I think it is safe to assume that the worst natural disaster to ever happen to Ghana and Ghanaians is the birth and creation of Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Things happen as accidents of history, and, we are as Ghanaians today paying the price for it. Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP were imposed on us. Like an evil that beget another. The United Gold Coast Convention begot, the United Party (UP), which in turn begot the Progress Party and then to the NPP. Since then this country has never known peace and progress.
Since we ushered in the Fourth Republic in 1992, we have had the benefit as a people to be ruled by both the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by former President Jerry John Rawlings and the NPP by John Agyekum Kufuor. History and posterity would come to the conclusion that their forebears did them disservice by allowing John Kufuor two terms of four years each.
Like every evil that comes bearing gift, in his first term between 2001-2004, he stated off very well, redeemed the image of Ghana as a country which believed in the rule of law and the freedom of the press by repealing the criminal libel law to a darling of investors and a country visited by powerful world leaders across the globe.
Our ever forging and hungry press got carried away and christened him ‘the gentle giant’. In his second term between 2005-2009, he became possessed by the Sin and Bad evil spirit of his predecessors. He was overtaken by greed, avarice and the incarceration of his political opponents.
He left this country badly wounded in January 2009, with the country’s rating and credibility in the gutters. I cannot in the life of me comprehend why anytime this nihilists and country wreckers get the opportunity to serve the good people of this country, which many people see as a calling to duty, there see it as an opportunity to line their pockets and those of their cronies.
When ex-President Rawlings had the opportunity to redeem this country in a bloodless coup, he put his life at the disposal of the people; he identified himself with them for all the years he was in office and left office with his head high.
His integrity was intact. All the attempt and investigations to link him to stolen money saw Abdul Malik Kweku Baako and Gabby Asare Okyere Darko, in delusion, barking at themselves like a dog at its image in a mirror; all the world tours were parts of the circus that saw them returning to this country with their tails in-between their legs.
The NPP have always made it an agenda to plunder the scarce natural resource which is a gift of nature to all of us, yet when they leave office they reward themselves for a job well-done or not done.
Twice, Nana Akufo-Addo was elected to lead the NPP as their flagbearer, first in 2007 for the 2008 elections and secondly in 2010 for this year’s elections.
He has never hidden his agenda to lead this country by any means necessary, as in his own words ‘all-die-be-die’. But really should this country burn for Nana Addo to become President?
The short man has never risen and thought beyond his height, his judgment and pronouncement comes across as someone who is shortsighted and blinded by the insanity of being a President at all cost.
He sometimes sounds and looks like a rejected sacrifice to the god’s. Ruling this country is a serious business and must not be left in the hands of people whose interest it is to continue to entrench their hegemony.
The NPP had through its belly spewed people like Anthony Karbo, its National Youth Organiser, who has taken or rather imposed on himself a title of a militant, and there comes Kennedy Agyepong, a dishonorable Member of Parliament for Asene North, who is fast establishing a reputation for opening his mouth too wide and dragging the name of the August House into disrepute.
It is the likes of Kennedy Agyepong for whom my mother will say ‘money enter wrong hands’. This man who with his father started looking for money by registering people for US Visa Lottery thinks and talks like he is the richest man to ever walk the surface of the world. Woe betides you if he has ever given you a dime. The next time there is a disagreement between the two of you, he will mount the rooftop to say he has fed you and your family before.
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John, the General Secretary of the party, is also a disaster of general secretary. Anytime his name is mentioned on air that he is going to be interviewed or his opinion sought on a subject, I quickly tune off because he does not add anything to my store of knowledge; rather I feel ashamed to be a Ghanaian, to have such an individual as one of the leaders of this great country leaves much to be desired.
The likes of Dr Kwame Nkrumah would be turning in their graves. How would even foreigners feel when they hear this man talk?
Jake Okanta Obetsebi Lamptey, the National Chairman had never made any coherent statement since he was elected as the chair of that party. Where are the men in the party? To have allowed this man to lead them leaves much to be desired.
Never in the history of this country has a President the benefit of both international and local goodwill. Money flowed in his own words ‘waa-waa’. Our debt since independence were cancelled, traders decided in the spirit of building a nation reduced their prices, yet what did we get in return, rotten eggs splashed in our faces.
President Kufuor through the instrumentality of Kwadwo ‘ahofe’ Mpianim, the Chief of Staff, who was the defacto Prime Minister, cleverly cleaned his office when the NPP lost the 2008 elections, without a trace of even one document.
As with everything, when he was called and asked about the documents pertaining to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) funds which were sent to his office from the Ministry of Finance, he treaded on the path of technicalities.
While Kwadwo Mpianim ran his mouth accusing himself of being an evil genius, many knew his foolery knew no bounds. His accusations subtly of himself were some disjointed hybrid of truth and falsehood.
As for being evil, yes he is so very evil. But as for being a genius, he was pregnant with hubris. I don’t know about you, but I have lost my ability to be surprised by the things that come out of the mouths of the functionaries of the NPP.
Never gain in the history and life of this country must we allow this nation wreckers to ascend to the highest office of the land.
It is my prayer and fervent hope that President John Evans Atta Mills would bury Nana Akufo-Addo in this year’s elections for the last time and forever. I hope to be invited to the funeral.
*By Abdul Razak Bawa*
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