In what capacity are Afoko and Agyepong acting now? (Part II)

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Even before Afoko and Agyei were voted into office by the party’s delegates, back-handed measures had been used against them. Afoko was manhandled at the party’s conference to choose the flagbearer for Election 2008. He and Agyei have been accused of being unalloyed supporters of Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen (a so-called protégé of former President Kufuor, allegedly the prop of the Kufuor or Asante faction in the party), meaning that they were automatically opposed to Akufo-Addo. Therein lies the rivalry between the Asante-Akyem factions in the NPP. Their winning of the national delegates’ confidence and trust at the party’s conference nearly two years ago hasn’t stopped the campaign of calumny against them. Their detractors continue to make efforts at undercutting them; but they have prevailed and settled in office to do what they have up their sleeves.

They have made certain moves to “clean” the administrative setup at the NPP national headquarters, removing from office certain officials and bringing in others. Such moves have met stiff-necked opposition from the Akufo-Addo camp and further strained relationships. Several happenings have culminated in Afoko and Agyepong being branded as architects of an “Agenda 2020” being pursued to dim Akufo-Addo’s light for the benefit of Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, another target of calumny within the party and denigrated as belonging to the Kufuor (Ashanti) faction. In effect, Afoko and Agyei seem to have dug their own graves by taking actions they felt would enhance the party’s electoral chances.

Pursuing that agenda, Afoko and Agyei continued making moves that ended up in the fracas at the Bolgatanga meeting that they had wanted to hold with the party’s officials in the Upper East Region. We know the repercussion—the acid-bathing of Alhaji Adam Mahama, which has turned out to be the death knell for Afoko and Agyepong. Spontaneous reaction to the incident pinned both to the wall to be crucified. They have ever since been trying to spring back but emerge as underdogs fighting the whirlwind.

Something ominous is happening in this cabal. While Akufo-Addo has been quick to use events in the Upper East to stamp his authority on that strand of the party’s make-up, announcing a 100,000 Cedi fund for Alhaji Mahama and meeting the Upper East Regional executives of the party to patch differences (at least, as reported in the news), he hasn’t done anything concrete to prove that he is on the same page with Afoko and Agyepong. His appeal to the militant group (“Invisible” or “Invincible” Forces—that physically prevented Afoko and Agyepong from using their offices at the national headquarters) to allow Afoko and Agyepong to have access to their offices and work as such is a mere face-saving and deceptive manouevre. Those “Forces” withdrew from the premises of the national headquarters; but have Afoko and Agyepong been able to enter their offices to function as they had been doing hitherto? No!!

So, the reality is that Afoko and Agyepong are still not in the good books of the Akufo-Addo camp. Having dug in and refused to resign, they are coasting around as the NPP’s administrators. None of those intimidating them has challenged the public utterances so far made by them, even in their status as “persona non grata”. After all, the National Executive Committee, the Council of Elders, the national officers, Regional and Constituency executives haven’t come out with any follow-up statement rescinding their objection to their continued holding of office as National Chairman and General Secretary.

It means that Afoko and Agyepong have no locus in the NPP. Are they acting ultra vires, then? Or are they truly doing things as the substantive National Chairman and General Secretary, respectively, despite the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads? Who in the NPP will clarify issues for us to know whether Afoko and Agyepong have any capacity to act as they are doing? Or are we to assume that they are still the “persona non grata” that the agitations and machinations have made them but are acting in the interest of the party all the same?

Have Afoko and Agyei been given enough of the “acid test” and cleansed of their alleged anti-Akufo-Addo element to now function in wholehearted adulation of Akufo-Addo so they will do his bidding for Election 2016? Is that the basis for their being accepted and allowed to function as the party’s administrators? Otherwise, what is the basis for their continued stay in office despite all the “tsunami” against them? Have they now repented and been forgiven as such? Something is not adding up well here. Who will shed light on the issue for us?

If the NPP is not tattered and dysfunctional at this point, then, it is more than dangerous for our kind of democracy. Is there anybody in the NPP to clarify the issue for us? How can Afoko and Agyepong continue to hold sway in the party after all that has happened to prove to the whole world that they are “traitors” within and no more needed to steer the affairs of the cabal? Are the NPP people accepting them as such and hoping to win the hearts of Ghanaians? Do they think that this dangerous ambivalence is good for their cause and that of Ghana?

In truth, one can draw a simple conclusion from happenings in this NPP cabal. And the conclusion is best presented in questions: Is there any more credibility for the NPP? Can these NPP people ever solve any specific problem to prove that they have the acumen to rule Ghana? What a comedy of errors to pooh-pooh!!

I shall return…

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