Akufo-Addo Needs to be More Voter-Sensitive, Says Kennedy Ohene Agyapong

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
April 1, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]

Like the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) may be dominated by the Akan-speaking people, the single-largest ethnic group in the country. The Akan make up roughly half the population of the country of some 30 million people. There are, of course, a remarkable percentage of Akan-speaking people in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Togo. The assumption here, therefore, is that at least some 15 million people claim to belong to one of the historically and culturally recognized Akan polities, among them Asante, Akyem, Agni, Ahanta, Akuapem, Akwamu, Assin, Baule, Brong (Bono), Denkyira, Fante, Nzema and Okwawu. Some sociologists and anthropologists have counted at least 16 Akan-speaking polities in the West African sub-region.

As it is to be expected, some people, largely members of Ghana’s ethnic-minority polities, have attempted to dispute the veracity and credibility of the preceding figures and observations. Whatever the reality of the ethnic composition of Ghana may be, it can be hardly gainsaid that most of what passes for mainstream Ghanaian national culture is decidedly Akan. We are predominantly an Akan Civilization, as exemplified by our folklore and such national insignias as the Presidential Stool, the Mace and the decorative and globally renowned Kente Cloth, which some once Akan-ruled and/or dominated non-Akan minority polities have been making desperate and gratuitous proprietary overtures of ownership or claims of origination and genius.
In terms of reach, the Akan language, in its various forms and dialects, may very well be spoken by nearly 70-percent of the country’s population to varying degrees of proficiency. For this reason, some Ghanaian nationalists, as well as some who claim adherence to the Pan-Africanist ideological mantle, have called for Akan/Twi to be mandated as the national language. There may equally be the need to making some of the country’s major languages, such as Ewe, Ga, Dagomba and Dagbani regional languages which, by the way, many of them are already. But this is not the point or thrust of this column, which is based on a news article captioned “John Boadu Rejected Ministerial Position – Kennedy Agyapong” (Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/28/17).

In the aforesaid news article, the well-known businessman and staunch Akufo-Addo backer and Assin-Central New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament, Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong wonders why it came about that certain Akan polities and constituencies in the country whose voters fully lined up their support behind then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appear to have been totally sidelined in the distribution of cabinet and deputy cabinet appointments. This is a legitimate concern because in any healthily functioning democracy, the contribution of all voting blocks and/or constituents needs to be evenly taken into account, if the government in power is to be able to retain its popular mandate in the foreseeable future.

In other words, you cannot have a few dominant Akan sub groups or polities being overrepresented in a government whose mandate was earned across all the recognizable ethnic and sub-ethnic polities in the country. It clearly appears that it was in direct response to the complaints of the chiefs and people of the Assin areas of the Central Region that President Akufo-Addo almost belatedly appointed 35-year-old Ms. Sarah Adwoa Sarfo (Safo) as Minister for Government Procurement. By the way, Ms. Sarfo, a lawyer by training and profession, is already the New Patriotic Party’s Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament. And now, the people of the Gomoa Traditional Area, neighbors and relatives of the Assin and also located in the Central Region, are also calling for representation in the Akufo-Addo cabinet.
There is a globally renowned maxim which eloquently speaks to the fact of knowledge, talent and expertise not being the especial preserve or monopoly of any particular race or ethnic group. And so perhaps what President Akufo-Addo ought to have done even long before clinching his 2016 presidential-election victory, should have been to draw up a comprehensive list of all his party’s key players in every constituency of the country and their strengths or specialties and expertise, and then drawn the membership of his cabinet from such a list. For any group of Ghanaians who feel left out of where it matters most, the cabinet or boardroom of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House, the admittedly progressive development policy of “One District, One Factory” may not be of much relevance when all has been said and done.

Having one of their own as part of the most important decision-making body in the Akufo-Addo Administration may just well be the best antidote for putting the pipe-dream of the Agenda-2020 factionalists to a permanent rest. Make no mistake, the virulent internal detractors have not vacated camp. They are only biding their time, waiting for any prime opportunity to pounce.

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