By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 6, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
He says all the right things, when they are convenient for him. But it is quite certain that when Mr. Alan John Kwadwo "Quitman" Kyerematen declares that "the NPP thrives on diversity," and that the party has "rich democratic values that encourage tolerance, free will and the respect for individual choices," he could be meaning something obviously diametrically opposite to what the seminal personalities whose heroic achievements serve as the sources of inspiration and direction for the New Patriotic Party represented, both practically and symbolically (See "Differences In Opinion Must Not Break Us - Alan 'Cash' " Ghanaweb.com 8/4/14).
We know this for a fact because Mr. Kyerematen, more than any of the other major contenders for the presidential candidacy of the New Patriotic Party, has in the past demonstrated that "respect for individual choices" simply means that when the wind of popular leadership support is not blowing one's way, one can always part ways with the membership of the NPP and come back again, later, pontificating nonsensically about "unity and diversity," and hope that those whom one betrayed at the most critical moment in the party's political history and struggle would be naive enough to pretend that it is all right to choose what aspects of party interests and loyalties to obey, serve and recognize; and also, what aspects of the same to either cynically and capriciously reject or walk roughshod over altogether at whim.
You see, among us Akan majority populace of Ghana, there is a time-tested maxim which warns us to beware when Mr. Naked emerges from the proverbial blue, or woodshed, promising you a bolt, or bale, of cotton-print. Mr. Kyerematen has more than amply demonstrated on more than one critical occasion that he is pathologically not a team player. Consistently and conveniently and cynically going against the grain is in his blood. And so, really, what kind of unity can this man hope to bring to bear on the membership of the country's largest opposition political party?
As somebody recently reminded party members, supporters and sympathizers, the man not once but twice resigned from the NPP at the most critical moments, only to join cause with the key operatives of our most formidable and inveterate political juggernaut, to wit, the National Democratic Congress (NDC). And so how can anyone, except a borderline idiot, trust the word of such a rascal and a scoundrel? And please, don't write to me griping about name-calling. I am merely calling the shots as a studious observer and commentator watching this messy cyclical maelstrom that is the dietary fare of NPP political soccer these days.
Maybe Mr. Cash needs to be told upfront that "free will" is decidedly alien to the kind of team spirit - or esprit de corps - required of the membership of any viable political organization. The kind of "free will" and "individualism" loudly, self-righteously and publicly advocated by Mr. Kyerematen and Dr. McHypocrite verges dangerously on anarchy, rather than the kind of winsome spirit needed to put the leadership of any progressive party into the august and noble seat of governance. And so I am not the least bit surprised, when Mr. Kyerematen bitterly complains that his nickname of Alan Cash has been mischievously invoked by his rivals and political opponents as one that exemplifies his downright lack of seriousness as a politician. I am also not sure that Alan Cash is a serious politician, except that unlike his other critics, my observation is squarely based on his consistently erratic and capricious conduct and apparently Machiavellian behavior.
You see, you simply cannot go about touting party unity and harmony when within the very cockles of your heart, it is all about "free will" and "respect for individual choices." Ghana does not work that way; not even advanced post-cybernetical democracies like the United States, Britain and Canada work that way. In short, everybody has to abide by certain clearly laid-down principles and rules of conduct. This is what distinguishes the national character of one geopolitical entity from another.
In other words, we are Ghanaians and not Nigerians or South Africans, for ready examples, because we are each of us inextricably governed by distinctive cultural perspectives and mores. Likewise, the NPP is not the same as the NDC, because the membership of the former believes in individual merit, democratic accountability and honestly acquired property ownership. The NDC, on the other hand, believes in state capitalism of the sort crafted around an Animal Farm-type of Darwinian pecking order. Exactly where Alan Cash belongs between these polar opposites has never been clear to me.
_________________________________________________________