Monday,
December 17, 2012
The announcement that the NPP
will present a petition to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, after a
demonstration in Kumasi on Tuesday comes across as part of the intricate
scheming by the party’s leaders either to save face and abandon their head-butting
with the Electoral Commission or to raise their protestations to a whole new
level. Either way, the gravitation toward the Otumfuo has added a new
complexion to the matter.
The NPP leaders feel that they
haven’t exhausted all the avenues to register their “anger” and, from the look
of things, will not take chances. They want to go the whole hog, using both
constitutional or legal and unconstitutional or illegal approaches. Perhaps,
their cup is running over.
Having made their presence felt
in Accra through unconstitutional means (causing mayhem and public nuisance),
they have moved inland to do same in Kumasi on Tuesday. Unlike the Accra
version of their street demonstrations, however, the NPP leaders intend to
present a petition to the Asantehene at the end of the day’s protest march.
We don’t know what exactly that
petition will contain but we can hazard a guess here to say that it will be
based on what we already know as the motivation for the on-going protestations—a
denunciation of the EC, the NDC, and the media for their part in the so-called
rigging of the elections (or tampering with results of the Presidential
Elections to boost President Mahama’s chances, as they have put it), a
reiteration of their rejection of the results, and an affirmation of their
threat to seek redress at the Supreme Court.
We expect them to pepper that
petition with statements declaring their democratic ideals and the
determination to present the intended court case as a reflection of those ideals.
They will claim to be pursuing that cause in the interest of Ghanaians, hoping
that victory for them will reverse the election results and give their
Akufo-Addo the victory that has eluded him to become Ghana’s President.
Their claim that their court
action will help us smooth the rough edges of our democracy sounds good in
principle but may not be so in reality. I see this case as a mere constitutional
formality being pursued to create the impression that the NPP has a strong case
against the EC when, indeed, there is no such basis. The EC itself has stated
categorically that it did nothing wrong to warrant this pestering. Wereko-Brobby’s
admonition confirms it too. But those interested in mere legalities are
encouraged to proceed to court.
What will the NPP be adding to
our democracy when this case is thrown out and its demand that the results be
reversed in its favour are pooh-poohed? The mere fact that the matter has been
sent to court won’t add anything to our democracy. It will pass off as a
vexatious exercise in futility.
No wonder the loser himself (Akufo-Addo)
is gearing up to lead the party’s legal team. After all, he wears the shoe and
knows where it pinches. More pinching awaits him on the way.
Now, back to why the NPP leaders want
to petition the Otumfuo. We have no doubt that involving him in their
agitations raises several disturbing questions that we must ask as we continue
to probe the rationale behind their rejection of the election results and recourse
to mayhem to undermine the Kumasi Peace Pact that its flagbearer had joined the
other candidates to sign in the presence of the Otumfuo.
Historical antecedents explain why
the NPP is turning to the Asantehene and no other authority in this matter. I
will be blunt to make it clear that the role that the Manhyia Palace played in
the tumultuous days of the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and its “Mate me
ho” brigade is known and serves as a backdrop for our comments here.
Indeed, history tells us that the
NLM was conceived, hatched, and nurtured under the auspices of Manhyia to oppose
Nkrumah’s agenda for the country. The NLM’s main pillar was Oheneba Osei Yaw
Akoto, the Asantehene’s Chief Linguist, who masterminded the actions of the NLM
and its “Action Troopers” to commit atrocities against Nkrumah’s followers in
the Ashanti region. Manhyia was said to have provided enough succour to sustain
the NLM. Manhyia has remained a fortress for that political tradition.
The NPP’s forebears (both the NLM
and the United Party that took over the agitations) operated solely to create
disaffection for Nkrumah whom they saw as the devil incarnate to be snuffed
out. They virtually made it difficult for Nkrumah to govern as he wished without
resorting to draconian measures that would produce the Preventive Detention Act
to cripple J.B. Danquah and send Busia into exile.
What the NPP has begun doing
(couched in the militancy entailed by the “All-die-be-die” mantra) is just an
inkling of what those heady days of the “Mate me ho” bedlam produced.
We don’t want to accuse the
Asantehene of complicity in what is unfolding at the NPP front but we can
recall his own utterances (especially when he interacted with Akufo-Addo just
before the 2008 elections to invoke the Oyoko bloodline tying both) to say that
he seems to be betrayed by unavoidable circumstances as a sympathizer of the
NPP. Of course, Manhyia cannot divorce itself from what it had set in motion
decades ago.
Then, with the glaring
preferential treatment given him by the Kufuor government (including allowing
him to contract millions of dollars from the World Bank that Ghanaians are to
pay back), everything seems to portray him as the magnet to attract such
elements. The NPP sees him as an ally and wants to use subtleties to involve
him in its agitations.
Otherwise, why will the party’s
leaders choose him as the appropriate recipient of their petition—which will
definitely not be complimentary of the government and the EC? Don’t tell me
that it is because he is eminent. Which of the traditional rulers in the
country is not eminent, anyway?
Those isolating him to present
their political cause to may have their own reasons and agenda; but they are
only creating credibility problems for him. As we’ve already asked, what will
the Otumfuo do with their petition? How do the NPP leaders hope to reconcile
their presenting a petition to him with their threat to go to court? A
two-pronged attack on the system?
Recourse to the court of the
Asantehene has ulterior motives and seems defeatist to me. It is just an
instance of fatal escapism. These NPP leaders are at the crossroads and looking
for a cunning means to chicken out but fear the wrath of their own followers;
thus, they want to hide behind this fount of authority.
It is not that chieftaincy itself
is a democratic institution to repose any hope in. It is not. Our chiefs are as
autocratic as one can’t imagine; they have made chieftaincy a mockery in
contemporary times and unattractive for any serious-minded politician to
approach in search of redress of the sort that is sending the NPP into
overdrive.
Regardless of how he views the
situation to open his doors to these NPP leaders, we wonder why the Asantehene
himself won’t read between the lines to avert being drawn into the NPP’s game.
Or why he won’t take steps to avoid being tainted by these self-centred
politicians seeking every straw to hang on to now that they know they risk
drowning in the high, turbulent seas of Ghanaian politics.
The Asantehene needs to know that
this move by the NPP leaders has only one objective, which is to drag him into
their parochial politics. Having helped to get these politicians to commit
themselves to the Kumasi Peace Pact—which they have already breached with impunity—nothing
should force him to take sides. He shouldn’t do anything to betray any hidden
political interest.
Of course, the NPP considers the
Ashanti region as the strongest of its strongholds. That was where the late Attakora-Gyimah
of Nkukuo Buoho, near Offinso, conceived the Danquah-Busia Club (DBC) that was
nurtured into the NPP when the ban on partisan politics was lifted on May 18,
1992. Thus, Ashanti is the NPP, and the NPP is Ashanti. Can we remove the
traditional head of Ashanti from the political baby born there?
Now that the party’s leaders are
turning to him for support instead of taking a straight line to the Supreme
Court, tongues have begun wagging. Why did the NPP choose to go to him with
their petition?
Although we can’t tell whether
the initiative for such a petition was taken by the party’s leaders themselves at
their own volition or at someone else’s prompting, we can stick our necks out
to tell the Asantehene that if he opens himself up to these NPP politicians,
they will use him to pursue their agenda.
Under the current circumstance,
if he allows himself to be embroiled in this kind of politics, he will have a
hard time protecting his image. The bottom-line is that the NPP is caught up in
a self-created crisis and should be allowed to steam in it. He should avoid
becoming a vicarious participant in the NPP’s politics of hate, reaction, and
divisiveness. The price to pay for all that is electoral defeat, which they
have paid but will not want to endure. That is the cross they have refused to
carry. No crown, then!
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
Join
me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
No comments:
Post a Comment