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Nana Addo, Cheat Them All And Come Back Alone

Akuffo Addo 06.07

Sat, 7 Aug 2010 Source: Mensah, Nana Akyea

My dear Nana Addo,




I perfectly understand the kind of political arithmetic


that inform your current tactics and stratagems. Whilst an early congress


was sought to deprive the other contestants the time for gaining ground


before the primaries, from all indications, this has not been enough to


ensure a clear 50+1 win for you. A run-off is exactly the kind of situation


you hate to see, and yet that is what is starring at you in the face. The


run-off is simply put, an Allan Cash veto to the hasty congress and to buy


the time he needs to give you the necessary punches once and for all. Thus


your electoral engineers have been very busy, with a team on board to


scrutinise the electoral list, voter by voter, in order not to verify the


authenticity but to disqualify all known and incorrigible supporters of


Alan Cash twenty four hour before the congress!





It is only fair play that can create the healing conditions of sincere


concessions of defeat, reconciliation, mutual trust, respect, friendship and


solidarity, the basic ingredients of party unity. No doubt the Akufo Addo


camp have been busy throwing dust into our eyes that all is well within the


great elephant family, but reading between the lines, the troubles keep

piling up and the carefully sealed secrets and dirty linens are once, more


bound to burst through the seams in media explosions after explosion, as the


party implodes under the weight of its own voluptuous contradictions. The


like to gravitate towards money. And once Alan Cash begins to pay more, the


delegates would begin to be very confused. Any additional amount of money


from Alan after initially "confusing" them become very "convincing".





As for the NPP delegates, they seem not in any mood to exchange their status


as delegates even for a cocoa plantation. It involves too much work, and


even though it is seasonal so are the elections. All you need to do is to


"harvest" your "empowerment" and then vote "wisely"! You have no cocoa beans


to dry. No pods to break. Cool money. Sometimes they come with rice and


cooking oil, party T shirts, a lot of free drinks, girls, and occasional


fighting. Like dogs, the elephant is a very territorial mammal. It pays to


put people in their place in this unwieldy family otherwise your own


position would be up in the air in no time at all! The property owning


democracy cannot be built on hungry stomachs, and foreign multinationals in


whose interest the party seeks to promote are there to put their wallets


where their mouths are. The money is there in this party. If you don't take

your share, someone is always willing to short-change you with unrestrained


pleasure! It seems the delegates are aware of this and owing to the seasonal


nature of their new profession, they are going to squeeze the hell out of


both of them should there be a run-off.





Thus a run-off is definitely what most professional delegates want. They


have their own arithmetic. And on this point, the desires of the individual


aspirants for a one-touch sound very naive in their ears. They know they are


going to eat again during the campaign, but the professional eats


step-by-step. Why hurry when a run-off even pays desperately more money than


a simple primaries campaign? This Akufo Addo understands and has been


foresighted enough to do something about the appetites of these greedy


bastards. The election is going to be rigged. There shall be no run-off. In


any case, he is not going to commit a single pesewa above what he is


officially supposed to pay to the party until he is elected a flag-bearer.


The reason is simple: the money is not there yet. He needs to secure the


post before he can formally open the conduit from his neo-colonialist


owners. The NPP is broke. The chairman had to take a bank loan with his


house as a guarantee in order to get the money to organize tis congress. The

headquarters is facing threat of a public auction due to court order over


default in very outstanding debts.





A run-off is going to be a financial nightmare as each candidate would


prefer to directly "empower" the delegates than to foot the very bill of the


second congress. Ghana is going to be auctioned on a very competitive tender


between the two top dogs of the NPP. It is clear the winner is going to be


the one who pays the most. There are very extremely deep pockets behind Alan


Cash. I do not think that Kufour is just reading the news about what is


going on as a passive spectator. and that already means a lot, unless Kufour


is telling me he has no contacts and imperialist fat cows to milk of his


own! It is also extremely bad for the healing process after the vote, since


the contradictions sharpen and battle lines get their fresh drawings!





But I would prefer a free, fair albeit vigorous and keenly contested


run-off, to a fraudulent one-touch victory on Saturday, August 7, 2010. It


is by far easier to get people back on track on the democracy train when


they feel to be part of the system rather than cheated by it. This is why it


is not wise to cheat. As you, Akufo Addo yourself admitted recently, without

unity there can be no victory. I want to add that without cheating, there


can be unity. If you cheat you are going to lose the main race. so the


choice is yours. Win honestly and try to go to the castle, or cheat them all


and come back home alone!





Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!


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Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea