Friday,
June 8, 2012
After running around, spending so
much money to support the activities of the NPP, and deceiving himself that he
is in the thick of affairs, the Assin North NPP MP (Kennedy Ohene Agyapong) has
now realized that he is in a bottomless pit. He is not in any reckoning, after
all. He is wailing and gnashing his teeth, complaining bitterly that the “NPP is not worth
dying for; they abandoned me.”
Why has it
taken him so long to recognize this fact?
Being
downgraded from a strongman to a cry baby, he is pitiable. Here he goes in his
interview with the Adom FM: “... even the people I
call my friends in the party, people I fed and took care of have also abandoned
me in difficult times” (Ghanaweb, June 8, 2012).
He also said the comments [that are the cause of his arrest
and prosecution] were in defence and support of the party, but that he had been
hanged out to dry by the same party he has supported and financed.
Such self-conceited adult crybabies make Ghana politics
intriguing, especially if we consider the quick rebuttal from the NPP
leadership that the party had supported Kennedy Agyapong all along.
In that rebuttal, Nana Akomea reiterated that “the party was
not worried and did not support the intemperate language used by Mr. Agyapong
in his infamous war declaration, a position he said the party still maintained.”
The stage is set for more head-butting by these elephants on
dry ground, not in the grass. We wait to see the dust storm and who will emerge
unscathed when the dust settles. But more importantly, there are other
considerations.
I am glad to know that the fog
that has for long enveloped the brains of NPP zealots like Agyapong is
gradually clearing for them to see things clearly. As they do so, they should
begin to know where they stand in the workings of the NPP cabal, which wasn’t
formed to do for Agyapong what he is crying for. Primarily, the NPP was formed
by those who had common ethnic, political, and economic interests to fight for
their betterment. That is why you will hear their supporters howling “We have
taken our country back” (when Kufuor was in power) or “We will take our country
back” (preparing for Election 2012).
I have said it several times
already that the Danquah-Busia Club (DBC) that the late Attakorah-Gyimah of
Nkukuo Buoho near Offinso and the university dons at the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology nurtured into the NPP has its own purposes
and agenda. What Agyapong is crying over is not part of that grand scheme.
The NPP serves best those who
matter to the power wielders in it, most of whom have roots in Kumasi or other
important areas in the birthplace of the Danquah-Busia Club. Don’t forget the
support from the traditional rulers, taking a leaf from how the National
Liberation Movement (NLM) and its “Mate Me Ho” vandalism was tacitly funded and
supported by Manhyia, using Baffuor Osei Yaw Akoto as the conduit.
I knew what was happening in the
early 1990s (especially 1992) when the DBC was being nurtured into a political
party and can say without any fear of anything that the foundation of that
political camp is evidently Kumasi-based. The stalwarts of this camp have
always been those with the Asante connection.
For purposes of appearing to be
broad-based, though, some elements from other regions and ethnic coloration
were given some elbow room but one wonders what influence they could wield to
change anything to make their party anything but Akan-based. The tagging of “Dombo”
to the original Danquah-Busia accolade is just for mere political expediency.
It is a mere ruse to massage the feelings of those our Northern Ghana
compatriots. In reality, the needs-and-deeds of the NPP cabal are purely Danquah
(Akim) and Busia (Brong-Ahafo/Asante).
Kennedy Agyapong needs to ask
himself where he belongs. But for his money, which he splashes about to support
the party’s activities and deceiving himself that it will earn him a place of
honour in this close-knit political coterie, who in that party would have
recognized him as a purveyor of influence in a political party that was formed
solely to fight for its originators’ interests? How does Agyapong’s Assin village
background feature in the scheme of those in that cabal called the NPP? He
should have thought more deeply before staking his resources, political life,
and now his very physical life on that gamble.
One may mention some “outsiders”
such as Dr. Kofi Dsane Selby, to claim that there are other power brokers in
the NPP who are not Asantes; but that will be a long shot. Anybody who knows
the workings of this political cabal will cringe at that. Those like Dr. Dsane
(a Fante from Cape Coast) have spent all their lifetime, living among and
working with the originators of the NPP in Kumasi. In effect, they are considered
as “one of us.” But the buck ends there because none has been given the chance
to be elsewhere than the station chosen for them in the workings of the party.
Good old B.J. da Rocha is already gone!!
One may cite the national
chairmen of the party who are not Asantes (Peter Ala Adjetey, Odoi Sykes,
Harona Esseku, and Obetsebi-Lamptey) to attempt debunking my stance. But these
are people being used by the real power brokers in the party just as they are
doing to Kennedy Agyapong and dumping him when least expected, which is what he
is grumbling about now.
How did Harona Esseku end for
daring to paint Kufuor black as the chief collector of kickbacks meant for the
party, indicating that he (Esseku) was being deprived of a juicy part of the booty?
Some of us wonder why it should
take Agyapong and the other NPP zealots being used by the real power brokers of
that political cabal so long to see reality.
Now that they have begun coming
face-to-face with that reality, they must have regretted rushing headlong into
the den to be so used by that political cabal. Will they find better ways to
make their contributions to the country’s development efforts without necessarily
endangering themselves in the kind of self-destructive political game that
Agyapong, for instance, has played with Fate?
He is being tried for opening his
mouth too wide and baring his teeth wrongly. The NPP power brokers know the
harm that his genocidal utterances can do to their political ambitions,
especially knowing very well that Agyapong was inciting Asantes (the source of
their party’s succor) against Ewes and Gas.
They won’t support anything of
the sort that is instigated from the stronghold of their political cabal. Being
the cunning politicians that they are, they have read deeper meanings into
Agyapong’s utterances and won’t do anything to endanger their political
interests. The NPP is largely Akan-based and fearing the negative fallouts of
Agyapong’s threats against voters in the Ewe and Ga territories that they need
direly to clinch victory at Election 2012, they have chosen to distance
themselves from Agyapong. And why not?
But the question is: Why is it
difficult for Agyapong to get this message that those he is accusing of letting
him down are not on the same page with him? They know better how not to
endanger their interests by supporting him (an outsider). Where is Agyapong’s
root? Not an Assin village nowhere near the tap root of the NPP’s origin? It is
a simple fact for Agyapong to accept, even if grudgingly, to save himself from
more trouble.
The game being played by those
who matter in that party is simple: Use whoever and whatever is available to
achieve sectional interests and discard it thereafter. It is just like sucking the
fruit dry of its juice and throwing away its seed. Those who don’t look before
they leap will always end up where Agyapong is. He may cry all he wishes but
will not be soothed in any way.
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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