By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Before I delve into the article whose quite sensational contents provoked the above caption, let me quickly take this opportunity to respond to another trashy article whose title impudently sought to “admonish” former President John Agyekum-Kufuor against any temptation to aptly and publicly commend Nana Akufo-Addo for having immensely contributed to the resonant success story that was the two-term Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party administration.
Well, what makes the two articles relevant to our present discourse is the obvious fact that their authors are known staunch supporters and avid ideological advocates of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC). Nonetheless, what characteristically makes the piece that I prefer to begin this conversation with interesting is its author’s rather risible and morbid claim that President Kufuor, the most likeable and progressive Fourth Republican Ghanaian premier, somehow, “hurts” the presidential ambitions of the man who crafted the landmark Repeal of the Criminal Libel Law/Code by doing what most very successful retired leaders do, which is to throw their widely recognized moral heft behind their own party’s leadership successor(s) in a bid to politically enhancing the chances of the latter in clinching the presidency, in the case of Ghana.
I also selected the aforesaid article because its author, a clearly self-important pretender to moral authority, a specious one, to be certain, inescapably harbors a curiously ethnic-based abject contempt and inveterate animus for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo that makes his unsolicited “advice” for his subject both decidedly execrable and abjectly insufferable. Anyway, after rambunctiously and incoherently cataloging what the writer claims to be the epic failures of the former NPP-MP for Akyem-Abuakwa South in the Justice and Foreign Affairs portfolios, the critic is still shamelessly able to muster the chutzpah, Trokosi Style, to assert that, somehow, Nana Akufo-Addo’s single greatest impediment venturing into the homestretch of Election 2012 is to be admirably held brief for by President Kufuor who has also, according to “Dr. Michael Trokosi,” been irredeemably guilty of “callously transferring “ what the Chief Trokosi SOB observes to have been the gross administrative incompetence of the globally renowned and respected retired New Patriotic Party leader.
In short, what the apparently, incurably cynical critic is clearly saying, by way of Freudian confessional slippage, is that warts and all, Nana Akufo-Addo indubitably remains the visionary presidential candidate to beat in the lead-up to Election 2012. But that it should take the writer some one-thousand-and-odd words to make this simple and downright pedestrian claim, albeit rather disingenuously, is all the more to be pitied. Even more importantly, it poignantly underscores the epic desperation of the P/NDC Abongo Boys’ perennially half-hearted attempt at evening out the scores between their corruption-tarnished racehorse and the NPP flagbearer.
Anyway, to the second article and the question of whether, indeed, any major political party, or organization, particularly the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), is smack-dab behind widespread allegations regarding Transitional-President John “Paradigm-Shift” Dramani Mahama’s having stashed a whopping $170 million of public funds abroad, the latter being a portion of a much larger sum meant for the purchasing of some five military aircraft, if memory serves us right, the terse and poignant answer is Mr. Mahama himself!
It goes without saying that it is squarely his evidently shady conduct of government business that has swirled around his person, Cain fashion, widespread allegations about him having stolen the aforesaid sum of money and stashing the same in a purported Swiss Bank account. Matters have also not been meliorated by the fact of a highly competent and credible Mr. Martin ABK Amidu, Ghana’s immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, having categorically observed in a written document that, indeed, the late President John Evans Atta-Mills had seriously impugned the credibility and integrity of his arch-lieutenant prior to his demise. And, of course, even more significantly that, in fact, President Mills had even put his own deputy under a subsequently quashed investigative radar.
Interestingly, Mr. Amidu is also quick to point out that, indeed, it was massive pressure from NDC party stalwarts that prevented President Mills from proceeding with such morally damning investigation, on grounds that it would significantly blight the deceased premier’s chances of an electoral victory at Election 2012.
Now, what the foregoing means is that rather than mischievously play victim by splitting hairs over whether, indeed, somebody deviously planted this clearly damaging story in the media, even as one damage-control strategist and NDC propagandist sought to imply (See “Is NPP or NDP Behind the $170 [sic] Mahama Corruption?” Modernghana.com 10/26/12), President Mahama ought to promptly and publicly declare as to whether, indeed, he has a Swiss Bank account in which he has been secretly and selfishly hiding money belonging to the Ghanaian people.
In sum, it is rather naïve, to tell our dear readers the truth, for anybody to expect any media organization or financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank to step into this purely internal affair of a sovereign Ghana without, being either erroneously or aptly perceived as an intrusive foreign political player. Mr. Mahama also ought to be bold and honest enough to acknowledge whether, indeed, his late boss had him under an investigative radar for conduct deemed to be unbecoming of a Ghanaian Vice-President prior to his death on July 24, 2012.
Needless to say, this funny antic of having Ghanaian internet websites which duly posted the Mahama theft story summarily remove the same and promptly apologizing for having “hurt” the President’s supposedly impeccable public image and professional reputation, merely serves to further complicate the matter.
Of course, none of us have forgotten President Mahama’s pontifical promise to have Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome’s $51 million pelf returned to our national coffers, where it legitimately belongs. To tell you the truth, though, dear reader, I am not holding my breath. Even former President Jerry John Rawlings, Mr. Mahama’s longtime employer, political godfather and paymaster is not holding his breath either!
________________________________________________________ *Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net. ###
