By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
It is only to be expected that Mr. Sekou Nkrumah would be rabidly railing against the legality of the Election 2012 petition launched by Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Bawumia and Obetsebi-Lamptey (See "Election Petition Is A Complete Waste Of Time" Peacefmonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 5/14/13). The fact of the matter is that politically speaking, the father of the man who was "Pan-Africally" named after the legendary President Ahmed Sekou Toure, of Guinea, would never have allowed the Election 2012 petitioners wiggle room to have filed their grievances with the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Rather, Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Bawumia and Obetsebi-Lamptey would have been sitting on a cold and bare concrete floor in the Condemned Cell Block at the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison, awaiting trial for treason or attempting to overthrow the legitimately mandated FOUNDING-FATHER OF THE "DEMOCRATIC" PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF GHANA. And the nine justices hearing the petition would have been readying themselves for the issuance of pink slips, should they make the capital judgmental error of delivering the "wrong decision" or verdict.
In sum, the younger Mr. Nkrumah cannot be faulted for feeling "sick and tired of this election petition," because the DNA coding for tyrannical predilection runs through his blood. And so, it is perfectly in character when Sekou Nkrumah angrily snarls to the following effect: "In my opinion, I think [sic] it is a complete waste of time; but to be honest with you, the only good thing about it [i.e. the Akufo-Addo-led presidential petition] is that it gave me the perfect excuse to withdraw my support for the NPP."
Maybe the younger Mr. Nkrumah ought to be reminded of the fact that the proverbial apple has been known not to fall too far from its parent-tree. In June 1949, after having been systematically and meticulously introduced to the mainstream of Ghanaian political culture - Ghana was, of course, then called the Gold Coast - and having, literally, made a household name for himself, Kofi-Nwia Francis Kwame Nkrumah, backed by such classical opportunists as Messrs. Krobo Edusei and Kojo Botsio (Mr. Victor Owusu would shortly join their ranks momentarily), jumped ship and formed his nominally tautological Convention People's Party (CPP).
As Mr. George "Paa" Grant painfully narrated the story later on, not only had the future Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah departed with the very operational blueprint and manifesto of the Danquah-led seminal United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), he had been the General-Secretary of the UGCC, the elder Mr. Nkrumah would also shamelessly plagiarize the very name of the political organization that had made him the mythical political figure that he had eventually become (See Dennis Austin's Politics in Ghana: 1946-1960).
Rather risibly, the younger Mr. Nkrumah finds it quite relevant, and even apposite, to raise the issues surrounding elections '92, '96 and '98. Maybe somebody ought to give him a heads up and a copy of Professor Adu-Boahen's "The Stolen Verdict" and "The Ghanaian Sphinx." You see, merely being the sun of former President Kwame Nkrumah does not entitle and/or authorize Mr. Sekou Nkrumah to make any flippant remarks merely for the sake of getting a rise out of his political opponents and adversaries.
At any rate, why does he not address his questions regarding elections 2000 and 2004 to the key operatives of his own party, the so-called National Democratic Congress, since it ought to have become quite obvious to Mr. Nkrumah by now that the major players of the New Patriotic Party do not have an especial prerogative and/or obligation over remedying any lapses that may be giving unnecessary grief to both Ghanaian voters and their political representatives?
_____________________________________________________ *Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York E-mail: [email protected] ###