In light of the Free Market political economic position of both the liberal NDC and conservative NPP, a CPP-NPP alliance is no different from a CPP-NDC alliance in principle. In practice maybe.
The economic impact of both alliances on the progressive increasing standard of life of the Ghanaian Majority is essentially the same in value. Indeed the evidence is there for all to see in the material circumstances, the life experiences and the general consciousness of Ghanaians. But Kweku Baako’s confused mind has failed over the last 28 years to comprehend this basic political economy of Ghana.
That is the conclusive evidence that Kweku Baako lacks wholesale understanding of what ‘principle’ means is his relentless profession of ‘principle’ as the basis for his critical support to the NPP administration, his candid realism and pragmatism and his canvass-supporting decision for Nana Akufo-Addo.
Kweku Baako definitely lacks in-depth intellectual grasp of free market political economy in its most essential aspects. And yet his father left him a wealth of information in the form of books and articles. Clearly something else must have prevented his mind from benefiting from this legacy. Whatever it is, it is definitely not principle. By all accounts, Benimhene Nana Akosah, whose father (still alive) also left him similar books and articles, has grasped it. But then he in addition also read to degree level.
The continued over 15 years enunciation of his (Kweku Baako) anti-PNDC position is another conclusive evidence of the fundamental effects on his intellect of his lack of proper and formal education and its impact on his research and intelligence.
The result of Kweku Baako’s basic intellectual and mental failure is the explanation he gives for his political choices in the current configuration of forces in Ghana.
Kweku Baako may be a superlative Journalist or Opinion-Leader or Commentator to many, but when it comes to sheer intellectual gravitas and ideological clarity, he is nowhere near the Kwesi Pratts at all.
It is now almost decades when knowing that Kweku Baako would speak on either television or radio drew us like magnets to listen to him. He always had something new to say. It was not just political education with Kweku Baako; it was also historical education.
Historically close, either as a youthful spectator or negative beneficiary, to the heart, and some key actors, of the driving force of politically-motivated violence for power and in defence of office, he knows a lot of Ghana’s illegal history. The effect of such an experience can also be devastating on one’s mental stability as he demonstrates.
In this basic failure, he is as guilty as other CPP people who continue to confuse their personal political preferences with the progressive principle that advances the organised interest of the Ghanaian Majority, for which the CPP has always championed.
They also confuse their personal political preferences with the democratic will of a political party. Some call themselves Pro-Nkrumaists. Others say they are social democrats. Still others are political skirt & blouse specialists - the sheer madness whereby in free market electoral competitive warfare for political office you call on your troops to fight on the side of the political enemy.
Indeed with some of these in the CPP they agreed that the CPP should increase its parliamentary presence, as this is critical to the growth of the CPP. They failed to see that the purpose of a political party in competitive electoral politics is to win political power and not party growth.
Kweku Baako is therefore lying when he insists that his support for NPP is a matter of CPP principle. He has abandoned it. He is in no ideological position to develop the progressive principle of CPP because he is not emancipated from every tie or connection with the opposite liberal-conservative principle that infuses the free market body of NDC and NPP with blood and life.
In striving in his private mission to build himself an integrated media empire of newspaper/radio and television station, he fails to understand that he is subscribing to the same PNDC-created free market NDC-NPP society. For a media empire assumes that we live in a society that is not a perfectly competitive society. It is a society of media monopolies and oligopolies and not pluralistic media of defused power. Kweku Baako is truly mentally confused.
In his anti-NDC strategic commitment to deny it office, he has denuded himself instead whereas his mission, as we recall, was to rather strip John naked.
BACKGROUND
(1) The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Kweku Baako honestly knows was the work of Ghana’s liberal-conservative political class, who broadly share the views of Mr. Osei Kwame Prempeh, Mr. Kofi Dzamesi and Okoampa-Ahoofe that Kotoka is an immortal hero worthy of praise in the constitutional and democratic development of Ghana.
The leading political figures of that liberal-conservative alliance for the unconstitutional and illegal removal of Dr. Hilla Limann from office, were also John Rawlings and John Kufour. Between them, they would have shared electoral presidential office eight years each by January 2009.
The illegality of the PNDC regime and the consequences of that illegality whether capital punishment, imprisonment, confiscation of property or whatever when the PNDC trial comes will not leave out anyone who was part of the illegal PNDC government. Perhaps the decision to focus on parliamentary presence while Akufo-Addo is President is ultimately aimed at arresting the PNDC Johns and trying one for treason punishable by death.
The anti-democratic Washington-Consensus policies of the PNDC Government championed by the Marxist Kwesi Botchway were free market policies, however free market is defined, of balanced-budgets, lean government and market liberalisation. The consequences of PNDC free market policies are pervasive Ghanaian Majority poverty.
The illegal PNDC created political parties of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) both have a shared belief in the Free Market as a means of equilibrating the competing claims over Ghana’s resources in favour of an indigenous/foreign small minority and privileged few.
(2) Kwame Nkrumah made it clear as far back as 1945 what ‘principle’ is, quoting Wilhelm Liebknecht, and before even Kofi Baako, Kweku Baako’s own father had the opportunity to become an African Minister in a post-colonial black government.
(2.1) Kwame Nkrumah put it very clearly, on the motto page of Towards Colonial Freedom, that “to negotiate with forces that are hostile on matters of principle means to sacrifice principle itself. Principle is indivisible. It is either wholly kept or wholly sacrificed. The slightest concession on matters of principle infers the abandonment of principle.”
(2.2) Nkrumah went further, this time quoting Mazzini, that “every true revolution is a programme; and derived from a new, general, positive, and organic principle. The first thing necessary is to accept that principle. Its development must then be confined to men who are believers in it, and emancipated from very tie or connection with any principle of an opposite nature.”
(2.3) On the question of principle and its corollary positive action, we note Nkrumah when he says “at this point, I shall give further elucidation to the concept of positive action. I have already pointed out that positive action is related to a mass party and the political education, unity of purpose and action which it can impart to a people. Positive action as a quantity could therefore vary with people, their degree of consciousness, and their degree of mobilization for progress. The people are however not conscious or mobilized apart from the consciousness and mobilization individuals. pa may therefore be said to be the sum of the positive action, Pa, contained in individuals associated with a mass organization. Therefore, pa=Pa1.+ Pa2 +. . . + Pak-i +Pak = ?Pa i... k ” (2.4) Nkrumah continued that “an increase of positive action over negative action must be obtained by the introduction of a dialectical moment. This dialectical moment can be introduced by joining together the forces of positive action in one mass political party, educating the people, … analyzing their experience and giving them a greater awareness of this experience through … implements of party organization. …The policies of development then need to accord with the theses of philosophical materialism, and they must be subject to philosophical consciencism, showing a sensitivity to the material conditions and experience of the people.” (2.5) Nkrumah had earlier said “this was why the Convention People's Party of Ghana developed from an early stage its education wing….In this way, the people received constant political education, their self-awareness was increased and such a self-image was formed….”
References: (1) See ghanaweb article of 7 April 2008 titled “I am not in bed with govt-Baako” and 23 May 2008 titled “Kweku Baako ‘Dumps’ Ndoum”. (2) See Motto page of Towards Colonial Freedom (2.1-2.2) (3) See Consciencism, chapter 5 especially (2.3-.2.4). (4) See Consciencism, chapter 4 especially (2.5).
Note on the Writer Kwami Agbodza is the former CPP UK & Ireland Regional Secretary, the CPP Ablekuma-Central Constituency Chairman and the Greater Accra Regional CPP Education Secretary. He is a Nkrumaist and a Professor of Consciencism. Charles Heymann trained him in the philosophy and ideology of Nkrumaism (Consciencism). He remains a card-carrying member of the CPP.
Email: kwami_agbodza@yahoo.co.uk
