The NPP and its impulsive politics

By Michael Jarvis Bokor

Folks, you must by now have read news reports about the fate of the Lebanese author, pilot, and strong NPP supporter going by the name Fadi Daboussi, who is said to have been arrested by the BNI for making "critical comments" about President Mahama in his book (59 Years to Nowhere... or something like that).

I read that news report and all the comments from diverse quarters, much of which damned President Mahama and the government for being unconstitutional in this case, acting to abuse the individual's freedom of expression.

I haven't reacted all this while because I haven't heard anything from oficialdom to confirm Daboussi's arrest and the reason(s) for that action against him. Speculation is rife that he was arrested by the NACOB for drug offences or that he has questions to answer for making utterances of interest to national security.

Nothing really specific to warrant our reaction except what has emerged now, coming from the NPP quarters to make me wonder a lot about the impulsive politics being done by that camp.

A group calling itself ‘Ghana Must Know Forum’ has surfaced and threatened to picket at the premises of the BNI tomorrow if Daboussi is not released. The convener of this group is the NPP's Hopeson Yaovi Adorye (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/…/Ghana-Must-Know-Forum-occupies-BN…).

Of course, the group is nothing but an NPP baby, formed impulsively to do what it has chosen to do. Its not different from the others that sprang up only when the NPP felt its interests threatened. Take the Let-My-Vote-Count Alliance and the "OccupyGhana" group as examples of such mushroom groups that emerged from the camp of the NPP to do its bidding and you should see this Hopeson Adorye's amorphous one too as an NPP surrogate.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with such surrogates spring up to fight the cause that the NPP can't go all out to fight but will want to use them to pursue.

It is not as if we support the arrest of anybody like Daboussi. Far from it. The truth is that if Daboussi has been arrested for being just "critical" of President Mahama in his professional work as a writer, we will definitely condemn the BNI or whoever is behind his arrest. But we want to wait for the official statement before taking a stand.

In any case, if Daboussi's offence is that he is "critical" of President Mahama, then, some of us will be shot on sight if Akufo-Addo becomes Ghana's president and we enter the country. We have been at his throat with what damages his political interests and he knows how it hurts.

Until the situation is clarified, it will be difficult to know what is at stake, which explains why what Hopeson Adorye has begun doing is impulsive. The NPP should not hide behind such amorphous groups to seek public sympathy or support. Its kind of rogue politics in this guise is sickening.

The truth is that no such group is known., meaning that it sprang up just a day after Daboussi's arrest. HGow could members be so quickly mobilised for it to do what6 Adorye has planned? These members are all known NPP activists, which makes this ‘Ghana Must Know Forum’ a niggling fad.

Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaa!!