“John Mahama Is A Medulla Oblongata”!

Feature Article, by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

The NPP needs a forward-looking strategy, and refrain from allowing itself to be bogged down with a battle that has been lost in advance! Where is their “Medulla Oblongata”? The Honourable Bukom Banku's interview on Joyonline as part of the activities marking the victory celebrations, after the Electoral Commissioner declared His Excellency, President John Mahama as the winner of the 2012 Presidential race, gave me a good laugh. He said, “I am happy for John Mahama, because John Mahama is a medulla oblongata. He is a sensibility!" (“Minister of Bukom", in an Interview with Joyonline, 9th December, 2012). That must be a good reason for the Akufo-Addo camp to give up their ridiculous pranks and behave like law-abiding, sovereignty-respecting, and peace-loving citizens above everything else. If they have anyone to blame for the negative public perception of their claims, they need to blame themselves for basing their own campaign on hoaxes, blatant lies, 419 promises, and insults, instead of making any sense to the undecided voter. In the end, they were clearly kicked out in 8 out of 10 regions. It is time for the next leader of the NPP to emerge with his own “medulla oblongata”!

Is it not a symbolic shame that the NPP seeks to reverse the will of all Ghanaians with twenty new results, all from constituencies in the Ashanti Region? President Mahama won in 8 out of the ten regions of Ghana, and did relatively better than the NPP did in the NDC strong holds. The very attempt to reverse a carefully supervised process of this nature, based entirely on the “results of convenience” from just one region out of ten, at this time of the day, may be legally actionable, but highly inexpedient because it carries a heavy political cost. The Electoral Commission, contrary to the criticisms coming from leading members of the NPP, such as former President Kufuor, has accomplished a yeoman's task, hands-on, proactive, and responded effectively to the emerging challenges. Their failures were our own failures, such as the registration of minors, or those of new machines, which they managed to fix.

Even die-hard NPP supporters have already accepted defeat and thinking forward, looking at the party's chances in 2016. What this litigation is going to do for the NPP, is that not only are they going to lose, they are also going to mummify Nana Akufo-Addo as their leader, unduly prolong his inevitable retirement, whilst at the same time, creating a leadership vacuum for the party. It is in the interest of the NPP to bring this to a self-determined closure, in order to quickly begin the processes for putting their best foot forward for the 2016 elections. Don't they always say the earlier the better? Nana Akufo-Addo himself wanted an earlier congress, in order to sell himself to Ghanaians, whilst Alan Cash wanted more time to campaign before the congress. In the end, Nana Addo team won, and the congress was organized as quickly as possible. That implacable logic must tell serious NPP leaders like ex-President Kufuor to think more about the implications of the intransigence of the Akufo-Addo camp on the fortunes of the “Agenda 2016” in what is inevitably going to be a tough race.

There is no way a party that is beginning the 2016 race with this level of confusion can hope to beat such an astute “medulla oblongata”. That is why the NPP needs to quickly revise this crazy protestations that will lead them to nowhere, apart from more trouble for themselves and their own followers who are bound to face the security services. It is time for the “medulla oblongata” inside the NPP to emerge. In 2008, the NPP was lucky to have had luminaries like its former National Chairman, and a member of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party, the late Mr. B.J Da Rocha considered “the action taken by the party against the EC is neither in the interest of the nation nor the credibility of the NPP.” The Party Chairman Peter Mac Manu, and counsel Atta Akyia had earlier filed two writs to put an injunction on the Tain election and to stop the EC chairman from declaring the results of the December 28, 2008 run-off. Mr. Da Rocha said the "action is wrong and must be abandoned." He told Joy News, “the constitution must be allowed to play out without any interference.” He intimated “there are provisions within the constitution which allows for the party to seek redress of all their grievances, adding the process must be allowed to go on.”

This time around, the problem is not one of legality, but the political liability. Perhaps, the NPP needed to show its true colours to the younger generation of Ghanaians who do not know their history. By all means, let the NPP go to court. They can even protest peacefully. And it will be alright for some of us if they have nothing better to do than protesting during the entire period of the Mahama Administration, so far as they don't break the law. It is their democratic right. For how long are their potential leaders like Alan Cash, going to abdicate their responsibilities to rise to the occasion and say something, instead of letting the devil find the job for the NPP's idle hands, instead of assisting the goals of their own precious “Agenda 16”? This must be a struggle between the “Agenda 2016” and the collapsing “all die be die” leadership of the NPP. They have a reputation to keep. How does the NPP hopes to win in 2016 against a cool “medulla oblongata”,of the NDC certified by the Minister of Bukom himself?

Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro | Ghana Committee, P-AI, Social Media Campaigns
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 | [email protected]
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