Togbui Afede refreshingly morphs into an astute statesman

The Yale University School of Business-educated Togbui Afede, XIV, the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli Traditional Area and President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, was part of the National Democratic Congress’ Transitional Team in the wake of the hotly contested 2008 presidential election that saw the induction of Dr. John Evans Atta-Mills, late, into the Flagstaff House.

Back then, as I vividly recall, his participation and membership of at least two committees of the Transitional Team raised public eyebrows, being that Ghana’s 1992 Republican Constitution categorically discouraged legitimately invested traditional rulers/chieftains from engaging in partisan politics.

Earlier on, during the tenure of the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP), Togbui Afede had lamented that while on a visit to China aimed at drumming up business investments for his part of Ghana, he had been given a scandalous short-shrift treatment by some officials at the country’s diplomatic mission in Beijing that made him feel as if he was a foreigner in his own country, much less an invested traditional ruler.

He had also virulently accused the Kufuor government of having deliberately marginalized the Volta Region in its national development agenda. It would take a courageous and fair-minded President Kufuor, if I recall accurately, to point out to the Asogli paramount chieftain that the much-celebrated West African Gas Pipeline had been routed through his home district and that, in fact, the people of the Asogli traditional state were prime beneficiaries of the energy generated by the same.

In short, for as long as he has been recognized as a public figure of remarkable distinction, I have always associated Togbui Afede with the political culture and ideology of the Rawlings-minted National Democratic Congress (NDC). And so it comes as quite refreshing that finally the Ho-Asogli paramount chief has come to the grim and painful realization that the key operatives of the NDC have been taking his people for granted for far too long. In a recent news report, for example, the President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs was quoted to have said that the tagging of the Volta Region as the NDC’s World Bank was untenably derogatory (See “NDC’s ‘World Bank’ Tag Derogatory to Volta Region – Togbui Afede” Ghana News Agency / Ghanaweb.com 9/13/16).

For Togbui Afede, such political tagging of the Volta Region was immitigably insulting to the intelligence of the people of the region as a whole, but in particular to the Anlo-Ewe who had also been expected to facilely throw their massive electoral weight behind the leaders of the so-called Umbrella Party, irrespective of whether an NDC government was responsive to their socioeconomic needs or not.

“The National Democratic Congress has taken the Volta Region for granted with a show of gross disrespect for the chiefs and people of this region,” Togbui Afede reportedly told Mr. Kofi Attoh, Chairman of the Volta Regional NDC Election Taskforce. Mr. Attoh had called on Togbui Afede with his team of ballot-rigging “engineers” to seek the blessing of the distinguished and popular traditional ruler.

Togbui Afede was further reported to have wondered aloud to Mr. Attoh’s team why politicians frequented chiefs and traditional rulers like himself only when the next election was around the corner.

He also lamented the fact that he had personally made tens of phone calls, as well as written tons of text messages seeking help for his people from local government officials all to no avail. “If you don’t meet the chiefs and their people to deliberate on development issues, then it means you are just representing yourselves in government and not the people” who entrusted you with their electoral validation and confidence.

According to the Asogli Paramount Chief, “Politics is not an end in itself; rather, it aims to bring development and happiness to the people, not a select few: politics must create opportunities for all, whether the government in power is the New Patriotic Party or the National Democratic Congress.” I say more power to you, Togbui Agbogbomefia!

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
September 13, 2016
E-mail: [email protected]