This Cancerous Ghanaian Obsession with Political Personalities: -- A Rejoinder

It is with great restraint that I am withholding my urge to conclude that when Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe captioned his Article “This Cancerous Ghanaian Obsession with Political Personalities” he only intended to attract massive readership to yet another round of his long-running campaign to lampoon the former President Kufuor, and contemptuously denounce Alan Kyeremateng and most shockingly, the Asantehene and to lambaste the former President J.J. Rawlings. I am driven to hold this view because, in essence, the Professor, in his Article, only wallowed far and wide in a swamp of fault-finding for Akuffo Addo’s loss in the last Presidential Election, and exposed his own hypocrisy in worshipping Danquah, while accusing others for their obsession with Dr. Nkrumah. He did little to pin Ghanaians down with this trait of Personality worshipping that he called our attention to in the title of his Article.

The Professor conveniently dwelled solely on the supporters of Nkrumah who are seeking to honor him with a National Holiday and conveniently left out his own obsession with J. B. Danquah. He did not even acknowledge any endemic cultural inclinations that sway us towards that proclivity. But only the dishonest would deny that Ghanaians, in general, have a cultural precept of excessive reverence for Elders and leaders, especially, those we relate to, or have other reasons to like, than a record of good deeds or character. That cultural attribute of excessive reverence, which I have heard many refer to also as needless subservience, easily leads us into what the Professor would call “obsession with Political Personalities”. Most of us Ghanaians, regardless of our Political leanings, are culpable of that trait. But that is not what the Professor applied his faculties on to prove in the Article. What I observed in the Professor’s piece was nothing more than another session of his unbridled assault on his Political foes, ranging from the Right (the NPP’s Kufuor et al.) to the Left (the President Mill’s et al), including all he considers as having denied his Akuffo Addo the chance to become the next President.

By the time I came to the end of his Article, only one thing, and one thing only, stood out glaringly as being the core of his tirade, and that is: his extended mourning of Akuffo Addo’s loss in the last Presidential election. It is also with this backround that I find a vital reason to wonder if the Professor has not been bellowing a rather clandestine loathing of his Ashanti “cousins”, faulting them with overshadowing the prominence of his Akyem family for far too long.

I do ponder a bit also over his use of the plural of the first person pronoun, “We”, when he intended to assert a point in the Article, but failed to reveal who else was in cahoot with him on this. Did he want us to be forewarned that he has some formidable group behind him and that he was not alone in his campaign of reckless villification? Who are included in that “We”? He and who? Whose interest is he serving besides his own in that Article, or the vicious pursuit of his enemies? The Professor had in other writings, without equivocation, discredited Alan Kyeremateng, claimed an exaggerated credit for his Political idol, J. B. Danquah, to whom alone he (his Lordship, he calls himself) has accorded the title of the “Doyen of Ghana’s Democracy”, attempted to justify the Kulungugu Bombing that sadly killed innocent people, including a school girl, and eviscerated everything that hold substance for Nkrumah’s good reputation, but never faulted anything that an Akyem Politician could have ever done wrong, like the misguided William Ofori Atta’s split of the PFP Party, the result of which led to the Election of Dr. Liman’s PNP to power.

Here, Okoampa-Ahoofe stands wrapped in an Academic garb of a PhD., attempting to instruct us in the History of Ghana, part of which some of us even lived through, with his rather double-vision, blurry synopsis—a most purposeful disinformation, as if we are all part of his rather unfortunate students in the Fiction Writing class he teaches at the Nassau Community College! He could even have the audacity to claim others were doctoring Historical facts to suit their purposes, while ignoring his own plethora of deliberate inaccuracies in our History. How sanctimonious!

Okoampa-Ahoofe’s Article, supposed to denounce the Ghanaian’s proclivity to worship Political Personalities, failed to point to his own lifelong, cultish adoration of J. B. Danquah. This Professor, faulting us all for our human frailty of over-adoring a leader has never wasted a breath in touting a lengthy list of Political achievements by numerous Akyem folks, all of whom he managed to round up in his nest of kin and family. Okoampa-Ahoofe could not understand why or accept the fact that anyone, especially in Ashanti, would even consider to contest against his favorite Akuffo Addo for the flag bearer position in the NPP, leading to the Presidential Elections.

He claimed Akuffo Addo deserved the Presidency mostly because of the past contributions, (some of which are products of his fertile fictional imagination), of his Akyem family members (Not even the whole Akyem populace). The Professor, who liberally likens Nkrumah to Hitler, does not realize his insidious, grossly porous claims and intentional misinformation are more like the Nazi Propaganda of Goebbel’s, leading to and during the Hitler-led Genocidal World War II than Nkrumah’s actions. His continued ridiculing of Alan Kyeremateng and blaming former President Kufuor and the Otumfour for not supporting Akuffo Addo smacks of nothing less than his own obsession to his “Uncle” and fellow Akyem, Akuffo Addo.

Amidst his silly blame game for attributing the cause of his “Uncle’s” loss, this Professor has managed, singlehandedly, to derail much of the efforts of those who really care to rejuvenate the NPP for the next Presidential Elections. All this he has been doing without acknowledging the simple fact that there could have been some genuine concern of the populace’s with regard to the fitness of Akuffo Addo for the Presidency. To him, Akuffo Addo is an infallible, unblemished model of a Presidential candidate that only fools would not want to have for a President. Sir, I strongly beg to differ!

I wish the disillusioned Professor, would rather seek to secure some entrenchment in his tenure and pursue some Emeritus status in his line of work at the Community College, than hope to be in some cozy position of an Akuffo Addo’s Administration. Because, the latter’s chances of becoming the President of Ghana, are, daily, becoming just too remote with the ill-advised relentless bludgeoning by the Professor and his cohorts of the many that could have helped most.

It is worth reminding the Professor that his continued “dis-ing” of the prime Ashanti NPP leaders is only further alienating those that could have given Akuffo Addo the votes he so badly needs. Akuffo Addo can never win a Presidential Election in Ghana without the Ashanti votes. Period! So, if the Professor were any wiser he would drop his arrogant, eye-poking insults at President Kufuor, Alan and the Otumfuor. The Akan adage: “You do not bite the hand that feeds you”, bears much veracity in this context; and so far as contemporary Politics go, Akuffo Addo would need the hands of Ashantis to satiate his hunger for votes. The scenario becomes grimmer when one considers that the Professor has already demonized all supporters of NDC, whether marginal or core, the largest other Political Party in the country, thrashed the CPP with vitriolic invectives and almost hypnotic abhorrent castigation of Nkrumahists, and deeply insulted the Gas and other Ethnic groups who may not readily forgive him and vote for his favorite.

Inasmuch as I would personally prefer a National Holiday for all our collective heroes of Freedom, from heroes like Mensah Sarbah, Sgt. Adjetey to the “Big Six”, I think discussing the issue does not need insults and mendacious modification of Historic facts to justify or deny anyone the honor.

If our Constitution legally arrogates the right to the Executive to establish Holidays and the Public does not like that process, we need to get the Parliament to amend that section of the Constitution. We should not bicker about who deserves such an honor based on pure Partisan sentiments. Neither need we insult our way into stopping the President from exercising his prerogative. If, on the other hand, our Constitution requires a consensus in Parliament or Consultations with, say, the Council of State, to promulgate a Statutory Holiday, the President is best advised to follow the law to the letter and not leave any room for unwarranted speculations and denigration of our National leaders, both that were in Power and the Opposition. Worshipping Political Personalities may be inappropriate but I do seriously doubt a little honor to our Ancestors for their sacrifice and selflessness equates “obsession with Political Personalities”. The seeming contest of which Political Party’s past idol did more for the Nation is disruptive of the process of building the Nation. If the outcome of such a contest is what the establishment of our Holidays is based upon, then let the Public chip in to help settle the issue but only with the full, unadulterated facts of each hero’s specific provable contribution on record at our disposal.

This, rather, circuitous route in proving eligibility for honoring an ancestral Citizen with a Holiday, might demand retrieving Colonial records from the Royal Archives of the UK’s Colonial Administration and possibly the CIA’s, in the U.S.A. I wonder if the majority of Ghanaians could wait that long and how much resource it would take us to settle that. That would not be my choice, and I hope, not that of most Ghanaians either.

If the question of accuracy of dates is relevant in instituting the Holidays, let us address that and settle for a right date for that Holiday. There is no need for disparaging the late President, or anyone else deserving such an honor, for not knowing exactly which date he or she was born, given that majority of Ghanaians of their time suffered the same fate, not having anyone literate around to write down their exact date of birth. I do not think any harm would visit upon us for using whatever date the particular honoree lived by as his or her date of birth.

We should not forget that even the exact date for the Lord Jesus Christ has been in contention for ages among Christendom but that has not stopped the Celebration of Christmas or caused the disintegration of the Christian philosophy and the collective membership of that Religion.

Why make a mountain out of an anthill? We do not need to fight over this. Political maturity comes with having civil discourse of relevant issues without resorting to disparaging personal attacks, dehumanizing ethnic insults or stereotyping. Let us show our maturity and wisdom. Our time for litigating this issue of honoring Dr. Nkrumah or Dr. Busia would be better spent for sharing ideas to combat poverty like the one that drove many to live in sordid and putrescent places like the Sodom and Gomorrah. These late leaders, I believe, would better appreciate us brainstorming for solutions to, say, our sanitary problems than fighting over the days to honor them with. And when such a Holiday has been successfully established, it might be more useful to set it aside for encouraging communal work around our neighborhoods, helping with the construction of a School Building, or cleaning the filthy gutters and such, than just idling about, playing Golf or throwing boisterous drinking parties all day long.

Long Live Ghana!!!

By: G. K. Berko.

Email: marjorpres@gmail.com

(The Author is a Ghanaian and a Realtor based in New Hampshire, USA).