Freddie Blay opens his own hornets’ nest…

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Saturday, November 21, 2015

… and he will be stung lame in the turbulent waters of Ghanaian politics. He will do so, definitely dragging along with him those ardently supporting him to institutionalize illegality in the NPP cabal.

Aren’t these NPP people ever tired of harming themselves? Once perceived as Akan-dominated and hostile to other ethnic groups constituting Ghana’s demography, once feared and spurned as preaching violence, once dismissed as sore losers of genuine elections, and once ill-favoured for Elections 2008, 2012, and 2016 because they have nothing beneficial up their sleeves, what more do they need to add to their plate of troubles and confirm their notoriety as rogue politicians?

A lot is happening to prove that the NPP under Akufo-Addo is an anathema; and the ascendancy of Freddie Blay at the expense of the legitimately chosen party administrators proves everything right that the NPP has lost its bearings. Ghanaians won’t entrust it with their destiny, no matter how they demonize the incumbent Mahama-led administration.

The wily ways by which Blay has become the NPP’s Acting National Chair until after Election 2016 have a negative sequel. And Akufo-Addo, his principal backer, will wake up to this reality only after being harmed, battered, and retired from Ghanaian politics in contemporary times. A very good riddance of such a nuisance!!

And Blay has already settled in the NPP’s groove to sustain the politics of insults. Folks, you must have heard of his personal attack on President Mahama, labelling him as “corruption-friendly”—whatever it means. See (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Mahama-is-corruption-friendly-Freddie-Blay-393450). He has even followed up with an opinion piece on Ghanaweb to sustain the campaign of calumny against the Lion of Gonja. I pity Blay for going this way and will take him to task to prove that he is pathologically prone to corruption and has no personal integrity personally or politically to warrant his branding of others as corrupt.

Those who know him inside-out will testify. Here is something from a trusted friend to jolt him. Once people back-handed by him have their grievances, they will ensure that he is poked in the rib. Here is one instance from a friend:

“The other noise-maker is Freddie Blay who duped me of D-Marks 10.000 about 15 years ago. And he became the Second Deputy Speaker Of Parliament.. Phew!!! He promised to get Airline Operations License from The Gambia for me and my business partners to enable us set up our own Airline. That was after my 4-year programme in Airline Management in Geneva and Singapore.

To make it short, each time I called him from Germany about the acquisition of the License, I was told he was in the bathroom and could not be reached. So, I just gave it all to God for His judgement. It is in his DNA; and look at the financial mess he is creating at his political refugee camp at the NPP.”

I challenge Blay—the lawyer that he claims to be—to read a deep meaning into the allegation and head to court if he can see what I have seen in the matter. My friend is willing and ready to take him on at any forum!!

We see Blay for all that he is and will dissect him as such, especially within the context of his bad-mouthing President Mahama as “corruption-friendly”.

My friend is willing to take him on if he (the lawyer that he claims to be) will be bold enough to bite the bait. And we will dissect him as such. Before we do so, though, let us provide the peg on which to hang our opinions. We say upfront without any regret that Blay is a fraud, a direct epitome of political prostitution for economic benefits, which explains why he would sell his so-called CPP birthright for the pottage that the arch rivals of the Nkrumah legacy dangled before him when he entered Parliament on the ticket of the CPP as the MP for Ellembelle. A lot happened in his rise to attain status and his fall thereby because of faults that lay in him.

Joining hands with another sell-out (Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom), he succeeded in subjecting the CPP to ridicule and erode its functional relevance. No wonder that his own people in Ellembelle wrote him off as a bad debt and went for the NDC. No true Nkrumahist will do what Blay and Nduom did and still think that they will be supported to realize their political ambitions. In one way or the other, though, they have found a leeway to remain in contention just because Ghanaian politics is full of nonsense and they think they have the stomach for it.

Nduom chose to found his own political party after breaking away from the CPP but is yet to know that his one-man show won’t put him in power. All that money he is wasting will not fetch him the renown that he imagines. So also will it not sustain his Progressive People’s Party when Nature takes him on. That much for him as he stews in his own self-importance.

But more for Blay who is deceiving himself that he knows how to play his cards to keep his head above water, the political chameleon that he is. He may for now be able to change his complexion to blend with the political environment; but that sleight-of-hand political manouevre has its negative sequel that will not redound to his well-being in the long run because he is biting off more than he can chew. It is a double-edged sword that is now oriented toward cutting him to size. And that exercise of damnation will soon begin.

So far, he seems to have tried in properly with the mechanism put in place by the NPP’s flagberarer )Akufo-Addo) because both have similarities that unite them for the pursuit of dark interests. Blay has become in the NPP what he couldn’t be if the party had really been directed toward sustaining the Danquah-Busia ideology. How could an Nkrumahist be at the helm of affairs in that political cabal? Unimaginable as it may be, it is now a reality because the one masterminding the obfuscation is himself a character of sorts. That is Akufo-Addo.

Freddie Blay has been exposed as a conspirator or an accomplice in the malfeasance regarding the NPP’s finances, joining hands with the national treasurer Abankwah to re-open a dormant account at Ecobank and siphoning funds for Akufo-Addo’s political exploits without the consent of others, especially the National Chair and General Secretary. His manouevres amounted to theft of party funds for which he should have been sanctioned and not lionized; but he is enjoying the support of Akufo-Addo to grow horns with which to axe the legitimately chosen and anointed National Chair, Paul Afoko. Within this context, the one insisting that the right procedures be used is now suffering. It’s just like the accuser becoming the victim in a warped case of jurisprudence. Saddening!!

That is the framework for our take on Fraudie Blay. We say that he has been placed at the helm of affairs by forces loyal to Akufo-Addo to manipulate the NPP in all senses for specific purposes. Unfortunately for them, such purposes won’t appeal to the Ghanaian electorate. Without any hesitation, we know that Blay is a shady character and will defend our stance anywhere anytime, just as we will do about Akufo-Addo’s own controversy about his legal training and doubtful certification by the Middle Temple. We will continue to do so for as long as he runs away from the truth.

And with Blay as a bedfellow, they will do things in tandem only to push the NPP far off course. I am not surprised that the sane voices in the NPP are silent. It is not surprising also that the bulldozing machinery spearheaded by Akufo-Addo is undercutting its own support base with the massacring of forces that would have helped the NPP do better in its public outreach programme. The manipulation of the situation to suit Akufo-Addo’s agenda toward winning the Presidential elections at all costs is counter-productive now. How can he hope to prevail over Ghanaians if he destroys his own party as is evident in the goring of Paul Afoko and all others perceived as anti-Akufo-Addo? And how can he hold the NPP together with the likes of outsiders like Blay who have no constituency in the Danquah-Busia tradition? A political rolling stone fraudulently grabbing positions and perks?

On that score, we can only sit by and watch these “Concert Party” people as they engage each other in the drama of self-destruction. But for Fraudie Blay, when the real forces in the NPP decide to act, it will be a foregone conclusion: he has no place in the NPP and shouldn’t be there. Then, Akufo-Addo will become wise only after the fact that despite all his posturing, Ghanaians don’t think that he deserves their mandate to lead them. Leadership is not by claims to birthright or childhood ambitions but by dint of character and proven ability to hold all together as a nation. So far, he hasn’t demonstrated that quality. Those that he has chosen to surround him are just like him: despicable characters to be feared. The hornets are buzzing!!

I shall return…

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