By the time Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah finished delivering his innuendo-laden speech at the launching of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) on Saturday, he had stripped former President Jerry John Rawlings, describing him as a dictator and a hypocrite.
As if his silence in the face of the myriad of personal attacks by Rawlings was in anticipation of the launching of the DFP, he turned to the leadership of the NDC, with whom he had been engaged in a running battle, ever since he quit the party, telling them that there was no hope for them in the 2008 elections.
He premised his position on the basis of what he had seen as the poor immediate past performance of the party and present self-inflicted wounds. “There are those who are preoccupied with power and think that 2008 is their turn, never minding their immediate past performance and present self-inflicted wounds.” For this class of politicians, he said, “This is a forlorn hope.”
He held his audience spellbound, as he rubbished Mr. Rawlings, from whose verbal lashings he had suffered ever since he quit the NDC, soon after the ill-fated Koforidua congress from which he had escaped physical assault from party thugs.
Dr. Asamoah appeared solidarise with President John Agyekum Kufuor, who Mr. Rawlings had poured vituperations on, at last Thursday’s “collective verbal pounding” of personalities and institutions including foreign leaders like President George Bush of the US and Mr. Tony Blair of the UK when he said, “If you threaten to jail your political opponents, you cannot complain if they want to do likewise; and don’t put the blame for their actions on the leaders of foreign countries.”
Dr. Asamoah, who served as Foreign Affairs Minister in the erstwhile NDC administration, was the immediate past National Chairman of the party. His quest for a re-election during the ill-fated Koforidua congress of the NDC was so acrimonious that when he and other targets managed to leave the venue unscathed, they quit the party.
Taking his audience into the bowels of the NDC, he said in that party, freedom of thought, action and choice were subject to the dictates of one person and any transgression attracts vilification, character assassination and vulgar abuse by a trained group of serial callers.
Continuing, he said, “At conferences of the party (NDC), non-conformism is met with violence and the threat thereof . In such an atmosphere, intellectualism is atrophied and machismo glorified. And so we have left.” Dr. Asamoah asserted, “We prefer freedom with danger to being in power in servitude. No amount of intellectual dishonesty, which seeks to present our departure as merely due to my losing the chairmanship bid, will succeed in erasing the facts or in distorting history.” The massive turn-out of party supporters at the Accra Arts Centre event could only be rivaled by the equally powerful address delivered by the Patron of the DFP, Dr. Obed Asamoah.
He noted that there was a whole new generation of Ghanaians that yearned for an avenue to express modernity in political thought and action. Although he avoided mentioning the name of the former President, Dr. Obed Asamoah’s insinuation of corruption among others, was just too close to the doorstep of Mr. Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. He said, “As a head of state or a member of Government, you cannot acquire state assets, your wife cannot gobble up such assets under the cloak of an NGO or other organizations,” describing this as “a conflict of interest par excellence”.
The innuendos from Dr. Asamoah were contained in what he described as DFP commandments, which he said should differentiate the party from other political creeds which may propound similar philosophies. Power, he advised, should not be sought in order to punish one’s perceived political enemies. Intolerance, violence and threats of violence, he pointed out, should be avoided and added that people should honour their neighbours and seniors.
This, he explained, implied that people should avoid insults and foul language. He fired an innuendo which appeared to have landed in the NDC founder’s camp when he said, “A leader who cannot respect friends and colleagues, has a problem.” He kicked against what he called, double standards, which he explained thus: “If it is wrong for a member of government to send his children to schools abroad, it is equally wrong for you the person making the rule to do likewise.”
Promising that the DFP would recognize and reward its foot-soldiers, he despised arrogance, superiority complex and frowned upon the tendency not to appreciate the contributions of others. Firing again at former President Rawlings, he rubbished hypocrisy and said, “If as a leader you think service to the people calls for cleaning gutters in Nima, you must do so whether you are in or out of office.
If you do it only when you are in office, you run the risk of being accused of what Ghanaians refer to as ‘eye service’ or hypocrisy.” So direct was this portion of his speech that it drew an ovation from his audience. In the opinion of Dr. Asamoah, people should not give false testimonies and lie about others. “Give praise where praise is due and condemn only when necessary. No one has had a more harrowing experience of false testimony against a person than I. Tell it only as it is.” He told members and supporters of the DFP to expect provocation from what he said, were elements of the NDC who cannot appreciate or concede their right to form, join or leave a political party no matter what the constitution said.
He condemned those who labelled others as “stomach politicians”, describing it as political cynicism which degraded politics. Such people, he noted, had often rubbished the biblical refrain that “Man shall not live by bread alone”. Dr. Asamoah called for a shift in the culture of Ghanaian politics “from violence to peace, from confrontation to diplomacy, from impasse to compromise, from abuse to civility, from slogan-mongering to problem solving and from the boom to the sublime”.
The massive turn-out at the function was beyond the imagination of the organizers as they tried various measures to manage the excited party faithful. The Arts Centre, the venue of years of boom speeches of former President Rawlings, was tearing at its seams, as those who could not get chairs were advised by Mr. Bede Ziedeng, the MC, to fix themselves under trees outside and listen to the proceedings. A busy market had been created outside, providing such refreshing items as cold water, coconuts and the like. MTTU cops were busy directing the vehicular traffic which was on the verge of becoming chaotic.
The new Divisional Commander of the Accra Central Division, Chief Superintendent Afful and his men, were at hand to provide security, but in the end, they did not have to resort to the use of the truncheons, because the function was devoid of violence, associated with other parties.
The launching was performed by one-time Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria under the Limann administration, Alhaji Yusif Patty. The Libyan Embassy, Spanish Embassy and the Nigerian High Commission were all represented at the function. There was also a high-powered team of Council of Muslim Chiefs, who added to the concentrated Zongo touch at the venue. The smiles on the faces of the organizers like Ms. Frances Assiam, Bede Ziedeng and others, were deserved ones because apart from the difficulty in controlling the crowd, the whole process was highly successful.
