Some members from NPP flag bearer, Akufo Addo’s camps have begun to play the blame game on the people from the Central Region alleging that their votes were based on ethnic lines. As a result of that they are thereby branding them as tribalistic. The people from the Central Region have shown their trustworthiness towards the UP tradition more than Akufo Addo’s own people from Western Region have ever done to uphold this UP tradition. It was their divisive ethnic acts that brought the Popular Front Party (PFP) down during the 1979 general election that sent PNP into power. At the same time the majority of members from the Western Region took their own drastic measures to divide the UP traditional votes into two by forming their own party the United Conventions Party (UNC) led by this Akufo Addo and his uncle William Ofori Atta. Their political motive is to make sure that Victor Owusu and his PFP will never govern and become president in Ghana.
Many Ghanaians who are not familiar with this story are not even aware that it was Victor Owusu who trained Akufo Addo in politics when he employed him to work in his law firm as a freshman. Victor Owusu was the one who helped this Akufo Addo's father to become president under Prime Minister Busia’s administration while Victor was the attorney general in Ghana. Now the people from the Central Region who have supported this NPP for two sustained times to win the 2000 and 2004 elections are being now classified by this Akufo Addo’s cronies as tribalistic. Their efforts of helping the NPP to win the 2004 elections while they abandoned their own son Atta Mills. That time they were not trabalistic but now they are. These epics remind me of the 2000 elections in America between the Vice President Al Gore and Governor Bush, when the people of Tennessee voted for Bush and left their own son Al Gore who was from Tennessee hanging. This means all of them are trabalistic.
During Akufo Addo’s campaign tours across the country any time he reaches the Ashanti Region and Volta Region, he always preaches tribal politics. He knows what he did to the son from Ashanti region in 1979, the tribal politics and the negative role he and his uncle used to determine and destroy Victor Owusu’s chances. Now if the people from the Central Region have decided to support their son to become a president they are complaining. Akufo Addo thinks people are that stupid to forget about the tribal politics he and his uncle have orchestrated in Ghana. History will continue to judge him but not the people from the central region or the Ashanti region the majority of whom have not forgotten what he did to their son. Akufo Addo is the most tribalistic politician who has ever lived in our modern time. He always wants things to go his way. In this year's December 7th 2008 election Ghanaians have not yet started voting but his Akyem boys were jockeying for juicy positions in an Akufo –Addo led Government. Akufo Addo’s Gabby Otchere Darko has declared himself as the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs before the first vote was even caste. The behavior from Akufo Addo’s trabalistic and power conscious Akyem boys fighting for all the positions is uncontainable. What do they take the people from the central region for - outcastes?. This arrogance and insensitive, corrupt practices by these Akyem boys who are determined to win these elections for their egocentric gains have a long way to be achieved in Ghana. Now Akufo Addo and his cronies who destroyed the UP tradition PFP chances to retain power in 1979 are having a taste of their own medicine. Akufo Addo needs to control his own utterances and of his Akyem boys and leave the people of central region alone. They have the right to support whoever they want to support. I have enormous confidence in the ability of this people from the Central Region to send a strong signal to the NPP and these Akyem boys that this time they will fulfill their political obligations differently and place an emphasis on their own interest first.
From; Nana Kofi Amankwah (New York)