By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Sept. 24, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
He may be a trained doctor, but whoever trained Dr. Richard Wilfred Anane left out the practical significance of native intelligence and/or common sense. Besides, I don't suppose that the former Kufuor Health and Road Transport Minister could boldly and sincerely claim to have been better trained than Chancellor Adolf Hitler's Dr. Josef Mengele. The fact of the matter is that having a "conscience" and being "medically trained" are two different guinea pigs altogether.
In the wake of accusations by Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, that he had credible knowledge pointing to the conspiracy of Messrs. Anane and Mpiani to poison Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in the highly likely event of the latter's acceding to the presidency in 2016, rather than spiritedly challenge Mr. Agyapong to produce his purportedly forensically sustainable evidence to back up his accusation, Dr. Anane has instead reacted in a manner that actually validates Mr. Agyapong's accusations (See "Dr. Anane Demands Akufo-Addo's Medical Records" The Herald 9/24/14).
Well, it is quite accurate to suggest that Nana Akufo-Addo is not wholly averse to the staunch and fiery support of the Assin-Central Member of Parliament. What is incontrovertibly clear, however, is that Mr. Agyapong does not speak for Nana Akufo-Addo. Nor is the accuser the officially designated spokesperson for the NPP flagbearership contest front-runner. Mr. Agyapong has an independent mind and maverick opinions of his own; and what is even more admirable about this professionally trained lawyer is that Mr. Agyapong is not afraid to make any judgment calls as well as boldly and comfortably stand by the same.
What is more, Dr. Anane cannot demand access to the medical records of Nana Akufo-Addo before any legitimately constituted court of the land, merely becasue a free-ranging political rival and fellow parliamentarian and party member has accused Dr. Anane, the NPP-MP for Kumasi-Nhyiaeso, of scheming with another NPP stalwart to assassinate Nana Akufo-Addo. This responsive tack or approach to justice woefully begs the question. And, of course, the hypothetical assumption here is that, indeed, Dr. Anane is genuinely interested in clearing his name and reputation, whatever may be left of the same.
We must also quickly point out that Dr. Anane recently went on record as having stated that Nana Akufo-Addo can only be elected president in the life hereafter, and not present-day existential and postcolonial Ghana. Well, I have yet to read and digest the full contents of the media report that carried Dr. Anane's rather presumptuous, "peremptory" and "pontifical" pronouncements. Still, it bears asking what he meant by Nana Akufo-Addo's only likely to become president in the hereafter, if the Nhyiaeso MP, a notorious anti-Akufo-Addo Kejetia pit-bull, did not harbor any sinister designs on the life of the 2008 and 2012 New Patriotic Party presidential candidate.
In other words, Dr. Anane would be far better off in further explaining himself to the astute and forward-looking Ghanaian public, rather than making matters worse for himself and his factional associates.
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