Nobody will force these NPP people to tell the truth

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Friday, December 18, 2015

Folks, no one can fight the truth and hope to succeed. Like the cork submerged in water, the truth will rise to the surface to stun the one submerging it.

We know that the NPP and NDC have never seen eye-to-eye on issues regarding the handling of national affairs, not to talk about what happens at the lower levels. Wherever the NPP goes, the NDC avoids or seeks to encroach on with a counter-balancing presence; wherever the NDC goes, the NPP runs away from or contemns if it cannot outdo.

In our contemporary Ghanaian situation both the NPP and the NDC come across as two sides of one coin, each representing whatever it is and hoping to sway Ghanaians to see and accept it as the be-it-all-and-end-it-all for the Ghanaian case of under-development and exercises in democracy.

Since the inception of the 4th Republic, much blood has been lost in this useless fight for prominence. Nothing done by the NDC pleases the NPP and vice versa. It is all a matter of fault-finding; no praise anywhere.

It all began in the hustings at the end of the Rawlings era when Kufuor led the NPP pack to condemn Rawlings as doing nothing to improve living conditions despite his "asphalt projects", beginning from Kumasi (at the insistence of his wife, Nana Konadu). Thus, for Election 2000, the NPP's slogan was framed around the idea that if the people cannot get food to eat, they will have no value for asphalt roads. That was why the slogan ("Whie wo asetenam mo na tu aba pa") emerged. But even then, Kufuor had to depend on the support of the mushroom parties to sail through.

In power, Kufuor did his best, given the circumstances within which he operated. Ever since he left the scene, nothing has worked well for the NPP. Why so? It is not his making but that of those who think that they are bigger than the NPP. And they have given President Mahama the edge. Can they devalue that edge? No!!

Under President Mahama, the NPP has gone the full distance to condemn everything coming from the official stables. Be it the management of the economy, just anything, the NPP hasn't seen anything good coming from President Mahama. And that cloudy mindset has guided everything thereby.

It is, therefore, strange to see something to the contrary. The NPP's Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, is saying that enough evidence exists to show that the Mahama-led administration has chalked successes in nation-building that should be acknowledged and praised as such. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Mahama-has-worked-but-he-s-cheated-Ghanaians-401724).

Is this the crucial moment of epiphany that the NPP people need to help them refine their politics so they can connect better with Ghanaians and polish their political machinery for Election 2016?

Certainly, it is absurd to paint the government black with a wide brush and refuse to acknowledge its positive accomplishments despite the challenges facing it. Only the truth can set one free. Any talk of corruption is misplaced because corruption in Ghana is endemic, not restricted to government circles alone.

The truth may hurt but it can also heal and salve conscience(s). Thanks, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, for this acknowledgement to set the parameters for politicking by the NPP under Akufo-Addo. Wherein, then, lies the unpopular tag of "incompetence" for President Mahama, especially when these projects are solving pertinent existential problems of the people?

Rome was not built in one day; and only politically mischievous characters will expect President Mahama to solve Ghana's "accumulated problems" in one day. Of course, the good news is that the wool is quickly falling off from the eyes of the malicious critics for them to see things clearly. Only then will they know that their own dwindling political fortunes aren't the making of political opponents but themselves---for failing to to accept reality. And more of that reality awaits them. Accepting it should help them re-engineer themselves for a better cause.

The train is fast leaving them behind. Unfortunately for them, the light that they see at the end of the tunnel is that of a speeding train reaching them and aimed to destroy them. Will they be smart enough to avoid being crushed? Over to them!!

As Jesus put it, only the truth saves. And translated into our Ghanaian political situation, that truth is that President Mahama is leading his administration to do its best, given the circumstances in which it has found itself. It cannot do otherwise, short of over-speeding and perishing in flight.

Those condemning it at will for political expediency don't know what is at stake and should hasten slowly, biding their time with good politicking to win the hearts of the electorate and try their luck. It is not as easy as they may imagine, though.

Politics is not a do-or-die affair but a matter of judicious use of opportunities to remain in reckoning. It takes the politically astute to survive. Those on the periphery making ugly noise in condemnation should wonder why it is not they who are in power but those they wish dead that are preferred by the electorate.

It is a game to be played by its own rules, not by personal wishes, regrets, expectations, or wishful thinking by those defeated at the polls.

And once those in power use the resources of the country to give the citizens what they can use, they will be favoured. That's the thrust of Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu's message, which I hope his own NPP people have heard and will be conditioned to adjust to. And for their own good, they had better do so.

Continuously condemning President Mahama as the cause of woes in Ghana won't fetch any political capital for the NPP. It is politically weird. What the NPP can do better is the message that the electorate are yearning to hear from Akufo-Addo, even if they still continue to doubt his integrity. At least, they know what prevented him from winning Elections 2008 and 2012. What more?

The challenge that Osei Mensah Kyei Bonsu poses here is that Akufo-Addo should come out with measures that he will implement to outdo the incumbent Mahama-led administration. Not until he does so, nothing from him will "touch base" with the voters; and he can go to blazes in consequence.

Finally, we may stick our necks out to say that Akufo-Addo should be asking himself what value he has added to the NPP ever since being chosen as its flagbearer. Nothing but division and useless militancy. If we turn to happenings involving the NPP under Akufo-Addo, we will quickly conclude that he is more of a liability than an asset. The police have already moved to deal with some elements of the "Invisible Forces" that he has established in the NPP to fight his cause against internal voices. Woebetide him.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu is sounding a clarion call to his own NPP fraternity to shape up or be shipped out of Ghanaian politics for long. Who will listen to him?

I shall return…

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