By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
He has spent much of his political career intimidating his opponents by the use and hardnosed promotion of violence among the youths of his own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He has also committed his fair share of economic violence against the proverbial Ghanaian taxpayer. In the latest of such incident, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, general-secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, was widely accused of selling the most exorbitantly priced cement blocks to the government contractor working on the Bui Dam project. And when queried about the same, the former elementary schoolteacher claimed that his were the most qualitative blocks in use by the Bui Power Authority (BPA).
Furthermore, asked why the BPA would resort to purchasing low-quality blocks from other suppliers, at the same time that it was being, supposedly, supplied with the best manufacture of its kind by the NDC’s chief scribe, Mr. Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, chief executive officer of the BPA, proffered no economically meaningful answer. The Ghanaian public would also learn about a hidden conflict-of-interest edge to the foregoing narrative, in the flagrant fact that at exactly the same time that he was criminally overcharging the Ghanaian taxpayer for his cement blocks, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia (popularly called “General Mosquito”) was also sitting on the Board of Directors of the Bui Power Authority. To-date, however, no expert has publicly confirmed that, indeed, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia had produced the most qualitative cement blocks for use in the construction of the Bui Dam.
By the way, it is also quite intriguing to learn about the name of Mr. Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, CEO of the Bui Power Authority. I have a strong hunch that in due course, the Ghanaian public shall be learning about other strange and quite curious things associated with the Amissah-Arthur name. I just haven’t quite as yet placed my fingers on what any of the aforesaid “things” may be about. As I said, this is just a hunch.
Anyway, when he hasn’t been deeply involved in fomenting his own sophisticated acts of violence – economic and physical – General Mosquito has been involved in raising funds for the upkeep of the so-called foot-soldiers of the NDC, who are widely known to have used physical violence as a choice political weapon towards the hermetic entrenchment of the National Democratic Congress. That the party was created, nurtured and shaped by the raw act of violence has never been disputed.
And so when, all of a sudden, Generalissimo Mosquito comes out swinging from the proverbial woodshed and swearing that henceforth the party that Togbui Avaklasu built would no longer generously reward violent conduct, it is doubtful whether the NDC’s chief scribe can be taken with the kind of gravitas, or mournful seriousness, with which many a Ghanaian citizen, irrespective of party affiliation or ideological suasion, met the announcement of the death of President John Evans Atta-Mills (See “NDC Will Not Reward Violent Conducts [sic] – Asiedu-Nketia” JoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 8/18/12).
And here, it ought to be promptly recalled that the Seikwah, Brong-Ahafo, native’s warning came in the wake of a reportedly close call that Mr. Asiesu-Nketia, himself, recently had when some angry Tamale youths of the NDC, whose parliamentary candidates for the newly created constituency of Sagnarifu had been rejected by members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC, decided to follow in the footsteps of Togbui Avaklasu I. The angry youths, who had fervidly lined up behind three rejected candidates (out of a total of some eight candidates) virulently accused the chief NDC scribe of personal bias. Mr. Asiedu-Nketia has vehemently denied such characterization by insisting that he had merely been about the godly business of enforcing party rules, and that any disgruntled parties could legitimately seek redress.
What we find rather fascinating here regards the proverbial Law of Karma, which appears to have logically kicked in, on the preceding score, without any regard for the target of such violence’s stature among the ranks of the NDC Abongo Boys and the nation at large.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
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