By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
June 16, 2016
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
The decision by the 2016 New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency, in the Upper-West Region, not to contest in the November general election, on grounds of ill-health, ought to be heartily applauded (See “Bagbin’s NPP Challenger Steps Down” Citifmonline.com / Modernghana.com 6/15/16). To be certain, the decision taken by Dr. R. D. Boye-Bandie could not have come at a better time. One actually wonders why he had not arrived at this most intelligent decision late last year. Not that it would have made a heck of a lot of a difference, especially coming in the wake of the inexcusably nihilistic decision by Messrs. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu and Dominic Nitiwul to go to bat for the perennial Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary incumbent and the National Democratic Congress’ substantive parliamentary majority leader who has held onto his seat since 1992 or the inception of Ghana’s Fourth Republic.
What the preceding observation means is that even had his ill-health not prompted him to bow out of the race, there is absolutely no way that the New Patriotic Party’s Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary candidate would have had a fighting chance against an entrenched political opponent who also had the cronyistic backing of the NPP’s own parliamentary minority leader and his deputy. In other words, the message that Messrs. Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul unmistakably sought to communicate by their very self-interested decision to back Mr. Bagbin, was simply that where the personal interests of their old friend across the aisle were concerned, the New Patriotic Party’s electoral presence in the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency was as good as effectively non-existent.
Not very long ago, a commentator wrote to reprimand yours truly for presuming to tendentiously overlook the fact that Mr. Bagbin had also vigorously campaigned for Mr. Mensah-Bonsu during the latter’s Kumasi-Suame breakneck parliamentary primary umpteenth run last year. The critic had not mentioned his name, but one can equally be certain of Mr. Bagbin’s having vigorously campaigned for Mr. Nitiwul in the latter’s Bimbilla Constituency. I am not here to second-guess or demand that Dr. Boye-Bandie submit any medical report from his doctors certifying that, indeed, the delicate condition of his health makes it inadvisable for Dr. Boye-Bandie to subject himself to the considerable level of stress that attends an electioneering campaign, especially one against a Gibraltarian candidate like Mr. Bagbin. Besides, it goes without saying that Dr. Boye-Bandie has an inalienable democratic right to decide what to do with his life, talents and time.
In deciding to back Mr. Bagbin against a candidate of their own party, Messrs. Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul had clearly indicated to the general public and the nation at large, that after literally serving in the august House since the beginning of time, the NDC capo had acquired some vital parliamentary experience and procedural skills that effectively trumped any ideological or partisan differences between the country’s two major political parties to warrant their flagrant disregard of the need for even the most astute and viable parliamentary candidate to be fielded and staunchly supported in a bid to capturing the Nadowli-Kaleo seat, and thus enhancing the chances of the New Patriotic Party’s clinching both a parliamentary majority in the November general election and the latter’s attendant logical occupancy of the Flagstaff House.
It is within the preceding context that the decision by Dr. Boye-Bandie not to contest the Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary seat ought to be envisaged. Put more tersely and poignantly, had he decided to run for the Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary seat this November, Dr. Boye-Bandi would have found himself up against three of the most formidable parliamentary incumbents, two of them from his own party, namely, Messrs. Bagbin, Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul. Talk of a house divided!
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