Who is Anyidoho fooling?

Everybody knows that Mr. Koku Anyidoho is not a decent politician, let alone an honest one. And so when I printed out this news item with his picture at the top of it captioned “Attempts to ‘Bury Me Alive’ After Mills’ Death Failed – Koku Anyidoho” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 12/6/17) to read at my leisure, I did not expect to gather much or learn much that was new or epistemically refreshing. And true to my prediction, there was not much worth my time and energy. For starters, anybody who has studiously followed the career of this motor-mouthed and cantankerous Awoonor nephew for at least the past decade knows very well that the Deputy General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is at least three times as megalomaniacal as both Messrs. Jerry John Rawlings and John Dramani Mahama. And yet, he claims to be exactly the diametrically opposite.

I mean, were the man not a power-drunken putschist, would he have publicly announced to the world that his immediate boss and substantive NDC General-Secretary Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia did not intend to extend his stay at the party’s Kokomlemle headquarters by not running for reelection, without having first consulted the man who has held the job the longest? He also vehemently denies that there is a frosty relationship between him and the former arch-lieutenant who replaced his late boss, President John Evans Atta-Mills, at the Flagstaff House. But here, also, we all know that Mr. Anyidoho’s vehement denial was delivered through clenched teeth. Otherwise, why wasn’t he retained in the Communications Director’s Office at the Flagstaff House, even while less experienced operatives and reportedly snooty gofers like Messrs. Edward Omane-Boamah and Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa were scandalously slipped into major cabinet portfolios?

We even had the newly sworn Interim-President bring in the likes of Mr. Stanislav X. Dogbe, from Mr. Anyidoho’s own ethnic polity, shipped into the Flagstaff House, as well as another from the United Nations (UN) in New York, Mr. Dotse Malor, who would leave shortly before Election 2016, fully convinced that he had utterly wasted his time hoping that the former Rawlings’ Communications Minister would recognize the gross errors of his ways and promptly wake up from his deep slumber, shape up and make himself and his government relevant to the needs and aspirations of the Ghanaian people.

Anyway, in the piece before me, Anyidoho offers ample credible grist in support of those who claim that as Presidential Communications Director to Prof. Atta-Mills, Mr. Anyidoho had imperiously prevented ready access to the President to, at least theoretically speaking, the second-most-powerful politician in the country. On the latter count, Mr. Anyidoho bashfully tells his audience that in the five years since the passing of President Atta-Mills, the prime opportunity has yet to present itself for him and former President Mahama “to sit down and have a chat.” I wonder what sort of a chat Mr. Anyidoho has in mind. I would not be surprised, if the Botchwey Report has Koku Anyidoho penciled down as one of the ardent detractors who caused the massive defeat of an incumbent President Mahama in Election 2016. Chances, though, are that it was the Gonja native’s own gross administrative incompetence that provoked the Ghanaian voter to show him the majestic exit portals out of the Flagstaff House.

But, of course, Mr. Anyidoho has publicly offered enough nose-thumbing rhetorical jabs at the former President to disabuse the minds of any concerned observers who harbored any serious doubts about the loss of any love between the two men. For instance, Mr. Anyidoho has been widely reported to have made remarks such as the following: “I had great love for President Mills, but I worked for President Mahama as a matter of obligation.”

And so it is not clear just whom he deftly aims to deceive or fool, when the Asiedu-Nketia second-bananas claims that serious attempts were made to bury him alive in the wake of President Mills’ death. A suicide attempt, maybe?

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