By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
March 5, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
From time to time, some jaded cynic would roil up the political waters, hoping to create enough dirt to dampen the momentum and spirits of his/her internal opponents. That the 2016 Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has far more factional enemies among the ranks of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo Tradition, or camp, is patently pedestrian. And so the faux news headline captioned: "Akufo-Addo's 2016 Chances Fading..." which appeared in the Ghanaweb.com General News Edition of March 5, 2015, did not faze those of us 50-plus-year-old avid observers and pundits of the New Patriotic Party's political culture.
I have personally written about this matter in the recent past and, therefore, have no need to rehash the same. The fact of the matter is that come rain or shine, Election 2016 will be far, far less about the personality of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo than it will be a veritable and searing referendum on the performance of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress. And whether the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian electorate chooses to miserably mark time with the present regime for another aimless walk in the proverbial wilderness will, of course, be their inalienable democratic right.
But it is another matter, altogether, to expect staunch supporters of Nana Akufo-Addo to just docilely roll over on their backs and timidly hand over their support to any known internal detractor who replaces the former Justice and Foreign Minister, in the highly unlikely event of Nana Akufo-Addo's losing his second battle against President John Dramani Mahama for occupancy of the Kufuor-reconstructed Jubilee-Flagstaff House. Most of the fare dished up by The Republic newspaper is not new. For instance, the inveterate animosity harbored by Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, a man who is actually more strategically treacherous than Dr. Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe, is nothing new and would be epically flabbergasting if even a more credible rag had put quite the opposite message to what we already know into the public domain.
At this juncture, about all that I can frankly say is that as occurred in the previous two presidential elections, the New Patriotic Party is both its own best friend as well as its own worst enemy. We know from the reliable likes of distinguished NDC scribal-crossdresser Johnson Asiedu-Nketia that in real statistical terms, Nana Akufo-Addo clinched the Election 2012 presidential ballot hands down, except for the abject lack of vigilance on the part of the very NPP stalwarts and operatives that The Republic newspaper alleges to be hell-bent on snatching victory from the jowls of Nana Akufo-Addo in favor of President Mahama and some dubious political game plan called Agenda 2020.
Well, the Mills-Mahama Better-Ghana Agenda, hoopla and all, never really got off the proverbial drawing board, and so what could these spoil-sport pundits possibly be talking about, except the obvious suicide wish of ardent Akufo-Addo internal detractors among the executive ranks of the New Patriotic Party? If by the narratives and inferences drawn by The Republic newspaper and its media allies, the New Patriotic Party, as it is currently constituted, is doomed to perpetually remain on the margins of political opposition, then, of course, there is little that anybody can do about it, empty party kitty or not. It is as simple as that. And I am pledged to facilitate the steady furtherance of such nihilistic course, if it becomes necessary.
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