Is Nana Kwabena Ofori in Charge of His Thinking Cap?

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

I am making two passionate appeals (actually five), respectively, to the credibility-challenged Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, on the one hand, and President John Dramani Mahama, on the other, to come clean on the widely reported claim by the chief of Akyem-Akroso, Nana Kwabena Ofori, that Messrs. Mahama and Afari-Gyan have colluded beforehand to throw Election 2012 in favor of the Mahama-led and ruling National Democratic Congress. (My other three appeals are directed, for investigative purposes, at Parliament, the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, and the Okyeman Council) – (See “Give NDC Another Term, Even Afari-Gyan Agrees – Akroso Chief Declares” JoyOnline.com 11/25/12).

We are also given to believe that, in part, Nana Kwabena Ofori has based his decision to prevail on the residents and citizens of Akyem-Akroso to massively vote to retain the NDC in power on his firm believe – very likely one that was hinted to him in a private meeting or meetings with both gentlemen – that the guaranteed retention of the NDC at the helm of our national ship of state has already been conclusively signed onto by Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama ahead of the December 7, 2012 general election.

This patently scandalous state of affairs treasonably undermines the credibility and integrity of the country’s electoral process. We strongly believe that there may be some truth to Nana Kwabena Ofori’s claim because, according to the JoyOnline.com website, where the report was initially published, the Akyem-Akroso chief made his observation while welcoming President Mahama, who was on an electioneering campaign tour of the township.

What gives further credence to this outrageous allegation, of course, is the fact that Mr. Mahama is nowhere reported to have promptly contradicted the chief of Akyem-Akroso, which he ought to have definitively done, if only to allay the anxiety of well-meaning and democracy-loving Ghanaians, as well as put paid to our long-held suspicions regarding the tacit collusion of Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama to rig Election 2012.

But that Nana Kwabena Ofori rudely and flagrantly breached Ghana’s Fourth-Republican Constitution by publicly declaring partisan support for the ruling party is also a matter that has to be taken up by both the Okyeman Council and the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, by way of the exaction of the most appropriate and necessary sanctions.

Needless to say, while, indeed, as an individual Ghanaian citizen, Nana Kwabena Ofori is perfectly entitled to his own private choice of a political party or even government, as an invested traditional ruler whose authority is held in (collective) trust, the chief of Akroso blatantly and flagrantly violated that sacred trust by presuming to unilaterally disenfranchise the moiety of residents and citizens of his township who may not share his political views and/or ideological proclivities.

Indeed, should any acts of election-related violence erupt at Akyem-Akroso in the lead-up to, during or in the wake of Election 2012, Nana Kwabena Ofori will be squarely deemed to be responsible for the same.

Needless to say, predicating his personal support for the National Democratic Congress on grounds of the NDC government’s purported electrification of Akyem-Akroso township, is a rather facile and pathetic mode of reasoning. One readily be certain that the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has also assisted in the development of the township in other equally significant ways, such as health and education. Besides, electrification is only one key sector of our economic development, and I bet it was not extended to the people and township of Akyem-Akroso free of charge!

What is more, unlike the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party government which initiated the landmark Bui Dam Project, to primarily serve the northern-half of the country, from whence hails President Mahama, the ardent and shameless promoter of northern micro-nationalism, the P/NDC which has dominated Ghanaian politics for some three decades never initiated any such “big-minded” and capital-intensive project in any part of the country. Indeed, the routine approach to chronic power outage by the NDC has been for President Mahama to sarcastically and imperiously blame God for being a grossly incompetent Managing-Director of Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG), as the Bole-Bamboi native had occasion to do recently.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Nov. 25, 2012
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