Wednesday,
May 7, 2014
My good friends,
when President Mahama paid a three-day visit to the Ashanti Region last week,
he was warmly received, despite the constant railing against his government by
political opponents, especially those in the NPP.
He commissioned
numerous projects and made promises to add more to what the Ashanti Region has
had so far.
Then, he
interacted with cross-sections of the populace, especially the Asanteman and
NDC supporters. He made utterances to whip up support for his government.
Out of what he
delivered, his opponents have found a way to turn the table against him to
reinforce their Mahama-loathing agenda and re-ignite their claim that the NDC
has an "Ashanti Agenda" ( a throwback to what they had accused
ex-President Mills of institutionalizing to "punish" them for
massively supporting the NPP).
How did it all
begin and what did President Mahama say in Kumasi that is being blown out of
all reasonable proportions to create the impression that he is anti-Ashanti?
Or to turn him
into a second Victor Owusu (whose infamous utterance that "Ewes are
inward-looking" seems to be the bane of the Danquah-Busia camp in the
Volta Region)?
President Mahama
is reported to have said at a meeting with NDC followers that “The Akans have a
saying that, the hen never pleases the hawk no matter how well she dances. But
that shouldn’t discourage us. We have noted the promise we made to Ghanaians
for which we were voted into power. Some people, even if we construct roads
tarred with gold in Kumasi, they will tell us that we did nothing”.
As if possessed,
his detractors are running around radio stations criticizing him for
undermining Asantes and creating the impression that he is anti-Ashanti.
They are doing
dirty politics with their own twisted version of the President's utterance,
intensifying the calumny, and feeding their propaganda machine with it.
By their
machinations, they hope to reap a windfall as they inflame passions and set
President Mahama up for needless verbal attacks.
The government
has already reacted to this campaign of lies and rogue politics; but it will
need more than a rebuttal to douse the flame.
Level-headed
people won't bat an eyelid at all over this innocuous comment by President
Mahama, which was targeted at his detractors and not Asantes.
That is the more
reason why those detractors drawing parallels between his utterance and what
came from Akufo-Addo (“Yen Akanfuo” and “All die be die”) to intensify their
anti-Mahama politics will fail to gain any traction at all.
For their
benefit, let me explain that Akufo-Addo’s utterance was bad in principle,
intent, and purpose. It was made as a political call to arms and as a militant
urge to divide the society on the basis of ethnicity and to incite needless tension.
On the other
hand, what President Mahama said was based on feedback reaching him on the
ingratitude of those benefiting from his government’s development agenda. He
didn’t target any ethnic group nor did he seek to divide society. He simply
expressed his opinion, using the Akan proverb as the vehicle.
We know that the
government has rebutted the accusation but the anti-Mahama campaign is likely
to heighten now that the NPP people are bereft of ideas with which to undermine
the government.
They will
consider their own twisted version of the President's utterance as God-sent and
use it to the full in the hope of winning souls. That's the essence of their
book politics.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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the conversation.
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