The elephants are locking trunks

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Folks, the NPP’s “Concert Party” is turning ugly at this stage. Nerves are being strained to the breaking point and, if care is not taken, the situation in the party may take a sudden turn for the worse. 

There seems to be no common purpose in the elephant family nor is there any firm agreement among its main actors that the intended court action will be the solution to the party’s fast-fading public image.

Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby, the Tarzan, has stuck his neck out to point the party in a new direction, ruffling feathers in the process and pitting himself (and unknown others backing him) against the militant forces rallying behind Akufo-Addo to fight the Electoral Commission, the NDC, and the media at the Supreme Court.

The circus is agitated and the elephants are locking trunks to give the audience a rare sneak peek into the workings of their democratic culture. Some democrats they are!

Isn’t it very interesting that these so-called liberal democrats can’t accommodate each other’s views on how to fight a common battle to redeem their party’s image without spitting fire? Isn’t it very intriguing for them to be at each other’s throat just because they can’t tolerate any dissension from within? Just because one of them has gone out of his way to express opinions that threaten the status quo in the party?

Why is the NPP seeking refuge in the Asantehene?

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.

The NPP and its lorgorligi logarithms

Monday, December 17, 2012

The road in front of the NPP is indeed winding and long. It fits into what the celebrated Ghanaian poet, Atukwei Okai, has rightly captured in his imagination as “Lorgorligi Logarithms.” Will the NPP leaders move their supporters along this road to reach Canaan? To claim what they are clamouring for as their electoral crown? I wonder.

As they insist on having their day in court but continue to give conflicting/contradictory explanations day-in-day-out about where they are in the process of gathering evidence for that purpose—or even on the exact quantum of votes allegedly stolen for President Mahama—they give misleading impressions about their true intentions.

All that noise about their research office being raided or the office of the leader of their legal team (Gloria Akuffo) being broken into are part of what makes the journey truly lorgorligi in nature. Too many different tastes will confuse the tongue; not so?

The NPP’s ‘Tale of Two Cities’ is too sweet for belief

Sunday, December 16, 2012

We continue to focus attention on the NPP at this point in the post-election assessment of our national life. The threat to national stability posed by the riotous behaviour of its members still persists.

Likewise, the public posturing and churning out of inconsistent claims by its leaders has reached an alarming level to warrant further analysis. It is too ridiculous for belief that these people just can’t settle on any convincing lie to tell the whole world to back their rejection of the outcome of the Presidential elections.

All they have been doing so far is giving us conflicting figures and ratcheting up their thirst for violence.

Madam Hawa Yakubu must be laughing in her grave

Friday, December 15, 2012

The NPP may continue fretting and protesting (whether legally or through riotous behaviour by its activists), but its leaders seem not to know that their fate had long been decided before the 2012 elections were held. Hawa Yakubu will be asking from afar: What are they disputing?

Two main issues account for their defeat, she will say. Call them the lighter and heavier issues.

As the NPP’s woes deepen…. And Akufo-Addo digs in… (Part II)

Friday, December 14, 2012

Now, to the main issues that I consider as the real causes of the NPP’s defeat. The “Yen Akanfuo” label made the NPP an anathema to those who felt slighted or endangered. It is one major problem that the NPP failed to address, which was reflected in its winning again only two of the regions as it did in the 2008 elections while President Mahama was all over the regions, even garnering votes in the NPP’s strongholds. This particular limited scope presented the NPP as a cabal for the Asante/Akyim elements.

Although there is satisfaction that the party increased its Parliamentary seats from four to 10 in the Northern Region, it is no confirmation that the voters have ceased to regard the NPP as “tribalistic” in scope, form, and function. No need to belabour this point.

As the NPP’s woes deepen…. And Akufo-Addo digs in… (Part I)

Friday, December 14, 2012

As the NPP leaders and followers continue to create the impression that the results of the just-ended elections were tampered with by the media, the Electoral Commission, and the NDC to crown President Mahama as winner, they leave me wondering whether they really know the true nature of the Ghanaian voters. Or whether they know where they are pushing themselves to.

Despite the reports by local and international election observers confirming that the elections were free, fair, and transparent (not only at the level of balloting but also in the collection, collation, tallying, and transmission of the results), the NPP leaders still think otherwise. They are nursing hopes that the Supreme Court will reverse the outcome to install their Akufo-Addo in power.

I laugh them to scorn because what has been done and sealed cannot be undone and torn apart at their prompting. World leaders have already stepped forward to acknowledge the winner of the elections and Ghanaians are going about their normal activities, putting the elections behind them.

A fly will bite an elephant if it can find a weak spot in its hide. That’s exactly what has happened to the NPP, which hasn’t missed the attention of world leaders.