By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
The formation of a new splinter group out of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) should come as absolutely pedestrian to those of us avid students and keen observers of the Fourth-Republican Ghanaian political landscape. In the wake of the most recent New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential primary, after all, did not a new political party spring up in Kumasi called the New Vision Party (NVP)?
Like their NDC counterparts, the architects of the NVP claimed to be disgruntled by the prevailing culture in the NPP. A prominent but unsuccessful presidential candidate of the latter party was even rumored to be associated with the so-called New Vision Party. Naturally, nervous party stalwarts began calling for the concerned candidate to come out and publicly declare his relationship, or the lack thereof, to the NVP. And to the great relief of many, Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen would emerge several days later to vehemently deny having any association, whatsoever, with the New Vision Party.
Interestingly, like the NVP, the NDC splinter group also claims its support base to be composed of backers of prominent party members who are utterly dissatisfied with the conduct of party affairs. Still, what ought to concern members and executives of the New Patriotic Party is the main reason given by the founders of the new NDC splinter group, the so-called Real Democratic Patriots’ Party (RDPP) for appropriating the term “Patriots” in the chosen name of their patently mischievous enterprise.
According to Mr. Raphael Cubagee, the National Coordinator of the RDPP, “even though our party is an offshoot of the NDC, its doors are open to members of the NPP who feel disappointed by their leaders, hence the name ‘Real Democratic Patriots’ Party.’” In short, should Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, of the New Patriotic Party, decide to initiate legal action against the founders of the so-called Real Democratic Patriots Party, the prime forensic evidence inescapably lies in the foregoing quote. And it is traditionally called POACHING. In other words, if Mr. Cubagee and his ilk, or RDPP associates, have an axe to grind with both the Atta-Mills government and the National Democratic Congress, it is squarely to the latter group of adversaries that the RDPP ought to be directing both their grievances and their ideological agenda.
Needless to say, it is rather insulting to the intelligence for Mr. Cubagee to facilely presume to instruct NPP stalwarts and other party members who may feel disgruntled by the conduct of affairs therein to pitch tent with the so-called Real Democratic Patriots Party, more so when the RDPP clearly states its unmistakable objective to be one of reifying – or reviving – something called “Ideological Rawlingsism.”
Indeed, any Ghanaian old enough to appreciate what Mr. Jeremiah John Rawlings has stood for in our beloved country’s political culture, both in rhetoric and deed, cannot mistake either the NDC and/or the RDPP for an authentic democratic enterprise. Needless to say, the fact of the NDC/RDPP being composed of incurably violent elements of Ghanaian society was clearly brought to the fore by the RDPP’s National Coordinator himself, when Mr. Cubagee declined to reveal the names of the NDC bigwigs behind the formation of the RDPP, on the all-too-predictable grounds that “it is too early to mention names because those people would [become] targets of the NDC’s negative and vicious propaganda and violence” (See “Cracks in NDC, New Party Formed” Daily Guide/Ghanaweb.com 9/11/10).
It is also significant to underscore the fact that Mr. Cubagee and his associates have been active members of the NDC in its various manifestations and ideological minions of Messrs. Rawlings and Atta-Mills, among a legion of others, knowing fully well that the NDC harbors violent and other dangerous anti-social tendencies. And here, the logical question becomes: Precisely when did Mr. Cubagee and his fellow travelers of the so-called Real Democratic Patriots Party come to the grim realization that the NDC, after all, is not to be trusted with the democratic sociopolitical stewardship of our beloved country?
What I am clearly driving at here is that the sole aim and objective of founding the so-called Real Democratic Patriots Party, on the part of Mr. Cubagee and his associates, cannot be predicated on any other agenda than sheer expediency and outright opportunism. Already, the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians are amply aware of Chairman Rawlings’ devious and indefatigable scheming to have his wife become the next president of Ghana. And to be certain, such move would be quite laudable, indeed, were Lady MacBeth’s hands not so “incarnadine” with the blood of Ghanaian Supreme Court judges and also that of a slew of other unsuspecting and innocent Ghanaians.
But even more importantly must be pointed out the fact that Ghana’s Fourth Republic is not about “Conjugal Presidency” but rather, one that is roundly predicated on merit and integrity. And on both counts, Mrs. Rawlings is clearly “Absent Without Leave” or AWOL!
At any rate, it was, indeed, the historical precedent set by the future Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah’s unforgettable blindsiding of the Danquah-led and seminal United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) that prompted me to write this article. Just like the RDPP, or rather the vice-versa, in breaking away from the UGCC, Mr. Nkrumah cleverly and deviously plagiarized the name “Convention” of the UGCC and prefixed the latter to his so-called People’s Party and hence the “Convention People’s Party.” In the latter instance, rather than vigorously challenge the cold-calculating political opportunist in court, the more urbane and erudite executives of the UGCC decided to frivolously quibble with the semiotic pleonasm or tautological meaning of the CPP; and, needless to say, it was largely this tactical gimmickry that guaranteed that the rabble-rousing African Show Boy, and not the foresighted, astute and scholarly Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics, would spearhead our beloved nation into sovereign governance.
In essence, the so-called Real Democratic Patriots’ Party (RDPP) may well have splintered from the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC) but, in practical terms, it is the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that ought to be on the lookout against electioneering mischief. Once again, if I were Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, I would be looking towards the possibility of a legal fisticuff or battle.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and author of 21 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
