President Kufuor could have done better

There is absolutely no doubt that then-President John Agyekum-Kufuor had not actively participated in any attempt or ploy geared towards the wanton character assassination of then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the lead-up to Election 2008. But, of course, his deafening failure to actively and directly participate in the Joe DaRocha-led peace-brokering committee, to amicably and healthily resolve the Akufo-Addo/Kyerematen impasse, left no critical thinker and keen observer of the Ghanaian political scene in doubt as to where Mr. Kufuor’s heart and sympathies lay.

In recent months, we have had people like the renowned Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) political scientist Dr. Richard Amoako-Baah, categorically and publicly state that the anti-Akufo-Addo factional activities of Messrs. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong and Paul Awentami Afoko, among a platoon of others, had the staunch backing of some prominent members and leaders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Now, one does not need a doctoral degree from Oxford or Cambridge universities to figure out the subjects of Dr. Amoako-Baah’s allusion.

I mean, we know for a fact that the last person that President Kufuor’s Chief-of-Staff, Mr. KwadwoMpiani, wanted the National Merit Honors Award to be conferred upon was then-Candidate Akufo-Addo, whose name was conspicuously missing from the very first list of honorees released to the media by the office of the Kufuor Presidency. It would take the very vocal, public and morally chastening embarrassment of Messrs. Kufuor and Mpiani by Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye to have Nana Akufo-Addo’s name placed on the list of honorees, and then only in the second-tier or second-bananas category of honorees.

As I painfully pointed out back then, this not-so-subtle jab against the leadership integrity of Nana Akufo-Addo by the latter’s former boss was not lost on the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian electorate. It would take another angry public jab at Messrs. Kufuor and Mpiani by the present Speaker of the House to have the name of the then-Presidential Candidate of the ruling party placed on the list and among the category of the superlative recipients of the National Merit Honors Award.

It is rather sad, almost tragic, indeed, to have to observe the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo’s main political opponents, namely, Messrs. John Evans Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama, would have their names listed on the National Merit Honors List before Nana Akufo-Addo’s, and then in a higher category than that of President Kufuor’s own party’s presidential candidate. To be certain, I don’t for a split-second doubt that some anti-Akufo-Addo members of the New Patriotic Party had, indeed, bribed Mr. Alfred Kwame Larbi (aka DJ OXY) to character assassinate the now-President Akufo-Addo. It is also quite obvious precisely from which faction of the NPP these payola “misters” had come from.

It is also rather utterly disappointing for Mr. Kufuor to accuse Mr. Larbi of attempting to “ingratiate” himself with Nana Akufo-Addo or the latter’s Administration. No political blow could be so low and far well below the proverbial pugilistic belt. Couple the preceding with the fact that the President or Executive Director of the J. A. Kufuor Foundation has been shamelessly and mischievously unleashing some salvos aimed at propping up the thoroughly and soundly defeated Mahama regime, and it becomes incontrovertibly glaring that Mr. Kufuor would do himself greater good by maintaining the proverbial gold of silence on this most heart- and soul-wrenching subject, and hope it does not degenerate into a running sore.