Politics of name calling, innuendos, aspersions and ethnocentrism: Difference between Mahama and Akufo-Addo

The politics of name calling, innuendos, aspersions and ethnocentrism predates the 4th Republic. Right from the inception of the 1st Republic, it was rumoured and indeed popularised by the opponents of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the only president of the Republic, to have imported a special deity for his protection called 'Kankan Nyame'. The claim was that, that was the reason he managed to survive the multiplicity of attacks including the Kurungugu bombing on his life.

Similarly, we have had series of wild allegations and wanton penchant in giving out names to political opponents in the 4th Republic some of which were eventually refuted in the Public Account Committee when framers or originators of such name giving or allegations appeared before it as a constitutional requirement for their appointment as ministers.

Examples of some of those allegations and name calling include but not limited to Hotel de Kuffour, Professor do little as often referred to Prof. Mills by Akufo-Addo bearly one year into office, the incompetent one as used variously to refer to Mahama, Opana having been used by Mahama to refer to Akufo-Addo in the run up to the 2016 elections and now, the ubiquitous cliche being Akyem Sakawa Mafia.

The difference in all of these and many more which space would not allow to graphically present in this article is however that, none of them officially had emanated from a presidential candidate with tribal affinity irrespective of how outrageous it seemed except the Akyem Sakawa Mafia coming from Hon. Adongo ably amplified By his presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama.

Without doubt, it is conspicuously clear without any ambiguity that Mahama or Adongo could not been referring to the totality of the people of Akyem as Sakawa or Mafia. This point ought to be made and established forcefully but again, that goes a long way to portray a certain lack of finesse on the part of the National Democratic Congress and its presidential candidate not to have realized the political climate in which that name is being given to whomever he thought he was referring to.

The point really is, we are in this country where the major political opponents doctor tapes in order to create credibility issues and weaken the campaign message of each other so with this important historical phenomenon serving as a guide, one would have thought Mahama would have been more careful and not to have engulfed himself in this to avoid giving his opponents room to latch on to put his campaign in jeopardy in Akyem and its enclave.

Politicians must be guided by events of the past because history helps to chart a path into the future with minimal margin of errors.

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