Ken Agyepong Did Not Say That!

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



I have been saving this file for a couple of weeks now; and together with other equally sensationally titled articles, the Kennedy Agyepong file has considerably slowed down my computer tablet to the extent that my 8-year-oldson has been complaining about not being able to get on it in order to play some of his favorite games.



"Daddy, why don't you simply write some of the titles down on a piece of paper and free up your tablet?" To which my routine response has been, "How many times do I have to tell you that my computer is not for games?" He has his own, of course.



Anyway, the caption of the Agyepong article in question is as follows: "Campaign for Akufo-Addo else... Ken Agyapong Warns" (Peacefmonline.com 4/15/14). I knew the title of the article did not reflect the actual contents of what the vocal lawyer and Oman-Fm Radio proprietor had said, because on any good day I can just shut my eyes and listen to any news report and tell whether it has, indeed, been accurately attributed to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, in the Central Region.



Until the godforsaken Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan decided to capriciously add 35 more constituencies to our National Assembly seats, with barely four months before Election 2012, I believe Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyepong represented Assin-North. Well, what he had rightly said was that the election of new administrators at the headquarters of the New Patriotic Party ought not to be erroneously envisaged to be a radical re-arrangement of the cards at the party's presidential candidacy level; and also that ultimate electoral power rested with both the party's delegates and eligible Ghanaian voters at large, rather than ideologically partisan and/or tendentious pundits and political analysts.



Now, these are the vintage words of a politically astute operative and a passionately democratic one at that. And the firebrand Assin-Central MP ought to know precisely what he is talking about; for he is one of the few dedicated party stalwarts who routinely put their moneys where their mouths are. And, indeed, nobody who studiously followed the most recent Tamale Delegates' Conference can reasonably doubt the fact that Mr. Agyepong had a lot to do with the seismic shift that occurred among the ranks of the party's leadership. The man promised to put new and more competent and dynamic faces at the party's headquarters.



We now have new faces at the party's headquarters alright; and we hope that Ken is also right about the new leadership's ability to deliver resonantly positive results. Mr. Agyepong does not seem to be in anyway, whatsoever,fazed by the track-records of Messrs. Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, the newly elected NPP National Chairman and General-Secretary, respectively, having once been staunch and passionate partisans of a faction widely known to be opposed to the Akufo-Addo camp. He is far more interested in having his party's membership promptly close ranks and rally around Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a would-be three-time NPP flagbearer.



Ken also believes that the former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister has the best chance of unseating President John Dramani Mahama this time around. And he is not the least bit afraid to make his intentions known to the new party operatives at the the party's Kokomlemle headquarters: "If the newly elected Chairman and General-Secretary are against Nana Addo, then they are going to lose. I will make sure they are voted out of office, just as I did to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey [the former NPP National Chairman] and Sir John [the NPP General-Secretary]."



Now, who doubts that those are tough, even harsh words? But, of course, that is vintage Kennedy Ohene Agyepong. He often presents his cases and stances on any issue on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. I wish the same could be said of the majority of our politicians and policy wonks.



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

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Board Member, The Nassau Review

E-mail: [email protected]

May 4, 2014

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