Alhassan Suhuyini is a legislative embarrassment to Ghana

Even as I write, former President John Dramani Mahama is reported to have arrived in Yendi for the investiture of the newly enskinned Overlord or Paramount King of Dagbon, Ya-Naa Abukari, the former chief of Savelugu, in the Northern Region.

We must also significantly note that since the inexcusably savage decapitation of the last Ya-Naa, Yakubu Andani, II, the Great Dagomba Kingdom has been without a traditional ruler for nearly 17 years.

And during 8 of those 17 years, Mr. Mahama served for three-and-half years as the arch-lieutenant or Vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Ghana; and then four-and-half years as Interim- and then substantive President of the Democratic Republic of Ghana.

In all these years, Mr. Mahama, who has publicly and pontifically claimed that he is the most trustworthy leader and the supreme protector of the interests, needs and aspirations of the “Non-Kabonga” northern-descended Ghanaians, did little to absolutely nothing to resolve the bloody feud that was seemingly interminably raging between the heirs of the fraternal Abudu and Andani gates of the Dagbon royal family. You would have thought that the first gut reaction of the former President to the apparently definitive resolution of the infamous Yendi Chieftaincy Crisis would have been for the Gonja native to have wisely, responsibly and courteously reached out to heartily congratulate the two most distinguished personalities who made this landmark event happen, namely, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and His Majesty, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II (aka Nana Kwaku Duah).

Instead, we had the former President farcically patting himself on the back and scandalously claiming that the main credit for the resolution of the protracted Yendi Chieftaincy Crisis needed to be first ceded to “successive governments,” by which he obviously meant any elected Ghanaian leader during the past 20-odd years, with the exception of the man who really made it all happen, namely, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Now, it is also significant to note that there were more acts of assassinations or political killings and coverups of the same under the tenure of National Democratic Congress-sponsored regimes, in particular under the tenure of former President John Dramani Mahama than any previous government or regime; and yet, Mr. Alhassan Suhuyini, the National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Tamale-North, in the Northern Region, claims that Ghana has “earned unprecedented and embarrassing national headlines” under the watch of President Akufo-Addo (See “Ghana Has Earned ‘Unprecedented Embarrassing’ International Headlines Under Akufo-Addo – Suhuyini” Ghanaweb.com 1/20/19).

Maybe the Tamale-North’s NDC-MP needs to be reminded of the fact that it was the most recent leader of his own party and fellow northerner, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, and not President Akufo-Addo, who imported the two Saudi-born Yemeni terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay under circumstances that have never been credibly clarified. The sometime local radio personality may also need to be reminded that the founding-father of the National Democratic Congress, former President Jerry John Rawlings, set an unbreakable precedent when as Chairman of the erstwhile Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) junta, Chairman Rawlings either personally sponsored and/or obliquely contracted the brutal ethnic-cleansing assassination of the three Akan-descended Accra High Court Judges, namely, Justices Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Frederick Poku-Sarkodie and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong.

Alhaji Suhuyini may be forgiven for either not having been born at the time or for being too young, like his friend and colleague, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, to remember this most globally embarrassing act of anti-judicial barbarism. Then also must be pointedly noted the fact that in the leadup to the 2016 general election, more small arms and the sort of assault rifles and other weapons that have been recently used to slaughter and mow down hardworking defenseless Ghanaians entered the country through the Aflao border with Togo than at anytime in our country’s history, since the Rawlings-led Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) made the availability of the Russian-made AK-47 assault rifle commonplace in Ghanaian society.

It is quite clear here that stricter gun-possession laws are needed in the country presently than at any other time in our history. We must also highlight the fact that most of the corrupt activities that took place at the Headquarters of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and led to the resignation of the GFA’s President, and the FIFA-backed dissolution of the Board-of-Directors of the Ghana Football Association actually occurred on the watch of Mr. John Dramani Mahama, the man whose own party’s founder and former boss, Chairman Rawlings, has had umpteen occasions to describe his former Communications Minister as the most corrupt and incompetent Ghanaian president in the postcolonial era.