By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
I don't know that making flagbearers out of Presidents Jeremiah John Rawlings, John Evans Atta-Mills and, now, John Dramani Mahama has made the leadership of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC) any better and more visionary and progressive and creative in the twenty-odd years that Ghana has forged a fledgling, albeit robust, culture of constitutional democracy.
In the areas of comprehensive national healthcare, food production, education, electrification and water-resource management and road transport, the NDC has absolutely nothing worthy of emulation to vaunt of. And so it just makes the critical thinker and avid observer of the fourth republican Ghanaian political scene aptly wonder precisely what he means, when Mr. Felix Kwakye Ofosu, or Ofosu-Kwakye, dares the key operatives of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to demonstrate its nationalist credentials by selecting a non-Akan citizen as its presidential candidate for Election 2016 (See "Make a Non-Akan Flagbearer - Kwakye Ofosu Challenges NPP" JoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 10/31/13).
By now, it ought to have become clear to the key operatives of the so-called National Democratic Congress that "competence," rather than "ethnicity," or regional origin is what makes for creative and progressive leadership. Once again, we need to emphasize the significant context of Nana Akufo-Addo's "Yen Akanfo" comment. It was primarily a cautionary note to the certified terrorists and primitive bullies among the ranks of the Rawlings-minted political juggernaut that is the NDC.
What also needs highlighting is the bloody track record of the entire leadership of the National Democratic Congress, thus the bizarre need to hobble Ghana's Fourth-Republican Constitution by the criminal insertion of an Indemnity Clause for the protection of Murder Incorporated (aka Provisional/National Democratic Congress). For instance, why is President Mahama and his "vice," Mr. Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, staunchly supportive of the International Criminal Court-indicted president of Kenya, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, who, together with his deputy, is being shamelessly afforded a prosecutorial dodge by these unconscionable Ghanaian leaders?
Likewise, if as Messrs. Ayikoi-Otoo and Kwakye Ofosu, the Deputy Information Minister, claim the "non-Akan NPP members have been sidelined," why would Mr. Ayikoi-Otoo, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under President John Agyekum-Kufuor, be gunning for the chairmanship of the New Patriotic Party which, by the way, is presently occupied by another non-Akan in the person of Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey?
This is a genuine and serious question that needs prompt answering. Needless to say, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu can laugh for as long and as often as he wants. The fact still remains that the New Patriotic Party is more ethnically and culturally diverse than the National Democratic Congress. A casual inspection of the Mahama cabinet and other major administrative appointees ought to put paid to any devious and mischievous attempts by party hacks like the Deputy Information Minister to distract the sedulous attention of economically savaged Ghanaians from the predatory politics of the Mahama posse.
In fine, NDC hacks like Mr. Kwakye Ofosu had better listen to Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, when the NPP-MP for Manhyia questions whether NDC tribal-/ethnic-baiting has put any food on the dining tables of suffering Ghanaian workers and civil servants.
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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Oct. 31, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]
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