By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
April 8, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]
This is one of the legion reasons why I believe that the sooner the Delta Force impasse is done and over with, the better it would serve the interest of the smooth-running of the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). For the longer such criminal acts of vigilantism by the Delta Force linger, the more difficult it becomes to differentiate the New Patriotic Party from the erstwhile Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). And if that comes to pass, come Election 2020, which is barely 3 years away, the Danquah-Busia-Dombo Traditionalists would have a hard time staking a credible moral claim of having taken the country to a much higher ground than President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s immediate predecessor.
Which is also why one cannot blame the group calling itself concerned Youth of NPP at Nkoranza, whose members have reportedly appealed to the President not to appoint a female Municipal Chief Executive Officer (MCE) to the township. And their reason? Simply that all the 4, or so, women MCEs who have been appointed to Nkoranza over the past 30 years, or so, when the Rawlings-led junta of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) effectively dominated the Ghanaian political landscape, and later the Rawlings-led democratically elected National Democratic Congress (NDC), did not bring the requisite talents, administrative and public-relations skills and the progressive vision needed to substantially develop the township of Nkoranza.
It is not that the all-female composed Concerned Youth of NPP at Nkoranza does not have any good reasons to discourage Nana Akufo-Addo from naming a member of their own gender to the quite significant post of MCE. Rather, it is the fact that the group should so cavalierly presume that since the women MCEs appointed by the Provisional/National Democratic Congress’ government in the past had all proven themselves to be woeful practical failures, for all intents and purposes, therefore it automatically stands to reason that any female MCE appointed to Nkoranza is apt to follow the same regressive political trajectory. Well, the simple answer to the anxiety of the Concerned Youth of the NPP at Nkoranza is that this time around, the leader making the choice or appointment is not the half-Scottish former Airforce flight-lieutenant called Chairman Jerry John Rawlings. Rather, it is the much shorter but far more mature, foresighted and experienced politician called President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. And he is also widely acclaimed to be among the vanguard ranks of the best lawyers of his generation.
But what is even at once more significant and morally and culturally refreshing to note is that come December 2018, or thereabouts, President Akufo-Addo intends to make the positions of all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives elective. This means that Ghanaians in cities, towns, villages and districts across the country will have the progressive opportunity, for the first time in their lives, to locally and democratically decide on the choice of their leaders. In simple parlance, if the members of the Concerned Youth of NPP at Nkoranza do not like whomever – female or male – President Akufo-Addo selects for the Nkoranza municipality, they can rest assured of having their political input seriously accounted for come December 2018 or thereabouts.
Adamantly steeling themselves with NDC-induced collective self-hatred will not advance the progressive cause of the citizens and residents of Nkoranza. Besides, kicking virulently against the appointment of any woman MCE is both sexist and insufferably unconstitutional. It also flagrantly violates the right of every Ghanaian woman who qualifies for any political position to be summarily denied the same. Nobody is here talking about bringing back the descendants of our erstwhile British colonial administrators to take over the Flagstaff House, because the Black Africans to whom their fathers and grandfathers handed over the reins of governance on March 6, 1957 and their descendants have not creditably acquitted themselves.
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