What gives Kennedy Agyapong this vacuous bravado?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Wednesday, January 23, 2013

We have on several occasions had cause to question the integrity of the NPP’s Kennedy Agyapong (Assin Central MP) because of the dare-devil posture he has assumed to make foul—very foul—public pronouncements. But he is mindless of criticisms and still goes ahead to intensify the tirade.
What is the source of his kind of swagger and foolhardiness? And why does he think that he can take on the entire status quo to defeat? His ribaldry must have its roots in something he trusts.
Agyapong’s “genocide-laden” call on Asantes to rise up and kill all Gas and Ewes caused so much tension in the country, but very little came from him to defuse that tension. His supporters in the NPP (including the defeated Akufo-Addo) closed their ears to all the calls to discipline him. In the end, I can say with all certainty that his pronouncements were responsible for the voting down of Akufo-Addo by the majority of those he had wanted killed.
Although he was duly arrested and dragged to court to answer for his inflammatory pronouncements, the matter hasn’t been disposed of for us to know his fate. Despite that “Sword of Damocles” hanging over him, nothing seems to stop him from indulging in weird behaviour.
In his latest show of incorrigibility, he has mounted roof-tops to jump hard on Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, describing him as “evil.”
So also has he done to members of the Peace Council, whom he accused of being hypocritical in their search for peace.
Let’s take these two issues on their merit for comment.
Afari Gyan as evil
Agyapong was incensed at what has sent the NPP’s Akufo-Addo to the dark chambers of the Supreme Court instead of the Presidency and blamed Afari Gyan for the current state of affairs in the country.
He accused Afari Gyan of failing to listen to the palpable election irregularities raised by the NPP only to rush with a declaration. He said never in the country’s democratic history has voting been held for two days, yet because of the ineptitude of the EC that history was recorded in the 2012 election.
Kennedy Agyapong added if all the parties agreed that because of the mistake of the EC, voting be postponed for another day, why won’t the EC in the same manner listen to the concerns of the NPP hold on with the declaration.
Ghana Peace Council as biased
Accusing members of the Peace Council as “hypocritical,” Agyapong condemned them for being quiet “when the cane-wielding men and women in NDC ‘T’-shirts attacked members of the general public only,” to come out several days after to caution supporters of both NPP and NDC against acts of violence.
MY COMMENTS:
A cursory unpacking of Agyapong’s verbal attacks on Afari Gyan reveals a lot about Agyapong himself as a mere upstart who has nothing to recommend him but the mundane things that he trusts well enough to turn into objects of worship. Agyapong lacks the moral justification to insult Afari-Gyan because he was the NPP’s representative in the EC’s strong-room who signed the declaration form on containing what Afari-Gyan announced as the certified results of the Presidential elections.
It is clear that at the time Agyapong appended his signature to that form, he must have been in a swoon (apparently dazed by the shock of Akufo-Addo’s losing the elections). Immediately he signed the form, and following Afari-Gyan’s declaration of President Mahama as the winner, Agyapong rushed out of the strong-room and stealthily went underground like a Russian submarine.
He was even not available to be sworn into office. It was only after he had recovered from the election fever and shock that he re-surfaced to launch this verbal attack on Afari-Gyan. He has now found solace in the NPP’s lawsuit and seen it as creating an avenue for him to exploit to say what will divert the party supporters’ anger from him to Afari-Gyan. Had he refused to sign that declaration form, we might be seeing something different from what post-Election 2012 has revealed so far.
Why did Agyapong sign that form if he doubted the veracity of the contents? That’s the question the NPP members should be asking him instead of goading him on to display the crass arrogance and hot-headedness that has become his forte.
His allegation of bias against the Ghana Peace Council is nothing but a mere bother and will not be discussed. It is just an instance of fatal escapism and appeal to useless emotions.
Indeed, something inexplicable must be behind this puffed-up posture of Agyapong. Is it his untold wealth that has gone into his head to shape and shave his mindset, general attitude to life, and given him so much foul utterance? Or his status as an MP? Or what?
It is difficult to know why he feels so indomitable to take on everybody and every institution that he seems as a threat to the NPP that must be cut to size either verbally or through some other rabble-rousing means.
We recall his threats to take the fight to former President Rawlings and eliminate him if tempted. Then, again, his threat to the NDC and the status quo not to provoke the NPP or face danger.
He has also willfully bad-mouthed individuals and created the impression that he is a potentate in his own right. That was why in making his genocide-induced clarion call for the killing of Gas and Ewes, he could say “ I have declared a war!!”
We continue to wonder what exactly is the rock (of ages) that cleaves for him to assume such a posture of invincibility and to behave the way he does.
It is clear that he trusts something to shield him against anything aimed at him. As an MP, one expects that he will act and talk in a decorous manner which, if for nothing at all, will dignify the status of Parliament to which he belongs. As a public figure, one expects him to fine tune himself such that the very tax-payers whose sweat, toil, and blood sustains his status as an MP will take consolation in the fact that he is what they expect him to be to them.
Obviously, despite his untold wealth, he hasn’t rejected the emolument coming from the national coffers to support his lifestyle. I haven’t been told by anybody that he has rejected his monthly salary or the perks of his office (unlike the former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor).
For as long as Agyapong receives whatever is due him as an MP to add to his untold wealth, he remains dependent on the hardworking Ghanaians who fill the national coffers but get little to cushion themselves. He is expected to prove his mettle and not do what will create needless tension in the country.
I don’t think he is more patriotic than any other Ghanaian to claim that what he does is for the public weal or to serve the country’s interests.
He may claim to be fighting for the NPP; but he must be mindful of how he does it because his abrasive manner doesn’t go down well with the vast majority to whom the NPP itself is an anathema.
Those who trust in their chariots and horses are not difficult to conquer. Because Agyapong has chosen to carry the whole world on his shoulders, we will give him a pad and stand by to watch him. But we will take prompt action if he staggers toward us to dump his load on us. He is asking questions and should be prepared for answers.
I shall return…
E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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