You Can Talk, But You Can’t Catch!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

It ought to have become limpidly clear to Ghanaians by now, that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, led by Messrs. John Evans Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama, thrives more on empty promises than being wisely guided by any constructive and/or foresighted agenda for the development of Ghana and the integrity of our national security apparatus.

In the still raging and rankling case of the murder of the Supreme Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Ghanaians were constantly and vociferously told that not only were the identities of the murder suspects known and forensically established, but even more significantly, that the Rawlings-chaperoned NDC was the only party and government that had the guts and capability of expeditiously bringing the culprits to book.

Now, three years and one unforgivably embarrassing trial later, President Mills has the temerity to tell the Andani Gate of the Dagbon royal family and all well-meaning Ghanaians at large that, somehow, the government intends to bring the yet-to-be-identified culprits “to book, even if it means [soliciting] outside help” (See “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide, Mills Tells Ya-Na Killers” Ghanaweb.com 4/28/11).

The latter allusion to “outside help,” of course, is a thinly veiled shameless borrowing from the Kufuor playbook. What ought to more than irritate Ghanaians, however, is the rather facile and patently insulting attitude of President Mills which almost invariably dictates that he would cynically fob off security-concerned Ghanaians with pontifical and virtually vacuous promises, while he sits duck and prayerfully waits for another such opportunity to pile on more and more promises which he, obviously, does not intend to keep or bring to fruition, anyway.

A typical example of the latter, of course, was the shockingly schlocky manner in which dubious suspects were rounded up for the just-ended Ya-Na Yakubu Anadani II judicial circus. That the 15 acquitted suspects were mere vulnerable scapegoats of political convenience and reckless expediency, has been amply discussed elsewhere to warrant any further broaching. The salient point of interest here, however, regards how the Attorney-General, in good conscience, could round up a purported suspect who was barely six years old when the Dagbon regicide occurred in March 2002.

Indeed, as the lead defense-counsel, Mr. Samuel Atta-Akyea poignantly noted in the lead-up to the trial proper, should the hopelessly floored Atta-Mills government bullishly and piggishly proceed with its appeals process, it would almost inevitably imply launching another “fishing expedition” in order to round up the next batch of the most vulnerable members of Abudu family for another judicial gamble.

At any rate, what appears to have been seriously lost sight of in the scramble to scoring cheap political points, is the glaring fact that, in reality, there does not seem to be any clear-cut political differences between the members of both the primarily aggrieved Andani Gate of the Dagbon royal family and the latter’s equally bereaved kinsmen and women of the Abudu Gate of the same extended family.

In essence, our firm contention here is that whatever culpable factors might have significantly contributed to the further widening of any perceived differences between the two “Gates” of the Dagbon royal family must be squarely laid at the doorsteps of those who would insensitively and sacrilegiously presume to make prime political capital of the same. On the latter score, the key operatives of the ruling National Democratic Congress appear to the more guilty. This observation, however, is in no way intended to make a “not-guilty” claim, or pleading, for the key players of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

What is also significant here in assessing the performance of the Mills-led National Democratic Congress vis-à-vis the search for the alleged killers of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, has to do with the inescapable question of credibility. And on the latter score must be promptly pointed out that in delivering his acquittal verdict in the first Ya-Na trial – assuming, of course, that a second trial may well be in the offing – Justice E. K. Ayebi critically noted that the government’s case against the 15 Abudu murder suspects clearly lacked justiciable forensic evidence.

What the preceding means, of course, is that whether Attorney-General Martin Amidu gets his wish in the form of another trial, either of the same 15 Abudu suspects, or another totally new batch of “easy-picking” Abudu suspects, the decisive question of credibility is not likely to ooze off by osmosis. And here must also be promptly pointed out that it is highly unlikely that the “Abudu 15” would be re-arraigned anytime again in a “double-jeopardy” judicial scenario. In sum, whether President Mills solicits “outside help” in a highly unlikely attempt at immediately resolving the Dagbon crisis remains moot. What is not moot, of course, is the fact that there is considerable financial expenditure involved, outside help or no outside help, while the government erratically and childishly gambles with the need and search for justice. And Messrs. Atta-Mills and Dramani Mahama had better level up with Ghanaians as to how much it has already cost the nation while Tarkwa-Atta and his minions played politics with the emotions and psyches of the people of Dagbon and the country at large.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and the author, most recently, of “The Obama Serenades” (Lulu.com, 2011). E-mail: [email protected]. ###