Opinions of Saturday, 7 May 2016
Columnist: Bokor, Michael J. K.
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Wednesday, May 5, 2016
My good friends, if there is anything to reinforce my poor opinion about the tribal cabal called the NPP, it won't take long to emerge. It won't take long to assuage all doubts that the NPP is indeed a party of frustrated and ill-tempered characters at the helm of its shattered affairs.
Be it at the local, regional, or national level, the party is being led by those who don't know how to do clean politics to survive in contemporary times. If I am being harsh, it is for a good cause.
Having cried wolf all these years on the political scene, these NPP people are abroad again, this time, turning their own internally-generated crisis into an opportunity for intensified rabble-rousing and threats.
Their Ashanti regional Chairman Wontumi slapped the Manhyia North NPP MP (Collins Amankwah) and Felix Ibrahim, the Constituency Secretary. They lodged a formal complaint against Wontumi and he was invited by the police to assist investigate the offence; but he played hide-and-seek with the police only to “report himself” when declared “wanted” by the police. When official action began against him, supporters of the NPP rushed to the Central Police station to behave as if the offence for which Wontumi was being detained for investigation and prosecution wasn’t a criminal one. They followed him to court today, where he was bailed out.
Even before the matter got to this point, we heard the NPP people accusing the Ashanti regional Police Commander (DCOP Kofi Boakye) of being dictated to by the government to deal with Wontumi. We also heard some comments that by helping “politicize” this issue, DCOP Boakye had lost the chance to become the next IGP under an Akufo-Addo government. Tweeeeeaaa!
Not to be left out, other NPP “Concert Party” actors made their voices heard. The Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah is reported to have accused the government of masterminding Wontumi’s arrest. Then, the real comedian in the person of Fraudie Blay released his thunderbolt of stupidity:
“ … anyone who touches the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi touches the party.
He contends Chairman Wontumi has the backing of the party and anyone who attempts to wrestle with him should be prepared to deal with the party itself…” (See https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Touch-Chairman-Wontumi-and-you-have-touched-the-NPP-Freddie-Blay-435959).
MY COMMENTS
Folks, do you see how paranoid these NPP people are? Who is touching Wontumi but Wontumi himself? Or who is stoking the fire if not Kennedy Agyapong, who has been quick to praise Wontumi for slapping the MP and suggesting that Wontumi did a “fantastic” thing and should have dealt more slaps to the MP and Constituency Secretary? What for?
We note that the Manhyia North Constituency is still boiling. Attempts by the NPP leaders to manipulate the primary election of a candidate for Election 2016 have provoked enmity, rancour, and bitterness among the NPP followers. Now that the incumbent MP has been slapped by one of those working hard to get rid of him, I can only imagine the ugly turn of events.
Isn’t it bewildering that the NPP people can’t see anything wrong about what Wontumi did? Slapping an MP and being commended by those thinking and acting as Wontumi does? And for the party’s leaders to have the case withdrawn for settlement speaks volumes. Will they do the same for those who brutalized Baah Achamfuor too?
What is becoming of this doom-laden party at all? After suspending high-ranking officials opposed to the Gestapo-politics being done by the Akufo-Addo faction, are they now using assault as a weapon to intimidate their own vocal followers? What sort of crude politicking is this?
While Dr. Bawumia is leading the campaign of lies, lies, and outright lies or falsification of reality to whip up tribal and religious sentiments, those who think they have the urge to brutalize those with opposing views are up-and-doing. Is this political party really prepared to help us grow our democracy?
We wait to see how the matter pans out. But for now, I say a big “SHAME” unto these NPP people. Politics is about witticism and not hooliganism; it calls for decency, not their kind of impudence and bullying.
I shall return…
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