Murtala Mohammed: A Political Fraudster or a Comedian?

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

Widespread allegation making the rounds that Mahama Deputy Information Minister Murtala Mohammed may be a criminally indicted and/or convicted fraudster must be promptly investigated, if whatever may be left of the integrity of the government of the National Democratic Congress is to be preserved and/or protected (See "Deputy Minister Apologizes for Using 'Foul' Language" Graphic Online 2/13/14; also "Murtala Mohammed Threatens to Sue Owusu-Bempah" Vibeghana.com 2/13/14).

According to the parenthetically referenced reports, an allegation of visa fraud has been made against the MP for Nanton by the Deputy Communications Director of the Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings-led National Democratic Party (NDP). Our interest here regards the fact of the alleged visa fraud having occurred in Nigeria. Not quite a couple of years ago, we raised the striking possibility of Mr. Mohammed's having a natal Nigerian citizenship, if only because his name strikingly recalled that of the slain Nigerian military strongman, Gen. Murtala Muhammed. The fact that the Nanton MP was also born about the same time that the momentarily popular Nigerian military ruler had been slain, gives some credence to the possibility of such consanguineal nexus.

At least, it does seem to us that the younger Mr. Mohammed may have descended from parents and/or relatives who may themselves not be indigenous to the Nanton district of northern Ghana. Another factor prompting such suspicion is the fact that the Deputy Information Minister is also a recent Convention People's Party (CPP) defector - or renegade - who, going by protocol - has not been a card-carrying member of the ruling National Democratic Congress long enough to have qualified to be named a deputy member of the Mahama cabinet.

Of course, on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side, we have the notable precedent of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the former CPP-MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem constituency. Notable also is the fact that Dr. Nduom never crossed party and/or ideological lines while he served as a member of the Kufuor cabinet. Then also, the thoroughgoing Ghanaian ethnicity and identity of Dr. Nduom, now the founding-proprietor of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), have never as well been impugned. We also underscore the CPP defection of Mr. Mohammed, precisely because the Nkrumah-founded original CPP was widely known to have expediently coopted non-indigenous residents of Ghana into the ranks of its membership in the dubious name of Pan-Africanism, even as President Nkrumah personally mounted a massive and selective witchhunt against Ghanaian-born ethnic Hausa-Nigerians like Alhaji Amadu Bamba.

As of this writing (2/14/14), Mr. Mohammed was widely reported to have vehemently denied Mr. Ernest Owusu-Bempah's allegation and even threatened to sue the latter, if the accuser did not publicly offer any forensically sustainable proof of his allegation. Ever the bona fide gutter-snipe, Mr.Mohammed has also reportedly riposted by calling his accuser a "bastard." The Mahama ministerial deputy has since apologized to his talk-radio audience for his intemperate use of "foul" language.

Whatever the outcome of the verbal slugfest between Messrs. Mohammed and Owusu-Bempah, who has indicated that, indeed, he has credible evidence to prove his quite serious allegation, one thing is crystal clear - our country is presently not being governed by people who can be confidently described as the cream of the crop. At best, we are being governed by a shameless bunch of rascals, thugs and reprobates whose sole claim to legitimacy well appears to inhere in the collusive electoral fraud perpetrated by Messrs. Mahama and Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Feb. 14, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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