Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has explained why the people of the Volta Region continuously reject the ideologies of the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, the Danquah-Busua-Dombo tradition cannot penetrate politically into the Volta Region because that tradition led the agitation for Volta Region to join Togo and this cannot be tribalism.
"One of the truths of the Volta Region is a fact that those who led the agitation to join Togo came from the right-wing of Ghana’s politics. They were led by S. G. Antoh, who was [subsequently] appointed as an ambassador to Togo by the Busua administration,” he explained on Alhaji and Alhaji on Pan African TV.
Pratt continued: “The rejection of secessionism, the rejection of this myopic idea of breaking a part of Ghana and linking it to Togo and so on is one of the reasons [.....] I suspect is responsible for the rejection of the Danquah-Busua tradition.”
Kwesi Pratt Jr. argued that Emmanuel Akwasi Kotoka, who was a ‘kingpin’ in the 1966 coup that overthrew Nkrumah who rather campaigned for German Togoland to join a future Ghana, hailed from the Volta Region but “the Volta Region never turned against the progressive course of history”.
He further explained that Kotoka was rejected by the people of the Volta Region in 1979 when they overwhelmingly voted for the National Alliance of Liberals, a breakaway faction of the Progress Party which included NPP stalwarts such as Peter Ala Adjetey, an NPP chairman of blessed memory, and Sam Okudjeto, a former board member of the Bank of Ghana.
“The Volta Region has always been part of the progressive ethos of Ghanaian politics. The Volta Region has always aspired to embrace the ideals of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the progressive forces in Ghana," Pratt observed.
“So, those who want to make inroads into the Volta Region should check their ideology, they should check their policies and they should check their stance on global affairs. And if they did that, maybe, one day they will come to be trusted."
Kwesi Pratt Jnr further noted that as long as the NPP embarks on their regular spate of division and isolation, “they must not and cannot expect the people of the Volta Region to vote for them, and the people of the Volta Region have demonstrated that over the period.”
Turning to the pending election in December, Pratt sent out a strong warning to political parties who are trying to suppress voters and stated that this cannot work anywhere in the country.
“The same people of Ghana defeated British colonialism at the time the British claimed to rule the waves. The same people of Ghana have defeated military dictatorship after military dictatorship. In 1982 and 1983, when the people of Ghana spoke about the return to multi-party democracy, they were asked to hand over to whom? Today, those very people have handed over and we have [a] thriving [multi] party democratic rule in our country. Don’t take the people of Ghana for granted,” Pratt warned.
