Watch Out, Nana Akufo-Addo!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 26, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]

The call by unarguably the most formidable New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate/candidacy aspirant for all factional wranglings among members and supporters of Ghana's largest opposition political party to halt, could only be described as most opportune and very much in order (See "We Can't Win If We Cut Each Other Into Pieces - Akufo-Addo" MyJoyOnline.com 8/26/14).

The real problem here, however, is that President John Agyekum-Kufuor's first Attorney-General and Minister of Justice is only one personality among the top-echelon members of the country's largest opposition party. Some believe the New Patriotic Party is, indeed, Ghana's largest political party, hands down! Well, yes, he probably has the largest following in the NPP; but still, Nana Akufo-Addo can only hold his end of the bargain. In other words, if the other younger rivals of his decide not to hold their end of the bargain, then, of course, his call would have been deemed as good as none at all.

Let me get a little bit more serious about my preceding observation - and it is frankly that the root of the current factional wranglings raging in the NPP is squarely predicated on the deep-seated hatred of at least two of the presidential primary contestants against President Kufuor's former Foreign Minister. We shall have more to observe and further discuss about the relationship between the former president and the two-time presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo's quite laudable defense of his former boss notwithstanding.

About the only hint that we can drop at this time is that, by all accounts, irrespective of factional leanings, President Kufuor has not been the neutral avuncular and elder brother figure that many of us had hoped that he would be, going into Election 2008 and well after. And so he cannot be fairly and sincerely said to have had absolutely no part to play in the current power-jockeying mess raging at the National Headquarters of the New Patriotic Party. He has indisputably been front and center, albeit ever so subtly like the proverbial civet cat.

The former Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa South had also better rest assured that as long as presidential candidacy aspirants like Messrs. Kofi Konadu Apraku and Alan John Kwadwo "Quitman" Kyerematen are hell-bent on running an electioneering campaign referendum on the age of Nana Akufo-Addo or any part of his body, or anatomy, the raging war inside the NPP is only apt to get worse, not better. His rivals, opponents and enemies had better come around to fully and soberly accepting the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo is essentially what the law of biology and genetics and Divine Providence cut out for him and his ancestors. He is not going to undergo any anatomical extension to please any "Handsome Giants" in the party anytime soon. And so, folks, get with it! Get used to it!

And those who either decide to truck with him or compete for power against him have to recognize and accept this fact. If anybody makes the grossly misguided and impolitic error of making a personality or beauty-contest issue out of either his demeanor or deportment, we shall fiercely respond in a way that we deem to be well-measured and appropriate, as we have already been doing. The number of times that Nana Akufo-Addo has contested for the presidency ought not to become a party agenda or hang-up, as some candidates have clearly and cynically been doing. Nobody has prevented anybody from contesting for the presidency as many times as they so wished.

To be certain, gratuitous personality attacks ought to be made a legal basis for candidacy disqualification. Gunning for the presidency is squarely about a healthy and civilized battle of ideas and purely a narratological contest of the same, plus any particular candidate's track-record of public service achievements. It is only after these rules of mature and civilized conduct are strictly adhered to that we can then begin to talk about a united political front for Election 2016.

Personal animosity or personality hatred may be deemed prime grist or prime electioneering dietary choice by some NPP presidential candidacy aspirants, but it ought not, under any circumstances, whatsoever, to become the endgame of the New Patriotic Party for Election 2016.

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