By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
I have always strained exceptionally hard not to publicly engage the President’s so-called Communications Director, because most of the time Mr. Koku Anyidoho has absolutely no idea and/or appreciation of what he is talking about. Which was why not very not long ago, I even suggested that President Mills would do himself and the rest of us great good to consider hiring an Ewe-to-English interpreter for Mr. Anyidoho.
Anyway, what inspired, or rather provoked, this write-up, as many Ghanaians prefer to describe this brief article, was his widely reported address to the 3rd General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church at Ho, during which President Mills “stated emphatically that he would ensure a peaceful general election in 2012 and a handover of power peacefully in 2017” (See “Koku: NPP Should Not Take President Mills’ Leniency for Granted” MyJoyOnline.com 8/19/11).
If, indeed, as the foregoing quote clearly suggests, Mr. Rawlings’ former lieutenant is planning to strong-arm Ghanaian voters into securing him an easy election victory in 2012, then Tarkwa-Atta had better think twice about such shenanigan. For, far gone are the days when Ghanaians sat duck while a handful of Ak-47-toting goons fired a few bullets into the air and had defenseless citizens scurrying for safety under their bedsteads, while these half-educated rascals took over the entire national administrative machinery.
Come 2012, let it be drummed loud and clear into the evidently stolid ears of the leading National Democratic Congress’ operatives that even the entire personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces will not be enough to preempt a democratic changing of the proverbial guard next year. And if these certified bullies think their determination to hang onto power trumps the will and common good of our beloved Republic, by all means, let them repeat the “Rawlingsean” nonsensicalities of the late 1970s and early 1980s and see whether the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia would not pale into the insignificance of a division three soccer league.
The fact of the matter is that President Mills would be far better off getting used to the near-certain idea of him being voted out as the first one-term President of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. He would also do well to save his desultory communications director, who has yet to master the rubrics of a decent presidential address, the creeping lunacy of stupidly attempting to reverse the irrevocable democratic will of Ghanaian voters.
And just what does this serial and pathological liar mean by his insufferably spurious claim that “the appreciation coming from the majority of Ghanaians on the performance of the NDC government in just two-and-half years is evident enough for President Mills to [self-deceptively] say [that] he would hand over [power] in 2017”? Is this Mr. Anyidoho’s new-found mode of insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians both resident at home and abroad? And just upon what statistical basis does Mr. Anyidoho arrive at his patently absurd descriptive of the “majority of Ghanaians” rapturously appreciating the supposedly sterling and epic performance of the insult-oriented Mills-Mahama government?
Well, not many of us can attest to the supposed leniency of President Mills. What we can unreservedly attest to is the fact of Tarkwa-Atta being an incredibly incompetent administrator and a roguish conniver of abject mischief and civic pandemonium. And if Mr. Anyidoho believes the foregoing, indeed, does constitute the hallmark of a progressive president, then we can only feel sorry for him.
Still, it would be a deadly mistake for the likes of Mr. Anyidoho to facilely presume to unduly exploit a mild-mannered and long-suffering Ghanaian citizenry.
*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 Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of 22 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net. ###
