Saturday,
May 5, 2012
The NPP’s Akufo-Addo is, indeed,
a man of many parts—a lawyer, human rights activist, and politician, among
others. Now, he has turned himself into a matador to kill the mammoth of a bull
that Kennedy Agyapong’s hate speech has created.
He is wearing a red shirt to
engage this bull, hoping first to hold it by its horns and bulldog it in the
end. Mistake Number One: bulls hate the color red, which his shirt has. How
tactically prepared is he?
At the first attempt, which he
made yesterday (symbolized by the meeting with the chiefs of the Volta Region),
he went for the bull’s tail instead. Mistake Number Two: Going for the tail is
not the best initial move; the bull will turn round to sweep him off his feet
and he should count himself lucky to survive.
The harm caused by Kennedy
Agyapong’s hate speech can’t be undone with spur-of-the-moment manouevres. Agyapong’s
nonsense already has precedents, a strong foundation, that no admission of the
fact that the NPP is responsible for alienating the Volta Region will wash away
so easily.
Akufo-Addo has been strident
enough in stating his case to be accepted as a peace-loving politician. In his
own words, he claims that:
·
He
“will not condone any ethnic
agenda by any member of the party”;
·
He “will “not tolerate any act that seeks to
divide Ghanaians”; and
·
He “does not harbour such motives and will not
allow any member of the NPP to engage in any act that can plunge the country
into violence.”
“I
want to state here with all the emphasis of my command that I do not have any
ethnic agenda and I would not condone any such agenda,” he is quoted as
saying.
Everybody who listens to him or
reads these statements will see enough reason to agree with him. I appreciate
the beauty of that rhetoric and commend him for coming out with these
utterances to enrich the discourse on the NPP’s “hidden intents” in its political
agenda and its pursuit of political power at Election 2012.
Considering the extent to which
the fire lit by Agyapong’s hate speech has reached, such utterances should be
expected from Akufo-Addo. The occasion also demands that he make them to the
Ewe chiefs. It is a matter of common sense for him to say so to the audience,
hoping that they will spread the word to their subjects and, thereby, wet the
ground for the NPP in the Volta Region.
I expect him to move down to the
Greater-Accra Region with the same message in an attempt to assuage the fears
and doubts of the Gas, who were also mentioned by Kennedy Agyapong as targets
to be hit.
In effect, what Akufo-Addo has
begun doing is routine. That is where the problem emerges. The timing for this
damage control manouevre is inappropriate. It is no more kairotic, as we say in
rhetorical theory.
Why did he wait for the negative
impact of Kennedy Agyapong’s hate speech to sink so deep before coming out to
attempt dousing the fire? Why did he defy suasion to make his voice heard long
ago? Now, too much water has passed under the bridge. What he has begun doing
has already lost its shine.
A politician who genuinely
disapproves of Kennedy Agyapong’s nonsense would have risen up to the task to
denounce it immediately he made those utterances. Forget about the statement
issued by the NPP Chairman, which was so equivocal as to deepen the NPP’s
credibility woes instead.
Then again, the tumultuous and
rousing approbation given to Kennedy Agyapong by the NPP’s leaders and rank and
file belies the official statement that came from Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey. Ghanaians
saw how the NPP members (mis)conducted themselves, seeing nothing wrong with
Agyapong’s “boldness,” (as they put it) and why he was right to do what he did.
Some even contextualized his utterances and insisted that he would be their
hero.
Do you see the bundle of
contradictions? In one breath, the NPP leaders portrayed themselves as being
against Agyapong’s declaration of war against Ewes and Gas, but in the same
breath, their actions (both in public and on the quiet) portray a vigorous
support for him and a celebration of his “heroism.” Who will not see the double standards on
display here?
Against this background, the
attempt by Akufo-Addo to massage the feelings of chiefs in the Volta Region
(which he will extend to the Ga chiefs too in due course) falls flat on its
face. The reality of the situation doesn’t support his loud-mouthed claims that
he is not against any ethnic group or will not support any action by any NPP
member to damage the interests of any ethnic group.
We must be honest to say that in
all that has been happening over the years, Akufo-Addo hasn’t personally stood
out as expressing any negative sentiment against any member of any ethnic
group. At least, he hasn’t been reported as doing so nor have I heard anybody
accuse him as such. That’s a plus for him.
But caught up in the whirlwind
generated by the Danquah-Busia political family’s notoriety as an elitist,
self-righteous, and bragging cabal, he has become an unwitting victim of
circumstance. The indelible stain has rubbed off on him and it will be
difficult for him to remove overnight.
Again, his attempts will end up
in smoke because they are not based on the proper premise. Obviously, the
motivation for Kennedy Agyapong’s nonsense came from Akufo-Addo’s own quarters.
I am being brazen to say here that his declaration of “All-die-be-die” (meaning
that the NPP activists must be prepared to do anything—including sacrificing
their lives—to ensure victory for him) is the foundation on which all the
belligerence is built.
Thus, one expects Akufo-Addo to
recognize that he is part of the problem. What can make his damage control more
appealing is a denunciation of that “All-die-be-die” war cry. Then, one expects
that he will issue a stern injunction against its use for any political act or
event. Not until he does so, all that he is doing will remain cosmetic and
ineffectual.
More importantly, we must be
reminded that the “All-die-be-die” mantra has received a pointed approbation
from the NPP’s leaders and followers to such an extent that they won’t willingly
renounce it. In this case, Akufo-Addo has a Herculean task if he chooses to
tackle the problem from its base (within the ranks and file of the NPP). That
is where he must start from, to wean his own party’s activists of that
belligerence encapsulated in the “All-die-be-die” and “Yen Akanfuo” faux pas.
Beyond that level, we must
recognize the fact that the NPP (as a political party) is larger and more
powerful than Akufo-Addo (an individual party flagbearer). He is not
indispensable. Therefore, when nitty comes to gritty, where will Akufo-Addo’s
attempts to solve the problem in-house end?
The real power brokers in the NPP
know themselves—and Akufo-Addo is not one of them. They call the shots. They
are the money bags, the spiritual power houses, and the traditional power bases
that we can trace to the very tap root that germinated with the National
Liberation Movement (“Ma Te Me Ho”) with Baffour Osei Yaw Akoto, the Asantehene’s
Chief Linguist at the Manhyia Palace, as the fount of authority.
The NPP wasn’t formed in Akim
Abuakwa. It began as the Danquah-Busia Club, incubated by the late Attakora
Gyimah of Nkokuo Buoho, near Offinso, in the late 1980s. Its secret meetings
were held at several places—in the homes of those who mattered at the time, and
at the Kumasi Youngsters Club (blessed by Catholic clergyman (Arch)bishop Akwasi
Sarpong and the Chairman of the Kumasi Circuit of the Methodist Church at the
time, Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi).
They also met at the K.O.
Methodist Park, Kejetia, and the Kumasi Social Centre after they had mapped out
their strategies to outdoor the DBC as a political party. The kingpins of the
party at its formative stage didn’t come from the Volta Region, Greater-Accra Region,
Akim Abuakwa, the Central, Western, or the Northern parts of Ghana. They were
all Asantes, mostly intellectuals, businessmen, politicians, and chiefs.
Some might have died by now but
their influence is still powerfully embossed on the party to such an extent
that no individual of Akufo-Addo’s standing can hope to make any major shift
and survive the whirligig of confronting the powers-that-be in that political
coterie.
It is primarily for such
reasons—and the outright show of disdain by some high-ranking members of the
NPP toward other ethnicities—that the NPP comes across as purely Akan-based.
Changing this impression is next to impossible for as long as the Kennedy
Agyapongs concretize it.
In an attempt to rationalize Kennedy
Agyapong’s hate speech, some NPP activists drew parallels between his
sentiments and what Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor was alleged to have propagated in one
of his books to suggest an Ewe ethnocentricism or tribalism. These activists
brought up copious re-statements of what they attributed to Awoonor to insist
that they found nothing wrong with Agyapong’s utterances.
You see how foolish some
political activists can be? The explanation is clear that Kofi Awoonor
(Chairman of the Council of State) was not inciting Ewes to exterminate the
Akans, Gas, Hausas, Frafras, or Konkombas, among the 100 ethnicities that make
up Ghana. His personal opinions don’t bind anybody to commit any atrocity
although it has the potential to create tension.
Secondly, although Awoonor ranks
high in the affairs of the NDC, he is not calling the shots at the elections.
In other words, the NDC doesn’t seem to suffer any negative backlash as much as
Kennedy Agyapong’s declaration of genocidal intents and purposes do.
Third, Awoonor has nothing at
stake for which he should be scared as the NPP is doing now because of the
repercussions of Agyapong’s incontinence and incitement of hatred against the
Ewes and Gas. Whether the sentiments of Awoonor are consequential at all is
doubtful. For that matter, drawing parallels between his utterances and
Agyapong’s frightening call for extermination of Ewes and Gas is dumb!!
Finally, Awoonor’s sentiments may
be unpacked as a direct response to Victor Owusu’s “Ewes are inward-looking” diatribe,
which has detracted very much from any political party emerging from the
Danquah-Busia root. If Awoonor was responding to Victor Owusu, then, so be it.
Indeed, Awoonor’s sentiments aren’t
even widely known to Ghanaians as much as Agyapong’s hate speech does. So, the
comparison is pointless as far as the voters are concerned. Any attempt to
propagate it now will worsen the NPP’s fate, to say the least.
Those followers of the NPP who
don’t know this history should now know it and position themselves better than
they’ve been doing so far.
That is why I consider Akufo-Addo’s
attempt to solve the problem created for him (and the NPP) by Kennedy Agyapong as
a tall order. Certainly, we will continue monitoring the situation to see how
it all pans out.
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
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·
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April 2009)
·
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