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23.07.2015 Feature Article

Why has Ex-President Kufuor become a cry baby?

Why has Ex-President Kufuor become a cry baby?
23.07.2015 LISTEN

Thursday, July 23, 2015
Folks, it is becoming clear that ex-President Kufuor is crying all over the place over anything that touches on happenings related to him. And he is not able to explain sufficiently all those happenings to disprove them or to give us anything more tangible with which to conduct public discourse on national affairs.

The latest in the series involving him is the news report about a "secret" meeting that he convened at his Airport West residential Area in Accra to attempt resolving the internal crisis in the NPP. The news reports informed the public about what transpired at the meeting and those who attended. All of a sudden, Kufuor is wailing, blaming the newspapers that carried the reports and attributing malice to them.

His ventriloquist (my good "old" pal at the Ghana News Agency, Frank Agyekum) threw light on the crying:

1. The outcome of the peace-brokering efforts had been leaked to the public, particularly through the pro-NDC newspapers, to the embarrassment of the former President.

2. The meeting wasn't a secret one.
3. Mr Kufuor decided to invite heads of some religious denominations, as well as some other prominent citizens in the country who are not known members of the party, to help broker peace and brotherliness among the top hierarchy of the party.

4. The meeting was neither "adversarial nor inquisitorial" and that "it was a very cordial and fruitful one full of advice and exhortation to the hierarchy of the party present." He therefore described as unfortunate that any­body would describe it as “emotional.”

Many others (as you can see from http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Kufuor-responds-to-NPP-secret-meeting-report-370434)

MY COMMENTS
I don't see anything wrong with the news reports except that they took Kufuor by surprise, considering the fact that those who attended the meeting were probably not expected to "leak" anything to anybody, especially the media. In that sense, then, the fear of moles within their own ranks (as confirmed by Mr. Agyekum's statement) may be more of Kufuor's worry than the news reports themselves.

If those who attended the meeting were not trusted to keep and couldn't conscionably keep happenings at that meeting particularly, and the party's secrets secret, then, the NPP is in deep trouble. It tells me that there is more hounding the NPP camp than we already know of. Mistrust and distrust will kill them.

Again, if secret recordings could be done at such a meeting and released to anti-NPP elements, then, the party is not safe. At least, those not wishing it well on that score are within, not without!! How come that those attending the meeting—and who are expected to work in the party's interest—would quickly turn round to stab it and Kufuor in the back this way? A lot to ponder.

Now, to the other aspect. The involvement of "the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey, Metropolitan Arch­bishop of Accra, Bishop Charles Palmer Buckle, and Pastor Mensa Otabil, among others" as revealed is not surprising to me at all, clearly because they are known NPP sympathizers who are using their calling to do partisan politics disguised as "missionary work".

We have known them as the "spiritual backers" of the NPP and aren't surprised that they would participate in that meeting. Agyekum's claim that they did so because some of the party members deeply involved in the internal wranglings are members of their churches is puerile—extremely childish and unacceptable. He shouldn't think that we are kids to be cajoled.

How long haven't these so-called Men-of-God done politics in the interest of the NPP for no one to be left in the dark about their political stance and why they should also be worried that the NPP's boat is adrift, heading toward disaster?

In any case, couldn't the NPP resolve its own internal crisis without turning to the Church? What role has the Church played in it so far to warrant its being drawn into the kind of mission that Kufuor has embarked on?

We have not forgotten how a group of Men-of-God (including the senile Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi and this very Mensa Otabil) manipulated Kufuor into assembling them at the Osu Castle in early 2001 to perform ceremonies aimed at "exorcising" the "evil spirits" that they had accused Rawlings of communing with and, thereby, desecrating the Osu Castle to make it uninhabitable for Kufuor. That was why Kufuor chose to do government business from his private residence and would cause hundreds of millions of Cedis to be spent refurbishing that house. Then, he ate back his vomit and relocated at the Osu Castle, especially after the Men-of-God had assured him of purifying it. How did that falsehood serve Ghana's purposes?

Today, it is these same Men-of-God who are running around in circles, gushing out false prophecies and seeking to enter every nook and cranny in the NPP to create the impression that all will be well with it at Election 2016. God cannot be mocked without punishment!

Folks, the problems rocking the NPP cannot be resolved through cosmetic measures of the sort that Kufuor is using. The crisis involves Kufuor himself, especially if we consider how the Akufo-Addo camp has branded him all these years. Then, if we turn to the fact that the other faction in the NPP is the one attributed to Kufuor himself, apparently roping in Alan Kyerematen as his protégé.

As things have been knocking things all this while, could a move by the leader of one faction to bring heads together succeed and not be viewed with suspicion?

It is not Kufuor who can resolve the internal crisis of the NPP. Those reinforcing the schism are in the Akufo-Addo camp and should be the first to initiate moves, shake themselves off their ugly political antics, and create room for a give-and-take instead of the take-take-and-take approach that is threatening Akufo-Addo's third bid at becoming Ghana's President "at all costs".

For now, I will advise Kufuor to stop crying and look deeper into issues so he can be taken more seriously if his peace-brokering manouevres should be accepted and enforced. Otherwise, it will be the same "duka ndaya"—“the same old story" (as my hazy knowledge of this Hausa phrase will have me believe). The NPP's internal crisis demand more than a cry-baby approach.

I shall return…

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