The politics of insults, hypocrisy and deception (3)

Following that dim-witted exhibition of power drunkenness by Nii Lantey Vanderpuije during last year’s ‘Oguaa Fetu Afahye’ in Cape-Coast, characters as Prince Derrick Adjei (an alleged gay right activist) and Kakra Asomoah made futile attempts on Asempa FM on Monday afternoons, to rather pitch Fantes against the NPP.

Kakra Asamoah said P.C.Appiah-Ofori has ‘insulted’ the chief of Cape Coast so in his thinking, NPP must sack him (Appiah-Ofori) from the party in order to pacify the people of the Central Region.

However, since Stan Dogbe heaped massive insults on Togbe Gabusu, i have not heard a single soul from the NDC, including Atta-Mills who has been preaching against insults, coming out to condemn him. Are these not the same people who were up-in-arms against P.C. Appiah-Ofori when he made some comments about the Oguaa-Hene?

The volta region has been touted as the ‘world bank’ of the NDC.Therefore, the merciless beatings of their own party foot-soldiers and wicked insults being inflicted on eminent chiefs, of the region, for demonstrating and expressing disappointmet, respectively, over lack of developmental projects after being promised milk and honey in 2008, is tantamount to an arsonist setting fire to his own multi-billion dollar property. We non-Akatamansonians are keenly observing with extreme excitement!!

We were all in this country when some prominent members within the NDC accused Otumfuo (the over-lord of Asante Kingdom) of associating with drug-barons. The Asante Hene was constantly insulted by some block-heads within the NDC to the point where Ashantis felt scandalized and decided to rally behind their king. This resulted in some people of Ashanti declaring Kwesi Pratt and his cohorts, persona-non-gratta in Ashanti territory. And when that happened, this same group of hypocrites who rallied behind the chief of Cape-Coast and said a chief cannot be rebuked, were the same people constantly insulting the Otumfuo from the studios of Radio Gold.

Kwesi Pratt, the greatest apologist of Mills-Mahama administration, says institution of chieftaincy is absolutely useless in modern day Ghana and it must therefore be scraped. And in all these, Kakra Asamoah decided to engage in a pure art of selective amnesia and was constantly at the throat of P.C Appiah-Ofori.

According to facts available, the chief and his elders, on behalf of Oguaa traditional council, received some gift items from Nana Addo a day before the climax of the festival. And it was at this function that an official invitation was extended to Nana Addo to attend the durbar.

However, this very same chief comes out to say that he did not see Nana Addo at the gathering after he (Nana Addo) had been mortified by an adult delinquent Nii Lantey. It was that behaviour of the chief that ‘incensed’ P.C Appiah-Ofori to come out with the condemnation. And who says a chief cannot be condemn if he is found to have misconducted himself? Don’t we even condemn the president who is the first gentleman of the land, over certain issues?

In months preceding the 2008 general elections, I had the occasion to personally put into writing; an effective Action Plan to counteract the massive negative media blitz against the NPP.I personally presented that document to the office of then General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, on Monday, 10th March, 2008. But as it has become the well-known characteristic of the NPP, the document was probably thrown into a dust-bin while the party hierarchy continued engaging in endless meetings behind closed-doors.

Now, after Nana Addo wining such a convincing mandate from the rank-a-file to lead the party into the 2012 general elections, I was hoping to see every single supporter of the NPP rising up and calling the bluff of these stupid and wee-smoking NDC vagabonds when they dare peddle falsehood about Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

For example, in the heat of the 2008 campaign, the entire communication machinery of the NPP was virtually left on the shoulders of people like Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong and Hon. Nana Akomeah.These few individuals were those who had to make early morning and late-night Radio/TV appearances to speak for the patry.Most of the NPP-MPs simply went to sleep after they had secured their seats in parliament in the first round of voting. The NPP has often been described as coup-makers because of events of 1966.But the fact is, most of those who overthrew the constitutional government of president Limann in 1981 are still present in the current Mills-Mahama administration while none of 1966 coup makers can be found in the current NPP.And yet, members of NPP continue to sit aloof to be constantly referred to as “coup makers” and plain “terrorists”.

An article chronicling some legacies of Nkrumah written by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko (the STX lone-ranger) and published on page 3 of 24th September, 2010, edition of the Ghanaian chronicle newspaper, I was amazed to learn Ghana was actually pulled out of a single regional currency in 1957.we also pulled out of West African court of appeal and West African Airways Corporation. Gabby again, cited the 1964 referendum on one-party state where over 99.91% of Ghanaians were said to have voted ‘yes’ for a one-party state with a shocking series of zero ‘no’ votes being registered even in opposition strongholds. Now, who in the current clique of this NDC vampires would have accepted such an election result if it were to happen today? Yet,the knowledgeable people within the NPP who have such information about Kwame Nkrumah, continue sitting aloof and allow these intellectually-constipated bigots within the NDC , after smoking all kinds of leaves and drinking all kinds of concoctions, to continuously brand the NPP as a terrorist organization.

The NDC, after Nana Addo’s emphatic win in the flagbearership race towards 2012, started their stupid allegations against him and these over 98 NPP-MPs who supported Nana’s bid for the flagbearership contest are nowhere to be found. Even in the case of STX, it had to take the perseverance of Gabby (the STX lone ranger) to actually bring the issue into the public domain even-though the NPP party has over 100 MPs in parliament where the issue was being discussed. Today, some NPP gurus, including MPs are bold enough to moan about the likes of Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Tony Aiddo, Kwesi Pratt and so on, for lying to bring the NDC into power. And my worry with such grumble is; were the mouths of the communicators of the NPP sealed at the time?

Now, when Kufuor chose to live in his house because he found the accommodation at the Old Slave Castle unsuitable, people like Kwesi Pratt (an avowed NDC apologists), Samuel Okudzato-Ablakwa, Tony Aidoo and Raymond Archer were able to tell the people of Ghana that Kufuor had used GH¢300,000(¢3billion) to renovate his house. The actual figure used by the state rather turned out to be a paltry sum of GH¢4000(¢ 40million) which was later repaid to the state by a private citizen.

But today, the house of the mother of an ex-president, who is not captured in our constitution, has been renovated with state funds. Now, these same apostles of probity and accountability who were jumping through the roof with rage over what was done at Kufuor’s house are today saying Nana Konadu’s mother’s house is a security installation and therefore matters about it cannot be discussed in public(James Agyenim-Boateng,etv-Ghana newspaper review,29/9/10). And the NPP has gone dumb over this?!!!!

These pseudo-socialists took power in 1981 when the size of the economy was $1billion and they ‘grew’ it to the figure of $3.94 over a period of nearly 20years while the NPP grew it to a nominal figure of $16.7 within a period of just 7years!!!Ghana’s domestic debt to GDP ratio under the NPP in June 2008 was 26.4% while that under the NDC as at December, 2000 stood at 28.8%. That of external debt to GDP ratio under NPP in June, 2008 was 22% and that of the NDC by December, 2000 was 189%.Ghana’s debt under the NDC therefore become unsustainable, hence, the declaration of HIPC by the Kufuor administration in 2001. Income per capita under the 8year rule of the NPP as at June, 2008 was at $615 while that under 20years of P (NDC) was $307 by December, 2000.As a matter of fact, Ghana under the 8year rule of NPP was much better off than the 20years of the P (NDC) in all aspects.

Indeed, if Atta-Mills, who had absolutely no history of political activism in our nation’s history, is a president today, then how dare anybody question the competence of Nana Addo to aspire to the presidency?

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com