By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Feb. 27, 2016
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
He says that he was elected by a pool of more than 5,000 congressional delegates in Tamale some two years ago; and so maybe somebody ought to remind Chairman Paul A. Afoko that the man whose presidential campaign he has been studiously and systematically undermining was elected, the third time around, by more than 100,000 New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential primary delegates across the country. Simply put, the private and personal interests of the indefinitely suspended NPP National Chairman and his sponsors, notably Messrs. Richard W. Anane and Kwadwo Mpiani, cannot logically be envisaged to supersede or trump those of the party’s membership at large (See “I’m Battle Ready to Uphold NPP Constitution – Afoko” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/24/16).
Indeed, nowhere does his crass arrogance show through his lurid disingenuousness than his pat and cavalier suggestion that, somehow, the members of the standing Judicial and Disciplinary committees of the New Patriotic Party did not know what they were doing, vis-à-vis their understanding and interpretation of the party’s Constitution, when they voted to indefinitely suspend him. Needless to say, were Mr. Afoko a member of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC), the suspended NPP National Chairman would since long have been summarily expelled from that party. It is rather risible for the besieged former NPP Chairman to accuse the members of all the four most important organs of the party of seeking to either “de-legitimize” or “illegitimize” him.
The fact of the matter is that Mr. Afoko was the veritable architect of his own debacle. He may well decide to ineffectually hang on to the nominal title of “Suspended NPP National Chairman,” but he surefire as hell can mark it on the wall – be it Facebook or concrete house wall – that Mr. Afoko and the cynical and destructive likes of Messrs. Agyepong and Crabbe will never be allowed back at party headquarters to conclusively prosecute their anti-Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia agenda. True, Messrs. Afoko, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong and Sammy Crabbe were elected by the Tamale congressional delegates to facilitate the return of the Mighty Pachyderm into the Flagstaff House, where it unarguably belongs, looking at the dismal and morally indefensible and downright criminal performance of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress.
The relevant question to ask here is the following: Have the three musketeers lived up to the expectations of the people who elected them? And, of course, the most logical answer is a resounding “No!” And, also, by what criteria were these three “hatchet men,” at least in the reliable opinion of those who have been studiously watching from Ground Zero, adjudged to have woefully underperformed or flagrantly conducted themselves contrary to the greater interests of the party at large? And here, too, the most logical answer is as follows: By the well-measured judgment of the legitimately elected and appointed members of the four highest organs of the party, namely, the National Executive Council, the National Executive Committee, the Judicial Committee and the Disciplinary Committee.
Mr. Afoko and his embattled associates and sponsors will have to prove in court beyond any shadow of doubt that, indeed, they are the most intelligent and enlightened interpreters of the party’s Constitution. And also that the four above-listed organs of the New Patriotic Party and their several memberships lack the legitimacy and integrity to assess and evaluate their performance, as well as determine what their relationship with the New Patriotic Party ought to be. In the meantime, dear reader, let’s keep our fingers crossed.
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