I Bet Afoko Will Be A Perfect Fit For NDC Chairmanship

They have been scheming for him for quite a while now; and even once while on the hustings in the Volta Region, President Mahama had the temerity to taunt the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leadership as follows: “Where is your Chairman?” And so it comes as all too logical for Mr. Abraham Amaliba, the member of the so-called NDC Legal Team, to be throwing an open public invitation to the indefinitely suspended New Patriotic Party’s National Chairman, Mr. Paul Afoko, to cross ideological lines into the fold and membership of the National Democratic Congress (See “Afoko Should Defect to NDC – Amaliba” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/20/16).

It is an all-too-logical invitation because even as a legitimately elected National Chairman of the country’s main opposition New Patriotic Party, Mr. Afoko was widely known to have been zealously working for the interest of the Mahama regime. Several times, he was reported to have been sighted in the jolly company of some NDC movers and shakers, especially as Mr. Afoko’s legal joust with the executive membership of the NPP heated up.

What would be more interesting to learn is what position Mr. Amaliba and his associates intend to offer Chairman Afoko as an incentive for crossing the Rubicon, assuming that he so decides. For instance, is the NDC leadership willing to bump Chairman Kofi Portuphy and replace the latter with the estranged NPP Chairman who just suffered a massive political heart-attack in his suit against his party in the Accra Human Rights Court?

Or maybe like Presidents Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, the NDC leadership intends to name Mr. Afoko to the yet-to-be-created position of NDC Co-Chairman? That the man sued to be returned to the post from which he was duly suspended in the Accra Human Rights Court, ought to gravely inform Mr. Amaliba and his associates that Mr. Afoko envisaged his post as NPP National Chairman as his birthright, in much the same manner as human life has been known to be ineluctably dependent on a constant supply of oxygen. In other words, offering Mr. Afoko mere membership among the ranks of the NDC apparatchiks couldn’t be more insulting to the intelligence of the Bolgatanga native. But that his all along predictably frivolous lawsuit should be dismissed by the Accra Human Rights Court, is all the more to be heartily celebrated, if also because such dismissal righteously affirms the deliberately impeccable democratic credentials of the leadership of the country’s largest opposition party.

Whether Mr. Afoko decides to appeal his case against the NPP or not, at this juncture, is clearly beside the point. His previous attempts to finesse the NPP leadership makes Mr. Afoko decidedly a persona non grata. He may deliriously keep fooling himself into thinking and believing that he is still the substantive and duly elected National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. But the grim reality of his status is that the position comes with clearly defined and articulated responsibilities, and even as the Human Rights Court unreservedly affirmed, Chairman Afoko flagrantly, and blatantly, breached the primary responsibilities that came with his distinguished status as NPP’s National Chairman. I have said this before in the recent past and hereby repeat the same: that more time than was necessary had been wasted by the party’s leadership in litigating with Messrs. Afoko and Sammy Crabbe, the suspended Second-Vice Chairman of the NPP, whose suit against the party’s top hierarchy was also dismissed earlier on by the Accra Human Rights Court. And so maybe Mr. Amaliba and his associates may want to add Mr. Crabbe to their invitation of having Mr. Afoko join their hoodlum pack.

Indeed, if as Mr. Amaliba claims, Mr. Afoko is not liked by the NPP leadership, maybe it would be more instructive for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) board member to equally appreciate the stark fact that it takes two to tango. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Afoko is no angelic choirboy. He has his own foibles like the rest of us humans. I am also certain that Mr. Amaliba is well aware of the scandalous case of Mr. George Boateng, the former NDC District Youth Organizer from Ofankor, Accra, who was driven out of the party like a wild animal by Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, the NDC’s General-Secretary, because Mr. Boateng had dared to contest Mr. Mahama for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination. You see, if you live in a straw hut, the last thing you ought to indulge in is a contest of flame-throwing.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
August 20, 2016
E-mail: [email protected]