Hold Your Peace, Ken!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I am not privy to the internal dynamics of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and so I cannot presume to hold brief for either side of the raging acrimony between Mr. Kennedy Agyepong, the NPP-Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, on the one hand, and Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the NPP National Chairman and his executive associates, on the other (See "I Will Form My Own Party If Jake Wins - Ken Agyapong" Vibeghana.com 1/28/14).

In the recent past, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey has publicly accused the Assin-Central MP of seeking his personal destruction. Now, this is a very serious allegation. Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey has also publicly and vehemently denied that Mr. Agyepong had donated any bikes and other logistical support items to the party in the heat of Election 2012. This followed Mr. Agyepong's widely reported allegation that some movers and shakers of the NPP may have cynically and deliberately diverted material resources personally donated to the party, with the help of some Chinese benefactors, or rather speculative investors in the political fortunes of the NPP.

The preceding state of affairs, if accurately reported by the media, may well raise serious questions about the country's election laws, as articulated in our 1992 Republican Constitution, down the pike, as it were. For now, though, what needs to be promptly and effectively tackled is the flagrant politics of personal destruction that appears to be fast taking grips of the NPP. That Mr. Agyepong, the man in the eye of the storm, vis-a-vis the latest internal party squabbling is a formidable figure in the NPP cannot be gainsaid, irrespective of whether one agrees with Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey that Mr. Agyepong is not a major financier of the New Patriotic Party, or one takes the diametrically opposite stance. The fact of the matter is that the man possesses both a remarkable modicum of political and media power and/or influence to be able to do considerable damage to the reputation and fortunes of the NPP, unless cooler heads prevail to find a mutually acceptable solution to the apparent bone of contention.

The firebrand Assin-Central MP has every democratic right to campaign against any party leaders that he deeply believes to be grossly incompetent, and may have either been inadvertently or willfully working against the electoral success of the party. But it is not very forward-looking for Mr. Agyepong to be seen to be erratically attempting to strongarm party delegates and electors into toeing his line. I also don't know that the $ 20 million that he claims to have earmarked for the waging of a massive and relentless one-man war/battle against all party incumbents, throughout the country, is a very meaningful (or productive) way of spending his money. But, of course, it is his own money!

You see, it is extremely difficult for Mr. Agyepong to make a credible and convincing case that each and every one of the party executives throughout the country has not sacrificed in any remarkable manner for the good fortune of the party. Such a wild and blanket political tack makes him clearly seem like the one who may be clinically out of tune with the party's metaphorical symphonic orchestra. I am also hoping that he does not intend to make good on his threat of quitting the New Patriotic Party and forming his own political party, if he fails to have his way with party delegates and electors. Maybe he needs to sit down with Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the founding-proprietor of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), in order to learn a thing or two about the Sissyphean task of going solo.

At any rate, I perfectly appreciate the utter frustration of Mr. Agyepong; but I also strongly believe that quiet diplomacy is the best way to go at it. Easy does it, as the saying goes.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 28, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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