Why has it taken Kennedy Agyapong so long?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Friday, June 8, 2012

After running around, spending so much money to support the activities of the NPP, and deceiving himself that he is in the thick of affairs, the Assin North NPP MP (Kennedy Ohene Agyapong) has now realized that he is in a bottomless pit. He is not in any reckoning, after all. He is wailing and gnashing his teeth, complaining bitterly that the “NPP is not worth dying for; they abandoned me.”

Why has it taken him so long to recognize this fact?

Being downgraded from a strongman to a cry baby, he is pitiable. Here he goes in his interview with the Adom FM: “... even the people I call my friends in the party, people I fed and took care of have also abandoned me in difficult times” (Ghanaweb, June 8, 2012).

He also said the comments [that are the cause of his arrest and prosecution] were in defence and support of the party, but that he had been hanged out to dry by the same party he has supported and financed.

Such self-conceited adult crybabies make Ghana politics intriguing, especially if we consider the quick rebuttal from the NPP leadership that the party had supported Kennedy Agyapong all along.

In that rebuttal, Nana Akomea reiterated that “the party was not worried and did not support the intemperate language used by Mr. Agyapong in his infamous war declaration, a position he said the party still maintained.”

The stage is set for more head-butting by these elephants on dry ground, not in the grass. We wait to see the dust storm and who will emerge unscathed when the dust settles. But more importantly, there are other considerations.

I am glad to know that the fog that has for long enveloped the brains of NPP zealots like Agyapong is gradually clearing for them to see things clearly. As they do so, they should begin to know where they stand in the workings of the NPP cabal, which wasn’t formed to do for Agyapong what he is crying for. Primarily, the NPP was formed by those who had common ethnic, political, and economic interests to fight for their betterment. That is why you will hear their supporters howling “We have taken our country back” (when Kufuor was in power) or “We will take our country back” (preparing for Election 2012).

I have said it several times already that the Danquah-Busia Club (DBC) that the late Attakorah-Gyimah of Nkukuo Buoho near Offinso and the university dons at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology nurtured into the NPP has its own purposes and agenda. What Agyapong is crying over is not part of that grand scheme.

The NPP serves best those who matter to the power wielders in it, most of whom have roots in Kumasi or other important areas in the birthplace of the Danquah-Busia Club. Don’t forget the support from the traditional rulers, taking a leaf from how the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and its “Mate Me Ho” vandalism was tacitly funded and supported by Manhyia, using Baffuor Osei Yaw Akoto as the conduit.

I knew what was happening in the early 1990s (especially 1992) when the DBC was being nurtured into a political party and can say without any fear of anything that the foundation of that political camp is evidently Kumasi-based. The stalwarts of this camp have always been those with the Asante connection.

For purposes of appearing to be broad-based, though, some elements from other regions and ethnic coloration were given some elbow room but one wonders what influence they could wield to change anything to make their party anything but Akan-based. The tagging of “Dombo” to the original Danquah-Busia accolade is just for mere political expediency. It is a mere ruse to massage the feelings of those our Northern Ghana compatriots. In reality, the needs-and-deeds of the NPP cabal are purely Danquah (Akim) and Busia (Brong-Ahafo/Asante).

Kennedy Agyapong needs to ask himself where he belongs. But for his money, which he splashes about to support the party’s activities and deceiving himself that it will earn him a place of honour in this close-knit political coterie, who in that party would have recognized him as a purveyor of influence in a political party that was formed solely to fight for its originators’ interests? How does Agyapong’s Assin village background feature in the scheme of those in that cabal called the NPP? He should have thought more deeply before staking his resources, political life, and now his very physical life on that gamble.

One may mention some “outsiders” such as Dr. Kofi Dsane Selby, to claim that there are other power brokers in the NPP who are not Asantes; but that will be a long shot. Anybody who knows the workings of this political cabal will cringe at that. Those like Dr. Dsane (a Fante from Cape Coast) have spent all their lifetime, living among and working with the originators of the NPP in Kumasi. In effect, they are considered as “one of us.” But the buck ends there because none has been given the chance to be elsewhere than the station chosen for them in the workings of the party. Good old B.J. da Rocha is already gone!!

One may cite the national chairmen of the party who are not Asantes (Peter Ala Adjetey, Odoi Sykes, Harona Esseku, Peter Mac Manu, and Obetsebi-Lamptey) to attempt debunking my stance. But these are people being used by the real power brokers in the party just as they are doing to Kennedy Agyapong and dumping him when least expected, which is what he is grumbling about now.

How did Harona Esseku end for daring to paint Kufuor black as the chief collector of kickbacks meant for the party, indicating that he (Esseku) was being deprived of a juicy part of the booty?

Some of us wonder why it should take Agyapong and the other NPP zealots being used by the real power brokers of that political cabal so long to see reality.

Now that they have begun coming face-to-face with that reality, they must have regretted rushing headlong into the den to be so used by that political cabal. Will they find better ways to make their contributions to the country’s development efforts without necessarily endangering themselves in the kind of self-destructive political game that Agyapong, for instance, has played with Fate?

He is being tried for opening his mouth too wide and baring his teeth wrongly. The NPP power brokers know the harm that his genocidal utterances can do to their political ambitions, especially knowing very well that Agyapong was inciting Asantes (the source of their party’s succor) against Ewes and Gas.

They won’t support anything of the sort that is instigated from the stronghold of their political cabal. Being the cunning politicians that they are, they have read deeper meanings into Agyapong’s utterances and won’t do anything to endanger their political interests. The NPP is largely Akan-based and fearing the negative fallouts of Agyapong’s threats against voters in the Ewe and Ga territories that they need direly to clinch victory at Election 2012, they have chosen to distance themselves from Agyapong. And why not?

But the question is: Why is it difficult for Agyapong to get this message that those he is accusing of letting him down are not on the same page with him? They know better how not to endanger their interests by supporting him (an outsider). Where is Agyapong’s root? Not an Assin village nowhere near the tap root of the NPP’s origin? It is a simple fact for Agyapong to accept, even if grudgingly, to save himself from more trouble.

The game being played by those who matter in that party is simple: Use whoever and whatever is available to achieve sectional interests and discard it thereafter. It is just like sucking the fruit dry of its juice and throwing away its seed. Those who don’t look before they leap will always end up where Agyapong is. He may cry all he wishes but will not be soothed in any way.

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