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The NPP and its higgledy-piggledy politics

Ghana Npp LogoNew Patriotic Party

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 Source: Bokor, Michael J. K.

Folks, the NPP’s politics of histrionics continues unabated. Having monitored it all this while, I can confidently say that it won’t change in any way to give us anything other than the flogging of God and injection of more vim into the “Concert Party” enactments.

This higgledy-piggledy politics won’t plant Akufo-Addo in power, contrary to the high hopes being nursed by him, for him, in himself and in the NPP’s followers.

Three main props of this high hope adventure stand out 6 for analysis; and we will point them out to prove that the NPP’s Akufo-Addo needs more than he has done so far to prevail at E#lect6ion 2016. We do so, not because we think he will succeed but because we see him as too faded and jaded for what he has chosen for himself. Here we go, then.

1. Internal crisis in the NPP Those in the NPP claiming that the party is more than united for Election 2016 can keep their heads buried in the hot sand till doomsday. The issues that have rocked the party to date aren’t gone with the wind; they are still relevant and will determine how the NPP positions itself between now and the day of the polls.

We want to cite only one for emphasis. That is the elbowing of Paul Afoko and his court action.

Regardless of whatever might have engendered the fracas, one major allegation against Afoko was that he was an NDC mole who took bribe from President Mahama to betray his own party.

None in the NPP has so far confirmed this allegation with any concrete proof, which indicates that the plot to oust him has more to it than that allegation alone could fetch. I have done my own checks and can boldly dismiss that allegation as the workings of mischievous minds bent on neutralizing Afoko on the basis of his alleged dislike for Akufo-Addo.

We know Afoko as one of the staunch financiers of the NPP (at least, before the dastardly action against him). As a businessman, he knows how to make money without compromising his political allegiance. He is known as an NPP diehard.

Thus, what on earth would make3 his detractors paint him black as an NDC mole in their midst to destroy their political aspirations to remove John Mahama from office (even more so when an electoral victory for the NPP under Afoko would be advantageous to him as such)?

Again, if Presideent6 Mahama knows that giving money to Afoko means invariably helping him to increase his financial support for the NPP to oil its campaign machine for his own doom at the polls, why would he bribe Afoko with money to do his bidding? Would Afoko’s financing of the NPP then be aimed at boosting the party’s chances to the dismay of Mahama or what?

To put it bluntly, let me reiterate the above question. Is President Mahama so unthinking as to give money to his political opponents to work against him at Election 2016? Why should he do so when he is bent on retaining the seat? To provide the ammunition to his opponents to shoot him down? How inconceivable and logically warped couldn’t that allegation against Afoko be, then? We dismiss it with maximum impunity.

2. Outcome of the Afoko suit And here is the bad news for Akufo-Addo and his team. Having monitored proceedings so far—viewed against the background of the subterfuge that catalyzed the elbowing of Afoko from office and the arguments coming from him in court about the unconstitutionality of their action against him—I am more than convinced that the Human Rights Court will rule in favour of Afoko. He will win the case to be reinstated as the National Chairman of the NPP.

That is where the real trouble for Akufo-Addo will be poised. Fred Oware’s desire to contest the Chairmanship position as published yesterday might be an inkling, but it is mere spittle. The truth is that Afoko will win his bid. Let Akufo-Addo and his followers be prepared for the shock.

I hope the witting anti-Afoko elements will gear up for this “tsunami”. If they don’t, I can only imagine how they will squirm, huff and puff for nothing when the reality dawns. They may appeal against the verdict, but it will not change anything.

Afoko will win the suit to prove to them that rogue politics doesn’t bode well for the kind of democracy that the country is practising. I am sticking my neck out and will stand resolute as such. Meantime, the John Mahama train will be on course throughout the country to draw crowds. What next for the sore losers?

3. Declaration of support by Chiefs for Akufo-Addo Folks, another issue is the open declaration of support for Akufo-Addo and the invocation of God’s (or “gods’) name by some to substantiate their hunch of an Akufo-Addo victory at Election 2016.

I really don’t care what these chiefs do in that bid because they are political beings and can choose to go wherever they deem fit. We know that by openly declaring their political allegiance this way, they are flouting the Constitutional prohibition/injunction/constraint that they shouldn’t do so; but once no one is being “punished” for doing so, why not?

So, the spate continues, as we can tell from news reports concerning examples from chiefs in Mafi Adidome, Awutu, Atti Morkwa, Yamfo, and Tuobodom. More will toe the line, but I care less.

What, then, is my beef? It’s simple. When some chiefs went that way earlier on by declaring their support for President Mahama and predicting victory for him at Election 2016, the NPP armada went into over-drive and a panic mode, cursing those chiefs and using their allies in the mass media to disparage them as undisciplined and foolish.

Those chiefs supporting President Mahama based their stance on the positive accomplishments by way of development projects for their communities, implying that they appreciated what President Mahama was delivering to them. Showing appreciation and expecting that he would remain in office to give them more became a thorn in the NPP’s flesh.

Of particular interest is the example of the Acting Omanhene of the Kwahu Traditional Area (and chief of Abetifi) whose positive impressions about President Mahama so ruffled some of his own NPP-oriented subjects to damn him and call for his destoolment. The chief stood his ground; and the dust seems to have settled.

Flip the coin over to see what is happening now that Akufo-Addo is being endorsed by some chiefs. The NPP armada has folded up; their lackeys in the media have thrown away their thinking caps; their allies in the clergy have discarded their lenses and can’t see anything anymore on the horizon; and their supporters in the civil society groupings have folded up their ears.

Nothing seen, nothing heard, not talked against as far as this behaviour of the chiefs in the case of Akufo-Addo is concerned. Partisan politics of this sort adds more to the credibility problems that such a political camp has.

And for Akufo-Addo particularly, this issue raises interesting questions.

The so-called lawyer that he is, he should be the first to know that anything that violates a country’s Constitutions is dangerous and shouldn’t be countenanced; but in this case, he is operating with a simple twisted principle: If the chiefs’ support favours me, I shouldn’t complain; but if it does my political opponent, I should marshal forces to cry foul. Is such a politician trustworthy?

The chiefs of Yamfo and Tuobodom were reported as such, which makes me wonder whether they really know how Akufo-Addo is manipulating emotions and vain religiosity to mobilize support for his desperate cause.

Even the NPP’s bed-fellow, the notorious SHIT TANK called IMANI Ghana, has loudly repudiated that phantom as neither viable nor feasible. And Akufo-Addo hasn’t found traction again to harp on it on his rounds.

What makes these gullible chiefs think that there is anything for them on that score to warrant their supporting Akufo-Addo in doing his higgledy-piggledy politics?

Folks, do you see where the NPP’s higgledy-politics is taking it? I do, and laugh everything about that to scorn. Not until anything new comes from there to change my poor opinion about their politicking, I will continue to poke their ribs.

I shall return…

Writer's e-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com

Columnist: Bokor, Michael J. K.