By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]
The needless litigation that has assumed center-stage of the New Patriotic Party's parliamentary primaries all over the country turned me off from closely following the Korle-Klottey impasse. Some media operatives have described it as a standoff. Whatever the appropriate characterization may be, I personally did not think that it was opprtune for Mr. Philip Addison to jump into the fray. The man had decently acquitted himself as the lead attorney of the 2012 New Patriotic Party's Presidential Election Petition, and needed a little cooling-off time to savor the limelight; and also, perhaps, to boost his legal clout and retainer.
In other words, he had significantly put himself a cut above local politics. He was beginning to move steadily towards the enviable status of a statesman. Alas, in opting for the Korle-Klottey primary, Mr. Addison came off embarrassingly as a political opportunist. His decision to extend his litigious temperament to this much lower turf, or level, diminished his stature before those of us who had come to very much admire and respect the man. Whoever misadvised him to contest the Korle-Klottey primary did him great disservice.
It does not really matter at this juncture whoever may be aptly deemed to be at fault vis-a-vis the decision of when to vote. The 2016 Presidential Candidate of the NPP is the uncontested leader of the party, and so one expected Nana Akufo-Addo to have promptly stepped center-stage and taken charge of both the local and national affairs of the largest and most formidable opposition party in the country. If, indeed, it is true that he walked out of the peace-brokering meeting held at the private residence of President John Agyekum-Kufuor on July 9, or thereabouts, for whatever reasons, known or unknown, as has been widely reported, then Nana Akufo-Addo did himself great disservice and may not have done the party much good in the lead-up to Election 2016.
It would have been far better if he had not attended the aforesaid confabulation and instead delegated either Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia or one of his confidants or close associates. The preceding notwithstanding, one thing that is certain is that the Korle-Klottey primary was, at best, inconclusive. You see, you cannot have a turnout of barely 50-percent of registered delegates show up at the polling booth, with most of the parliamentary candidates boycotting the race and call it either a resounding success or a landslide victory. At best such dismal primary-election participation presages uncertainty or a toss-up in December 2016, when the NPP locks horns with the brash and brazen and more politically aggressive NDC.
Put another way, the winner of Sunday's Korle-Klottey primary, Mr. Nii Noi Nortey, has his work cut out for him, as it were. He would likely be fighting on two battle-fronts; he would likely be fighting against half of the voters of the NPP whose delegates boycotted the parliamentary primary in support of their candidates. And then he would also be engaged in an uphill battle against the NDC Abongo Boys. As of this writing, there were widespread rumors that Dr. Ezanator Rawlings, the eldest child and daughter of the Rawlingses, might decide to go to bat for her father's party. If that happens, Nii Noi Nortey may not have the proverbial Chinaman's chance. He would be toast, in New Yorkese.
At any rate, it is not clear to me just what sort of party rules enabled an incumbent constituency chairman to contest in a parliamentary primary. It reeks of flagrant political scam-artistry. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Chairman Nortey suffers a massive setback at the polls next year. I am not going to say much about NPP General-Secretary Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, because I don't have all the facts yet. And even if I did, I personally don't believe that moving the election date by a mere six days, from August 8 - the date that Mr. Addison claims to have been agreed upon by consensus - to August 2, the date on which the parliamentary primary was held, would have made a heck of a difference. After all, this was not a general election where a sizeable percentage of voters could have been aptly deemed to have been undecided.
In a delegates' primary, the minds of most electors had probably been already made up since June when the party's parliamentary primary elections had been scheduled to take place throughout the country. Of course, there is still time for the NPP to get its act together and rally for a resounding victory in Election 2016. Anybody harboring any farcical designs called Agenda 2020 had better sober up and join the Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia Campaign Train. For, needless to say, if Akufo-Addo sinks in a bog-peat the third time around come December 2016, that may very well mark the end of history for the New Patriotic Party as we know it.
You can mark my words on your Facebook Wall or wherever it is most convenient for you. If Akufo-Addo does not strike nine, the Agenda 2020 Locomotive-Train operators would not strike ten, or hit the platform at the Adum Train Station; and so the Ejisu/Edweso Boys had better start kissing their luck eternally goodbye. For God willing, sympathetic, albeit fiercely independent, critics like yours truly would give our utmost best to make a Flight MH 370 out of the Agenda 2020 Mirage-Train.
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