Saturday,
January 4, 2014
Folks, another episode in the NPP’s “Concert Party” shows for 2014 has
just been enacted under the title: “Akufo-Addo will be President in 2016 come
what may”.
Kwadwo
Owusu Afriyie , General Secretary of the NPP—whom I consider as the Chief
Comedian of the pack of “Concert Party” dramatis personae— has been reported as
vowing that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
will be the President of Ghana in 2016, come what may.
He said on Saturday that: “Even if 10
presidential candidates stood for the 2016 election, only Akufo-Addo will be
President”.
Owusu Afriyie said the means by which the party
intends using to ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo wins the 2016 presidential election
is known only to the NPP.
He had earlier told Radio XYZ on Thursday that
the door for the party’s presidential race for 2016 was closed to other
contestants, except Nana Akufo-Addo.
“I have said that I believe that Nana Akufo-Addo
will be an excellent President in 2016 and I think that I stand by that. That
is not to say that the door is locked or shut against those who may be
interested in future in 2020 or 2024”.
MY COMMENTS
What exactly does Akufo-Addo
think God has planted in him alone that he can use to develop Ghana for which
he must move heaven and hell to be Ghana’s President, come what may?
Such a maniacal ambition is
dangerous and must be snuffed out, as will happen sooner than later.
To me, the most intriguing aspect
of this Chief Comedian’s utterance is this part: “… the means by which the party intends using to ensure that
Nana Akufo-Addo wins the 2016 presidential election is known only to the NPP.”
I
want to second guess him to say that if he thinks that the NPP has any
sophisticated means to influence the elections, he is deceived. Whatever the
party’s leaders and followers may be hatching to embolden them that only they
know how to put Akufo-Addo in power at Election 2016 will explode in their
faces.
Let
it be made clear to these NPP “book” politicians that their kind of politicking
won’t fetch them electoral victory. It will only deepen their woes and confirm
the fact that in their current configuration, they are not capable of winning
elections in Ghana. They need to do more than what they have been doing all
this while.
And
if they make the mistake to roll out anything detrimental to common sense, good
conscience and patriotism, they will be dealt with as never before. It is not a
threat, but a gentle toe-stepping to rouse them from their self-righteousness.
The extent to which Kwadwo Owusu
Afriyie is carrying his desperation and shouldering the responsibility of
keeping the “Concert Party” shows alive is indeed befuddling but unexpected.
When “Gbeshie” is in control, anything goes!!
Every reasonable person should
know that the NPP is already sinking very fast, apparently because of the
posturing and utterances of the Owusu Afriyies and all others in that NPP cabal
who are expending energy propping up Akufo-Addo to be the flagbearer of the NPP
at Election 2016, even at the time that the man himself hasn’t come out to say
that he had seen the “face” of God and been told his future political
direction.
We acknowledge the fact that
Akufo-Addo has been in London for months now, claiming to be on holiday and
waiting for the hand of God to touch him and push him where he should carry his
political ambitions.
We have dismissed such a flight
into the transcendental as a subterfuge, a ploy designed to throw dust into the
eyes of the unwitting segments of the NPP membership who have remained captives
of the Akufo-Addo ambition to become Ghana’s President as a birthright.
Akufo-Addo made politically
pointed utterances while on that holiday, which were charged with strong
indications that he had already made up his mind to stand for re-election at
the March delegates’ congress of the NPP to contest the 2016 elections.
His appointed spokesmen have also
not hidden their overzealousness to do his bidding as they made it clear that
he won’t abandon his quest to lead the NPP again. While Akufo-Addo himself hid
behind such manouevres to re-position himself for the March congress, his
emissaries were covertly running around in the UK, the USA, and Ghana, reaching
out to the party’s constituencies and testing the pulse of the party’s
followers. Apparently, they have been wetting the ground for him.
We were smart enough to see
through that veil and to point it out to those people that the brickwall that
they had been skirting all along would soon stand between them and their
ambitions. There are just too many hot potatoes rolling around in the NPP’s
corridors!
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie has been the
main town-crier for Akufo-Addo and has virtually torn the party apart because
of this one-sided approach to handling issues.
Some Akufo-Addo fanatics have
even vowed to use the last drop of adrenaline in their system to root for him.
We note that the complaints made
by Dr. Konadu Apraku and all other prospective flagbearer aspirants have rather
been turned into a bait to entrap and clip their wings. Dr. Apraku has already
faced the NPP’s Sanhedrin and been browbeaten to swallow his tongue. We haven’t
heard anything from him ever since. Other victims are still nursing their
grievances.
Beyond that, others interested in
contesting at the March congress fell all the more threatened, especially when
those in charge of organizing the congress have already taken entrenched
positions detrimental to their political interests.
Indeed, Alan Kyerematen is out
now, airing his views and becoming more visible, apparently in preparation for
contesting the flagbearer position at that congress. His spokesmen and special
aides have already bluntly said that he will contest the position.
Interestingly, those already
lined up to do Akufo-Addo’s bidding are quick to dismiss complaints from those
in the party rooting for other contestants or simply saying that the kind of
internal democracy needed by the NPP isn’t what all the manouevres to ram
Akufo-Addo down their throats will yield.
At this point, minds are already
made up. Will there be any need for the March congress, after all?
What, then, is the implication?
Let’s say for now that these utterances and public posturing antics by Owusu
Afriyie and those thinking and acting like him to privilege Akufo-Addo will
further deepen the crisis in the party.
It is only those human ostriches
with their heads still stuck in the hot sand who will claim that there are no
cracks in the fabric of the NPP throughout the country.
Obviously, the Akufo-Addo
opponents will also intensify their elbowing moves to ensure that he is not
settled on automatically, as seems to be the situation now. They will not
budge.
What do I foresee? Either the
party will be rocked all the more and totter toward the precipice of
self-destruction or those not in favour of Akufo-Addo will simply withdraw into
their shells as apathy immobilizes them. They will detach themselves from the
party and resign themselves to the sad fate that they are by now familiar with
in Ghanaian politics.
Eventually, those not in favour
of Akufo-Addo will either campaign secretly against him or thwart his efforts
at election time. In times like these, anything can happen.
And the most important issue of
all is that the factors that worked against Akufo-Addo’s two previous bids are
still standing out like a boil on a bald man’s head. Nothing has been done to
tackle those factors and, like a sore thumb with a searing whitlow, they will
follow him and checkmate his next bid to become Ghana’s President.
Time won’t neutralize any of
those negative factors. Is imposing Akufo-Addo on the party, then, the most
important thing to do now or rebuilding the party and making it more appealing
to the electorate?
True to their character, they
have chosen to do what will worsen their plight. Indeed, these “book”
politicians have a long way to go!!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
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