elections. The fault is in him, not in Afoko and Agyepong!!

I shall return…

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