Opinions of Saturday, 12 January 2008
Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame
The Lingering Myth of UNC Split from PFP
A curiously interesting article, pretentiously and sensationally titled "Unraveling Akuffo [sic] Addo's Tribal and Polarizing Politics!" appeared in the Ghanaweb.com edition of January 4, 2008. We shall not mention the name of the author of the afore-referenced article, primarily because the contents of the article are indescribably despicable and downright beneath contempt and our dignity. It is also made up of a whole fabric of unpardonable vitriol and criminal mendacity.
For instance, the author claims, rather preposterously, that the courtesy call that Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo recently paid the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, was supposedly meant by the New Patriotic Party's presidential candidate for Election 2008 as an atonement ? or apology ? for allegedly having maltreated, or perhaps, one supposes, even libeled Mr. Alan Kyerematen, the putative and nepotistic favorite of old Sleepy-Eyes, in the lead-up to the NPP's December 22-23, 2007 Delegates' Convention that witnessed Nana Akufo-Addo's eloquent trouncing of his electoral rivals. And on the latter score must be emphasized the term 'rivals,' for his fellow NPP competitors for the party's presidential nomination were the ultimate winner's rivals, not his political opponents, as widely and erroneously construed and disseminated by media reporters and commentators in the lead-up to the NPP's December 2007 Delegates' Convention. And it is primarily for this very reason that once the stormy dust of the competition settled, Nana Akufo-Addo had to rally nearly every one of these same rivals of yesterday to enable the NPP flagbearer retain democratic power and, with the latter, ensure the salutary preservation of our new-fangled Fourth-Republican liberal capitalist democracy, humanely and aptly underpinned by a welfarist development agenda, exactly as envisaged by the immortalized Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics, Dr. Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye-Danquah.
What is curiously interesting about the article titled "Unraveling Akuffo[sic] Addo's Tribal and Polarizing Politics" is that the author 'unravels' absolutely nothing at all, except, of course, to brazenly concoct one vicious lie upon another, with the obviously quixotic hope of hoodwinking unsuspecting readers into mistaking the same for some official, unalloyed truth. And it is exactly on the latter score that this notorious pathological liar and unconscionable schemer condignly hits what may be aptly termed as a deadly credibility mine field.
First of all, the writer, a quite well-known stentorian hack of a nuisance, of the so-called Provisional National Democratic Congress (P/NDC), on Ghanaweb.com, signally dents his own authorial credibility by deliberately neglecting to inform his readers exactly how he arrived at the slanderous conclusion that Nana Akufo-Addo's courtesy call on the Asantehene had anything, even remotely, to do with the expression of remorse or contrition for any imaginable misdeeds that the subject of the author's invidious vitriol had committed.
And here, perhaps, it bears reminding this evidently 'naturalized Asante' peddler of slander and libel that the very wife of the regnant Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, is also the niece of Nana Akufo-Addo ( as well as the cousin of this article's author). And so what better cause could Nana Akufo-Addo's call have given occasion to, except the expectant celebration of the electoral victory of this Danquah and Edward Akufo-Addo scion? And, perhaps, even more significant must be pointed out the fact that those of us highly cultivated Ghanaian patriots, who also happen to hail from major royal families, are possessed of unstudied and rarefied reverence for the grand institution of the monarchy, which indisputably makes us the civilized and enviable Ghanaians, both at home and abroad, that most of us are or have become.
It is also quite interesting, albeit all the more predictable, for the author of the afore-referenced Ghanaweb.com article to neglect to inform his readers that it was, indeed, old Sleepy-Eyes, not Nana Akufo-Addo, who cavalierly released Ghana’s presidential jet to a then-aspiring NPP presidential candidate for campaign purposes, even as the ever-cunning and devious old Sleepy-Eyes continued to vehemently deny that he was, rather unwisely, politically biased in favor of that particular candidate against all the seventeen other aspirants, including old Sleepy-Eyes’ own brother! What is more, some of our own reliable sources report of having personally witnessed old Sleepy-Eyes splurging (or buying votes) for his favorite presidential aspirant in the streets of the Brong-Ahafo capital of Sunyani.
Needless to say, if, indeed, anybody ought to apologize to Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, this present writer’s own paternal great-grandfather, for political knavery, it is certainly old Sleepy-Eyes, not Nana Akufo-Addo, although it definitely would not be out of character for the Danquah scion to do likewise, if, indeed, Nana Akufo-Addo felt convicted as such.
What is also rather paradoxically lurid is the fact that the very author of the article titled “Unraveling Akuffo[sic] Addo’s Tribal and Polarizing Politics!” has spent most of the last two years viciously lambasting and attempting to bring down the government of the very old Sleepy-Eyes whom this paid P/NDC hack is now frantically and fanatically pretending to be defending. For instance, it was this same Akufo-Addo assailant, and basher, who first reported not quite awhile back, in the wake of one of the many old Sleepy-Eyes’ official visits to Washington, D. C., that the latter had flatly refused to lodge himself at the “five-star” guest residence of Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States and, instead, had unwisely and wastefully opted to spend several nights in $ 1,000+ (One-Thousand-Dollar-plus) luxury suites with a battalion-strong entourage.
To be certain, the same P/NDC media outrider who now pretends to be a sworn defender of old Sleepy-Eyes and the latter’s favorite nephew, “Alan Cash,” was also deeply involved in the “unearthing” of the Gizelle Scandal, as well as the Hotel Kufuor episode, which fervidly and Jihadistically sought the summary impeachment and removal of old Sleepy-Eyes from the Osu Castle. So what other reason, besides sheer tribal sentiment and blind loyalty, could be the motivating factor behind the article titled “Unraveling Akuffo[sic] Addo’s Tribal and Polarizing Politics!”?
Indeed, the author’s predictably trashy yarn about Nana Akufo-Addo having paid an “apologetic” call on the Asantehene, reminds the present writer of the hitherto long-forgotten tragic story of a Ghanaian resident of New York City who experienced the traumatic elopement of his Ghanaian wife with a white-American bloke into Canada during the early 1980s. The cuckolded and jilted husband has been deceased for some time now. What is memorable about his tragic story is the victim’s (at least from the teller’s point of view) subsequent decision to write an obviously impersonated letter in the name of his estranged wife who, supposedly, having realized the errors of her ways, earnestly begged her spurned husband’s forgiveness. The victim, who had understandably lapsed into behavioral abstraction, then went around showing his “runaway” wife’s apology letter to any known Ghanaian resident of New York City.
We know that Mr. Godforsaken’s letter was impersonated because many of those who were shown the same, including this present writer’s own late father, had reached the same conclusion.
Finally, regarding the much-bandied myth about the supposed split of the William (Paa Willie) Ofori-Atta-led United National Convention (UNC) from the Victor Owusu-led Popular Front Party (PFP), this is what we recently learned from a reliable-participant source. We are still vigorously pursuing the labyrinthine contours of the story and, needless to say, as soon as all the critical details have been assembled, we shall heartily regale our avid and well-meaning audience with the same. Suffice it to emphatically state here, without any fear of contradiction, whatsoever, that the leading membership of the United National Convention (UNC) was far and away more ethnically diverse than that of the Owusu-led Popular Front Party (PFP). In sum, the notion that the UNC was largely an Akyem Party bears absolutely no substance in reality, historical reality, that is; if anything at all, the UNC had on its enviable roster of distinguished leaders more Asantes than people from any other ethnic, or sub-ethnic, group of Ghanaians. Among the leading UNC membership were the following: Justice Adade, Messrs. Raymond Okudzeto, R. R. Amponsah, and Akuoku, a renowned solicitor and barrister-at-law from Asante-Mampong; Drs. Agama and Obed Asamoah, Ms. Hawa Yakubu, Alhaji Idirisu Mahama, Mr. Da Rocha, Professor A. Adu-Boahen and Gen. A. A. Afrifa.
We also know, incontrovertibly, that the decision to give the name of United National Convention (UNC), largely out of reverence for the Danquah-led and seminal United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), to the party of the scions and disciples of the Danquah-Busia Tradition, preexisted the formation of the Victor Owusu-led Popular Front Party. In brief, strictly speaking, it was actually the latter group, whose anti-Danquah membership, bent on retaining the name of the defunct, and proscribed, Progress Party (PP), originally led by Dr. K. A. Busia, a quite curious ideological development, broke away from the umbrella and anti-UNIGOV Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ) to found the Popular Front Party (PFP).
Indeed, any Ghanaian of Akan extraction who actually believes that the Akyem people speak with a “twang,” even as the Asante people are widely known to “drawl” their speech, must be a “naturalized” Akan. If the preceding were not the case, then, somebody, please, tell us: Why do we have Asante-Twi, Fante-Twi, Okwawu-Twi and Akuapem-Twi, but not Akyem-Twi? The answer is simple, it is the Akyem, recognizing our Adansi heritage, who speak what might aptly be termed as “Mainstream Twi.” But even more important must be recognized the incontrovertible historical fact that there was “Susubiribi” before there became “Asante Kotoko” or “Kum Apem”; for Akyem precedes Asante, Akyem is the parent of Asante, even as Adansi is also the grandparent of Asante.
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
