By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 24, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]
There is nothing politically innocent about her. Not that it would matter, anyhow. But the very idea that Mrs. Lordina Mahama would actually preside over a meeting of National Democratic Congress’ Abongo Boys attempting to create disaffection among female head porters (or Kayaye) in the Kumasi metropolis, in a bid to turning these largely northern-descended Ghanaian women against the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), in run-up to Election 2016, makes the Mahama posse seem all the more desperate, despicable and dangerous. It is this sort of dastardly activity that ought to pique the sedulous attention of Rev.-Prof. Emmanuel Asante, Head of the Methodist Church of Ghana and Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), and not the vigorous and healthy debate raging between key figures of the country’s two major parties (See “Wontumi Foils NDC ‘Kayayie’ Ploy” Daily Guide / Ghanaweb.com 8/24/15).
Her latest move has also revved up my interest in reading beyond the media headline regarding the motive behind President Mahammadu Buhari’s decision to abolish the Office of the First Lady in Africa’s most populous democracy. This is quite fascinating because it clearly shows that Mrs. Mahama’s strategic use of her charitable organization to boost her husband’s chances of clinching Election 2016 may not be working, after all. But what is even more serious is the brazenness with which Mrs. Mahama allegedly decided to so flagrantly scheme for her bedmate, pun intended, by the way. In the main, as Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, tells it, some key operatives of the ruling party were going to print a large quantity of T-shirts and other paraphernalia in the known and readily identifiable colors of the New Patriotic Party and distribute these to some party foot-soldiers, presumably, who would then sport them around the major passenger-vehicle terminals in the Kumasi metropolis, with the sole objective of harassing and antagonizing the Kayaye.
This ploy may well have been hinted at by the General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, recently, when, in the wake of the heated debate around the question of whether the current Voters’ Register has credibility, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia suggested that the New Patriotic Party leaders were playing the tribal card, when they exposed the mega-scam in the Ketu-South Constituency, in the Volta Region, on whose voters’ roll were uncovered some 76, 286 Togolese citizens. Well, as was to be expected, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, went to work and facilely claimed, together with some of his associates and minions, that the forensically identified ineligible Togolese citizens on Ghana’s voters’ roll were, every single one of them, dual citizens with legitimate affiliation to both countries. Unfortunately for General Mosquito and his criminal partners and apologists, this argument does not pass muster, because the photo IDs and other vital statistics of these bona fide Togolese nationals had been illegally scanned into Ghana’s biometric voters’ register, rather than these alleged Togolese-Ghanaians being physically present at the various voters’ registration centers in order to have their photographs taken and directly entered into our national Voters’ Register.
General Mosquito and the entire executive operatives of the National Democratic Congress need to offer Ghanaians a better explanation than the preceding. The Electoral Commissioner also needs to launch a criminal investigation into the matter and promptly have the culprits arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This call is, of course, not only directed at those involved in the Ketu-South Constituency scam, but across the board, for the fraudulent process of tacking minors and aliens onto our National Voters’ Register seems to be widespread across the country. We are also told by Mr. Antwi-Boasiako, the Asante Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, that the aforesaid meeting at which Mrs. Lordina Mahama allegedly conspired to criminally disaffect the Kumasi Kayaye, via the use of some NDC apparatchiks, took place in the offices of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
If the foregoing observation has validity, then it well appears that the Asante Regional Minister was also likely positioned smack in the thick of things. Which, by logical extension, makes such conspiracy, as has been alleged, a national agenda of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress. What is important here is for the NPP leaders to fights back by going massively on the offensive, even while tightening up and reinforcing the laudable defensive strategies of formidable party stalwarts like Chairman Wontumi. The battle also needs to be pitched at half-court in the strongholds of the National Democratic Congress. And it ought to be relentless. Take no prisoners, as President Ronald Reagan used to say. Pile on pressure until these congenitally unconscionable scam artists are brought down to their knees, and then lop off their heads, figuratively speaking, and make sure there is not a single one of them up on their feet capable of fighting back. It ought to be a total wipeout or no battle at all!