By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
He has not, since 2008, been exactly a unifying figure in the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and so it is not clear what he means when Mr. Alan "Quitman" Kyerematen rather smugly asserts that whoever wins the party's presidential race, and nomination, ought to be comfortable leading "a united party and not a fragmented one"? (See "Alan Predicts Doom for NPP in 2016 if...." Ghanaweb.com 1/2/14). Precisely how does Mr. Kyerematen intend to unify the NPP beyond mere public pontification?
And here, we need to boldly and bluntly emphasize the fact that on almost all occasions, such as the Election 2012 Presidential Petition, when his unifying leadership skills were most needed to rally the party faithful together, the former Trade and Industry Minister, under President John Agyekum-Kufuor, was totally AWOL. It also does not help his prime leadership cause for Mr. Kyerematen to hypocritically pretend as if he is totally out of the loop, as it were, while Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku shamelessly and publicly schemes to blight the image and reputation of Nana Akufo-Addo in order to make himself appear winsome to the delegates of the party, instead of more constructively promoting his own leadership qualifications and credentials.
Now, let's get this message upfront and center right off the bat, as it were: Absolutely nobody, whatsoever, is preventing Dr. Apraku and his rough-and-ready seasonal opportunistic Orangeburg, South Carolina, sharp-shooting sniper from venting whatever views, grievances and frustrations they may have. What we are only saying is that the supporters and sympathizers of Nana Akufo-Addo also have an equal right to respond to any views which they may deem to rudely and uncouthly cross that proverbial delicate line between democratic decency and obscene, cynical and reckless opportunism.
We must also bear vividly in mind that Mr. Kufuor's first run against former President Rawlings was a statistical disaster, albeit a quite an impressive one; and also that even in his 2000 run against the now-late President John Evans Atta-Mills, then-Vice President of our august Republic, Mr. Kufuor emerged victorious by the skin of his teeth. And this was after nearly 20 years of the effective grinding of the national economy to a screeching halt, by the tandem Rawlings-led governments of the so-called Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Indeed, party leaders - not necessarily party stalwarts - like Mr. Kyerematen and Dr. Apraku cannot also pretend not to fully recognize the fact of Nana Akufo-Addo's having worked like a horse in all three electoral seasons to guarantee the victory of his predecessor. But the question of whether Nana Akufo-Addo has been dealt an equally full-throated measure of symphonic support during his two narrowly-failed shots at the presidency, is what the movers and shakers of the NPP ought to be talking about. Because it clearly appears that those fanatically and doggedly promoting a third Akufo-Addo shot at the presidency are predicating their decision on the foregoing state of affairs.
It is also rather lame for Dr. Apraku to use the mere pro-forma expression of gratitude by Nana Akufo-Addo to resoundingly imply that he couldn't have worked any harder as campaign manager for the former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister. Whatever happened to the idiomatic expression of "reading between the lines"?
Indeed, it goes without saying that Nana Akufo-Addo ought to demonstrate savvy leadership skills by, literally, staying miles apart from the glaringly recognizable opportunists primarily intent on using their intimate association with him to feather up or wing up their own vaulting, albeit wobbly, presidential ambitions in the offing. Which is not necessarily to imply that genuine and dedicated service to both the party and whoever its next flagbearer may be, ought not to be constructively and progressively used to feather the caps of those so deserving.
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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 2, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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