What do Ohene Kwapong and Baba Jamal Have in common?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the two most serial losers in the history of Ghanaian politics. Incidentally, the two belong to the same cancerous contraption. The founder of the NDC, former President J.J. Rawlings saw in Baba Jamal some negative traits which would prevent him from setting foot on the land of Canaan, even though his two eyes would see it. To discerning Ghanaians, Baba can use manipulation and intimidation to secure the Party’s tickets as the Parliamentary Candidate for Akwatia, but he will never, and I repeat, he will never become a Member of Parliament for the Constituency. Just mark my words.
Baba Jamal has done a great deal of disservice to the people of his constituency. After failing twice to win the seat, he declared the 2008 Parliamentary Election a Jihad. “It was alleged” that in furthermore of his jihad he imported some Chadians into Akwatia with instructions to snatch ballot boxes from some polling stations in the Akwatia Township.
You see “importing” Non Ghanaians into the country without relevant travel documents is in itself an offence and the stealing our ballots boxes was the greatest insult to the constitution of the country. And this Baba of a man still wants to be a member of parliament. Tufiakwa! It will never happen. No, not in our lifetime!
The President initially rewarded the owner of Mee Me Loans and Savings Services with the plush port folio of Deputy Regional Minister, a position, I learnt Baba Jamal, used to undermine the then Regional Minister, Ofosu Ampofo. He also used his position to acquire some Gold concession at Abomoso, where his “partner in crime”, Ohene Kwapong, Former Commander of the Ghana Navy, under Ex President Rawlings hails from
As soon as he became Deputy Minister, Baba used his position to unleash mayhem on residents in the constituency especially Akwatia.
During the Run-Off (only 6 polling stations) Baba and the members of the cancerous contraption descended so low to unleash mayhem on the innocent citizens of the town. The crude methods of intimidation, brutality, and concocted lies were reminiscent of the barbarian invasions and the periods of Hammurabi and Genghis Khan.
After subjecting law-abiding citizens in the constituency to such a horrendous experience, Baba ensured that those opposed to his own political persuasions were incarcerated. About two or so months ago, Baba was at it again, doing what he knows best. He ordered the arrest and incarceration of a law abiding citizen of Akwatia who was minding his own affairs in line with President Mills’ “dzi wo fie asem” mantra. He was of the Osono stock and did not want to have anything to do with the NDC. After all, was that not the import of the President’s “dzi wo fie asem”?The then self deluded Deputy Minister for Eastern Region, who is now the Deputy Ananias of the Ministry of Lies in Mills Ghana, wanted to show the people of Akwatia and its environs that he too had arrived. Without any prompting from any corner whatsoever, he jumped out of his car and started pumping the hands of people around.
When it got to the turn of our dye-in the wood supporter of the NPP, the latter refused to shake the outstretched hands of the Deputy Regional Minister. Baba asked him why, and the patriot told him his (Baba Jamal’s) hands were tainted with the blood of innocent people of Akwatia who were languishing in jail.
“Kai!” What a cheek! And a bloody civilian for that matter! Are you not honoured that a whole Deputy Minister has condescended to your level to shake hands with you? Ingrate! Article of no commercial value! I will change your sleeping place this night, I assure you of that. Just wait and see! Don’t you know I can do anything to you and nobody will dare raise a finger? Yes, we are in power. You mustn’t forget that!” Those might have been the utterances of Baba as he raved and raged for minutes on end to show how important he was.
And true to his word, the police carried a dawn swoop on the residence of this law-abiding citizen who because of the respect he has for the President was minding the affairs of his political party in accordance with the President’s warning to “dzi wo fie asem’. After all, did the ousted Ashanti Regional Minister not issue a fatwa to NDC members to slap any NPP member who contradicted them both in public and in private?
But the most pathetic aspect of the whole show was the time Baba Jamal and the unpatriotic policemen chose to arrest this patriotic Ghanaian. Three o’clock in the morning was such an ungodly hour to the arrest somebody who had not committed any crime. What crime has our man committed that he should be subjected to such indignities? I learnt he was handcuffed and paraded through some streets of Akwatia like a common criminal before being bundled into the vehicle which took him to his new “residence”.
But I have some few words of caution for our Policemen and women. The Holy Books tell us that we shall all give accounts of our stewardship on the day of reckoning. Let the Police do their work according to the Law without any interference from any corner and they will win the confidence of Ghanaians. Let them emulate the dedication and patriotism exhibited by the Police officer who was nick-named Aban. By the way, where is he? If he is alive, I suggest he must be commended and given a national award. Aban was the policeman who arrested the driver of Naa Morkor Busia (wife of the then Prime Minister Dr Busia) for driving without his license. Aban never accepted “gifts”. If you wanted to bribe him, he would tell you to go and pay to Aban, and that was how he acquired the name “Aban”.
Yes, Baba Jamal, an indigene of Akwatia had sent well-armed police men to arrest a law-abiding citizen of the town, whose only crime was to adhere to the advice or was it warning of President Mills. But that was not the end of the matter. Baba wanted to make sure that there were no friendly faces around and so ensured that this gallant and patriotic young man was sent to an “enemy territory” in far away Oda. The arrest took place at Akwatia. There are police stations at Akwatia, Kade and Wenchi. Why not send him to any of these mentioned police stations, but Oda? And that was how the Oda Police took possession of the soul and body of the patriotic youth.
And if the police at Oda thought that was the best thing to do under the circumstances. Hmnn…Asem beba dabi. The Police men at Oda Police station who obeyed that jungle and illegitimate order from a frustrated parliamentary serial loser have committed an abominable crime against God, Mother Ghana and the human society. They must purge themselves of this contempt by going on their knees to pray for forgiveness. The cleansing mission will descend heavily on the policemen and women who perpetrated this heinous crime against the people of Akwatia if the NDC loses power in 2012, which is a sure banker.
What action has Baba Jamal taken against the riotous and unruly NDC foot soldiers for holding the entire state machinery to ransom? NDC foot soldiers have seized public toilets, toll booths, lorry parks, NHIS offices all over the country; they have destroyed tender documents, seized their party headquarters and have even taken control of the Adomi Bridge and collected tolls for some hours. What have BABA Jamal and the slow and ineffective Mills administration done about them?
What about Ohene Kwapong? Well, he is a true son of the soil. I don’t know when the break up with the community occurred, but I think it has to do with the subject of “noko fio” when Rawlings appointed him Commander of Ghana Navy. Until the 2008 Parliamentary Elections, he had been his party’s candidate since its formation in 2002. But trust the gallant and patriotic sons of Abomoso. No earthly power can compel them to follow any other tradition, and I love them for that stance. The people have decided to embrace the Danquah-Busia-Dombo Tradition and nothing would make them change their minds.
Ohene Kwapong also attempted to toe the line of Baba Jamal, or was it the other way round? During the 2008 General Elections, “the traitor in our midst” Ohene Kwapong could not comprehend why the support base of the NDC at Abomoso remained very low. He did some consultations and thought he had found a solution. “Eureka!” he shouted. Yes, I have a solution. The power of intimidation! If persuasion fails, force is applied. Yes, the people must be made to conform, he might have told his masters. This time around, we must and will not fail. And so he brought some heavily built men to Abomoso and ‘camped’ them at his residence, on the eve of the 2008 General Elections o perpetuate an electoral coup against the people of the town.
The youth of the town got wind of it and demanded that those macho men be sent away. He refused and a showdown was imminent. In the end, when he and his masters realized that the odds were heavily tilted against them, the macho men fled into the bush. So the bye election was not the first time Ohene Kwapong has resorted to the use of thuggery, harassment, and unorthodox methods to influence the out come of elections at Atiwa. But this time, he went too far. He brought evil minded people like Anita de Souza to render the people of Abomoso impotent to enable them carry out their electoral fraud against the people. We are all living witnesses to what happened, when Anita de Souza recklessly and capriciously drove her vehicle through a human barricade and in the process caused extensive bodily injuries to those poor innocent souls whose only crime was to protect their votes and prevent satanic agents like Anita de Souza from engaging in political thuggery.
Where does Ohene Kwapong come in? Yes, he was the Achan of our troubles and woes. The healed wounds of the four brave men of Abomoso who resisted attempts by these agents of darkness to unleash violence on Abomoso Township are there for all to see. The people will have a story to tell to all who care for justice. Yes, these were unarmed civilians who had come under vicious forms of attack from external force. It was at Abomoso that I came to the conclusion that the NDC is a devilish organization comprising all the miscreants in the Ghanaian society. And that of course includes Ohene Kwapong and Anita de Souza. At was after Ohene Kwapong had given refuge to Anita de Souza to enable her exhibit he her un Ghanaian and barbaric characteristics that I realized that Ghana was systematically moving towards Thomas Hobbes “state of nature” where life was nasty, brutish and short – All thanks to people like Ohene Kwapong.
Well, after the Atiwa bye election, Ohene Kwapong found Abomoso Township too uncomfortable to stay. The people held him accountable for the ordeal their sons had gone through at the hands of NDC imported thugs.
Unfriendly faces accosted him at every place he went. The Church could not offer him refuge. Nobody said any word to him. In short, the gong-gong had not been beaten; neither did the town crier say any thing. But the message was loud and clear. Navy Commander Ohene Kwapong, you have outlived you welcome at the place of your birth, and a new location would be good for you. In short, the people seem to say: “Ohene Kwapong, you have been declared persona non grata!” It was simple, loud and clear!
The people have not committed any crime and I do not think that there is any law in our statute books which will compel someone to speak to another if the former does not wish to do so. In the same way nothing compels the people to sell to Ohene Kwapong if the people did not wish to do so. The man got the cue and relocated. He did not only go away, he took along his aged mother, and was not seen for a long time. He only came back for a brief period to attend the burial and funeral ceremony of a close relative. Where he has gone to, the people do not know and we don’t care to know. But the purpose of this write up is that one cannot fight against one’s own clan or people and expect to win. Chinua Achebe showed it in “Arrow of God” with the defeat of the Chief Priest, Ezuelu.
Under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, there will be no witch-hunting of political opponents. He will operate an open door policy, and he exhibited this sterling quality when he embraced his cousin and arch-political rival, Owuraku Amofa, whom he had fought fiercely for control of the Abuakwa South Parliamentary Seat.
But mark my words. Baba Jamal cannot and will never become the Member of Parliament for his Constituency. May be, a change will do him a lot of good, just as his “partner in crime” has done. He, who has ears, let him hear the prophetic words coming from the mouth of Daniel Danquah Damptey. Baba, you are finished politically!

Daniel Danquah Damptey ([email protected])
([email protected]) 0243715297 (Osonobaba)