RE: The CPP Must Not Retreat

- Nii Teiko

A little over a year ago, I overheard someone screaming, raving and ranting on the radio against Dr Nduom. Upon listening more attentively, I subsequently got to know, that it was a member of the CPP Council of Elders – an ungentlemanly elderly man called Jantuah. As a person who holds the Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the Party that he formed in unsurpassable regard, I was sorely disappointed by Jantuah’s embarrassing misconduct of cursing and publicly invoking ritual death on his own Party member on air. As no publicly known remedial action has since, or was ever taken by the CPP on this disgraceful outburst, I have since then, looked askew at the entire CPP with a considerable amount of doubt, disrespect and derision.

I am therefore not any more surprised that this other member of the CPP Council of Elders, Mr Wiafe, in his article on the news segment of Ghanaweb dated 31 December 2012, is also now coming out with what generally amounts to what I beg to describe as 'nonsense' (credit Samia Nkrumah), concerning what he, Mr Wiafe, terms as "the never ending sabotaging activities of the party’s detractors and ideological opponents who, working in concert with both internal and external collaborators, continue to subvert and undermine the efforts of the CPP in the struggle to win back political power once again in Ghana." This is old-school twaddle. Today, due to unceasing internal conflict and its associated indiscretions - a minor example of which is the subject of this write-up, which have more or less rendered the entire structure of the CPP politically comatose, the center-right ideological pretensions of the NPP would without any doubt, qualify more as leftist and more progressive inclined than the center-of-confusion posture of the CPP.

Now come on Mr Wiafe, if there is anybody sabotaging the CPP it must be from within - principally by people like Samia Nkrumah and Akosah who have disgraced and reduced the hitherto disciplined image of the CPP to something akin to a beer bar brawl by their incessant reckless, irresponsible and most shameful public heckling against Nduom. Again, wasn’t it Samia who reduced the credibility and esteem of the CPP, politics and politicians in Ghana to the all time 'nonsense low'? It was she, with the shameless instigation of people who are fathers and grandfathers, who gave currency and a certificate of approval to the random use of the vulgar word, ‘nonsense’, in the public and political domain.

This man Wiafe further continues to add injury to insult by insinuating that "Another damaging factor to the public image and electoral fortunes of the CPP was the conspiratorial and highly reprehensible departure of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom from his topmost position as the sitting flag bearer of the CPP to form his own political party a few weeks to the election. Dr. Nduom’s hurried departure, taking along with him many so called leading members of the CPP at the national, regional and grassroots levels was planned as (a)sabotaging move to ruin the electoral fortunes of the CPP."

My instant reaction to this comment was to wonder if Mr. Wiafe was correct at all? We the Ghanaian public were all in this country where Samia the Chairperson, had publicly stated time upon time ad nauseam, on air and at public events that she and what was left of the CPP were now happy and relieved that Nduom had finally left the Party and that the CPP was now free and better poised to advance its grand Nkrumaist plans to win the coming 2012 elections. In their obvious sadistic pleasure to ensure that Nduom had truly and really left the CPP, they in addition issued a public statement reminding him to tender in his written resignation to confirm the fact. Did all this and more not mean that Nduom's presence in the Party had been a bother to Samia and her befuddled clique that had hijacked the CPP? Did all this not indicate to the discerning public that Nduom had been insidiously frustrated out of the Party by means of premeditated intrigue and subterfuge?

Well, Wiafe now turns around boldly without any remorse or shame today to describe Nduoms departure as a “planned conspiracy to sabotage the electoral fortunes of the CPP”. Where? Which! When ! Who! Whats going on? Who did Nduom conspire with? Samia, Akosah in collusion with the CPP's over-flogged bug-bear, the American CIA or who? Wiafe’s impudent perfidy can only impress the mentally retarded. It is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black.

For him to also insinuate that Nduom "took along with him" many CPP members, is an insult to the intelligence of not only those members who had been CPP stalwarts – some of them for decades - even before both Nduom and Samia joined the Party, but to all other CPP members still in the Party and who are likely to be of the same intellectual depth as those who left. Lets be real here, whether members "are taken away" or leave on their own volition, it simply indicates that your Party is not doing something right. People freely move from one political Party to another, every day. They have the democratic right to do so. Nothing stops them, but when the most viable members of a political Party troop out en masse and pitch camp elsewhere in revulsion at the crass public posture and ineptitude of the Chairperson, then there is plenty of something serious to worry about. As for Samia Nkrumah, we can all excuse her for her obvious political naiveté, but Mr Wiafe, the buck stops with those of you in the inappropriately-named Council of Elders of the CPP. Mr Wiafe, employing red herrings to divert exposure to your incompetence, wont gel.

It is the inalienable right of all political Parties on the other hand, to also constantly appeal to, attract and poach people to join their Parties. Any political Party, such as the CPP, that is not capable of doing so and worse-still, continues to lose membership - and votes in massive droves as well, is clearly and unquestionably in decline mode. As for the truth, one can never completely run away from it. No matter how one avoids it, it will always boomerang back to haunt you in a multiplicity of ways.

In Mr. Wiafe's demented mind, "Another damaging factor to the public image and electoral fortunes of the CPP was the conspiratorial and highly reprehensible departure of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom from his topmost position as the sitting flag bearer of the CPP to form his own political party a few weeks to the election." Mr Wiafe, Nduom did not willingly or unceremoniously leave the CPP a few weeks before the elections. Perhaps senility has taken the better part of your memory but allow me to refresh your thoughts. Nduom, after a series of public confrontations with the Chairperson and her gang, was virtually pushed out of the CPP about a whole year before the 2012 elections. Now if you were happy that the man had left and you had a whole year to reorganize, what must have happened to account for your unprecedented poor election results? Mr Wiafe, who is feeding you with this ‘nonsense’ (credit Samia) on the blind side of your memory? Or is it a case of a loyal servant scampering around to find excuses to cover up the vulgar nakedness of Chairperson Samia and her cowardly gang of two-timing moles?

Mr Wiafe must be told in plain language that when one has a problem and he fails to diagnose exactly what that problem is and palpably fails to deal with it, the problem will never be solved and in fact it will continue to fester and worsen. Its like being ill and going to the doctor and not being able to tell him exactly what it is that is wrong with you. You cannot then be well diagnosed, treated and cured of your ailment which will inevitably get worse. This is the problem with the CPP today. A whole political apparatus like the CPP is on this sentimental, quixotic, doomed-to-failure mission impossible to prove against all the odds that a Kwame Nkrumahs daughter can perform magic like her illustrious father. Bunkums!

In the distorted and feeble imagination of these pseudo-Nkrumaists who are evidently not on the ground, Samia is perceived of as the de facto reincarnation of the great and unassailable Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It is so very strange that a so-called socialist Party is contrived by non-socialists to undertake this feudalistic course to promote a make-believe agenda that is insidiously aimed at gratifying the Machiavellian but yet to be exposed ambitions of certain characters in the Party. This ill-fated trajectory can only have the end-result of going against other more compelling obligations that would have better impacted on the fortunes of the Party.

In retrospect and to all intents and purposes, this kind of weird behavior is what people like he Wiafe and Jantuah must have been putting up against Nkrumah in their time. It is this kind of delinquency within the CPP Party that so badly damaged Nkrumahs reputation and noble aspirations and which subsequently let the great man and his Party down so disastrously.

Mr Wiafe, I want to freely advice you as well as the herd of other misplaced members in the Council of Elders as well as the befuddled national Executive of the CPP that, one cannot run a political Party based solely on the sentiments of distant merits of past glories and the maudlin passions arising thereof. There are many millions of unconnected Ghanaians out there for whom the name Kwame Nkrumah merely rings a bell in history lessons at school. As unfortunate as it may sound, they don’t give a toss as to what Nkrumah may have achieved or may not have achieved. Some of them have been roaming the streets for up to five years looking for a job and they are as hungry and angry as they are frustrated. The intangible public performance of the CPP as well as the continued desecration of the image of the Party by those gremlins who are fruitlessly trying to prop the princess heiress up, have in no small way damaged the fortunes of the Party.

What people like Wiafe are doing, is opportunely living off and nibbling away at the past glories of the CPP without giving anything back in return to strengthen or bolster the pedigree of the Party up in a positive or meaningful way that would induce some amount of public respect and credibility. This is just a duplication of what the other more reactionary political Parties have been doing to our country Ghana as a whole. They have been living off what essentially is the massive infrastructure of the Nkrumah legacy without putting anything commensurate and significant back to stabilize it - much more, to advance the economy and the socio-political fortunes of the country. During the Osagyefo’s time, Ghana was the shining beacon for all of Africa and the entire Black race of people in the world. Ghana reached a level of social, economic and industrial achievement which no other African or Black nation has ever reached in world history. The plaudits of those achievements have since not been sustained, equaled or even topped up by the Nkrumaist political progeny. What a tragedy!

The ostensibly impregnable political achievements by Nkrumah begun to take a sharp reverse turn immediately after the 1966 coup d’etat against the CPP govt. The unrelenting hangover of that nightmare persists till today. Many of those at the helm of the CPP at the time, shamelessly turned their backs on Nkrumah and betrayed him. In spite of continued advice, prodding and encouragement by Nkrumah from far-off Guinea, even the more reliable ones failed to regroup to minimize the damage that was being done done to the emancipation process and the unity of the African continent by the dogs of imperialist convenience. Some of these traitors and/or their children and relations have today resurfaced in the CPP hierarchy supervising the gradual and further emasculation of the Party. Meanwhile, the vile politics of national decline and arbitrary under-development, under the tutelage of those who initiated and collaborated to terminate the magical years of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana and Africa, has actually become fashionable and politically correct.

The CPP which was erroneously considered to have been revived some years ago, after being banned for several years following Nkrumah’s downfall, has also further relapsed into some kind of whimsical caricature of a political Party. Along with this, all hope for African Unity has been effectively quashed for the lack of an intellectual political vanguard. The neo-colonial vanguard, on the other hand, is now firmly in control towards the realization of the de facto re-colonization of Ghana and Africa.

We have gone a full cycle backwards to the point where today virtually nothing of any significance in Ghana belongs to Ghana or Ghanaians anymore. The major corporate, industrial, commercial and even individual achievers are either multinationals, Europeans, Chinese, Nigerians, Lebanese, Indians, South Africans etc or their local minions. We now dont own anything of any major importance in our own nation. Colonialism has taken firm root in our country, in another more sinister but discreet form. Kwame Nkrumah isolated this malaise and envisioned its potential for disorder and instability even before he won independence for Ghana – he coined a word for it and called it ‘neo-colonialism’.

This subject of ‘neo-colonialism’ has become a whole new school of thought and study in the political and educational institutions of many developing countries and international relations systems all over the world. It also became the rallying cry for oppressed people all over the world.

But alas! We ignored the wise words of counsel and caution of this sage, this seer, this philosopher, this visionary, this great immortal. Instead, we preferred to go running back with proud servile humility to submit to the retrogressive evil ways of our oppressors. And like the chicken that were reared under a basket, we have refused to budge from our predicament even when the basket is removed and we are being poked in the eyes, jostled and kicked in the ass and slapped in the face to wake up, get up and to move on. We feel safer and proud, basking in the superficial veneer of glamour and living within the false standards of the non-accomplishments of the new paradigm of slavery. In effect, we have been reduced to mere bystanders, spectators, also-runs and humble servants in our own country. Are we finished or is the end nigh?

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves” Harriet Tubmann 1830 – 1913; African-American Slave Abolitionist and Human Rights Advocate.