A Blood-Thirsty Pentecost Church Elder On The Prowl

I used to admire Elder Ofosu-Ampofo until I heard him on the leaked tape. Politics has changed the man and as it stands now, he has lost all the respect I have for him. He has drawn the battle line and from this day onwards, I am going to treat him like the way I treat wayward politicians. The 'Elder' tag is hereby removed. The silly attempt by some NDC communicators to label the tape as doctored is very funny. They can tell this narration to the marines.

On one breath, the loud-mouthed National Communications Director of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, said the taped was doctored and on another breath, the Deputy National Communications Director, Kwaku Boahen, told Ghanaians that the tape was not doctored and that those who were present when the tape was secretly recorded were happy with the pronouncement of the national chairman. To add insult to injury, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), ex-President John Mahama, also told Ghanaians that if Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo said the NDC should attack the chairman of the Peace Council, he did not mean the man should be physically attacked. Infantile semantics at its best!

From what I heard in the leaked tape, if NDC communicators start to take the EC boss and the chairman of the Peace Council to the cleaners, some of us will leave Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo in peace and turn our trenchant pens on senior members of the Pentecost Church and his immediate family even though they are not to blame. We will question why the Pentecost Church, whose members are respected in this country, could so carelessly make such a blood-thirsty man an elder of the revered church. That is when Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo will realize that one bad turn deserves another. The man is calling for people to be kidnapped and that is serious. He should remember that he too has his family in Ghana and they can be kidnapped. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

There are four men in this country who can turn the apple cart upside down through their unguarded and provocative pronouncements. They are candidate John Dramani Mahama, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and Kwaku Boahen. They have refused to grow as they continue to go about spewing nothing but heart-breaking invective. When he was campaigning to be elected as the flagbearer of the NDC, a party he led to a humiliating defeat, Mr. Mahama, a one-time long-serving Member of Parliament, a former Vice President and former President, was so careless that when he met NDC delegates he did beat his chest and told the delegates that when it comes to unleashing violence in Ghana, no party can match the NDC because the party has revolutionary roots.

After the National Reconciliation Commission was set up by former President Kufuor, one would have thought that now that people had the opportunity to appear at the commission to say it all and pushed everything from their chest, people like John Mahama, who is supposed to know better, would have refrained from such pronouncements which go a long way to open old wounds which were being cured by time. In one way or the other, Mr. Mahama is trying to remind us that the guns which were distributed to the militia during the revolutionary days and which were not retrieved are still in their possession and when it comes to unleashing violence, they have the capacity to do so. At least we saw Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo displaying an AK 47 assault rifle at their press conference after the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election. Mr. Mahama had also served notice that “nothing, absolutely nothing can stop the NDC from marching to the Flagstaff House”. The sages say if a blind man tells you he will throw a stone at you, he might be sitting on one.

After losing power in 2016, Mr. Mahama has been acting like desperadoes of yesteryears in America. He has become restless and thinks he has the divine right to rule this country till he dies. He sees himself as indispensable as far as ruling the country is concerned. He has surrounded himself with some docile praise singers who make him believe that in 2020 he will be crowned as the President of Ghana again. What is worrisome is that he doesn't speak and act like a statesman. Look at how Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Kufuor are comporting themselves now that they are no more in office. Rawlings and his wife will gracefully honour any invitation and interact freely with the current President and his wife but as for Mahama, if even he honours any invitation by the state, he prefers to sit far away from the President and his team as if they are rivals. Did you watch him in Yendi when the new Yaa Naa was being enskinned? He frowned his face like a child who has lost a coin. As for Lordina Mahama, the former first lady, she is seldom seen in public gatherings. The man and his wife are very bitter and if Ghanaians make a mistake and give them the nod again, Ghanaians will smell pepper.

In the run-up to the 2012 general elections, when the NDC showcased the fearful Special Forces, Mr. Asiedu Nketia told the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the party had not seen anything yet and that anyone who will play the buffoonery will incur the wrath of the well armed Special Forces. Similarly, when the well built members of The Hawks of the NDC were being introduced, the same man from Seikwa said the NDC would resource The Hawks to perform their duties as would be dictated by their commander.

Since this man entered the political landscape, he has never hesitated to spit fire and brimstone. He insults everybody including the founder of his own political party. It was Asiedu Nketia who admonished members of the NDC who had left the party to come back home because the dog which used to harass them has been chained. This was in reference to Mr. Rawlings who started criticizing the NDC for being corrupt.

I did not shed tears for Rawlings when Asiedu Nketia referred to him as a chained dog. Rawlings made Asiedu Nketia who he is today to the extent that we were told Kimathi Rawlings, the son of Mr. Rawlings, used to give him old coats that he did not need again. When those coats given to him by Kimathi got torn, he started wearing his wife's winter coats!!! We were told anytime he came down to Accra, Rawlings and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings would give him some bags of rice and cooking oil to go back to Seikwa and enjoy with his family. All these revelations and many more came out when Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings decided to challenge the late Professor Mills for the party's flagbearership race which was held in Sunyani.

It would be recalled that when seventeen members of the NPP decided to contest the party's flagbearership race in 2008, which included the then sitting Vice President in the person of the late affable Alhaji Aliu Mahama, this same Asiedu Nketia said the seventeen contestants were in the contest to elect a master thief. And when he was threatened with a court action, he cheekily said they should rather come and pull him with a bulldozer to court.

Anytime people refer to Kwaku Boahen as uncouth and so we should not listen to him, I always beg to differ. Such persons are very dangerous. The guy has mastered the art of lying through his teeth so if we allow him to continue to misinform the populace, one day a simple statement from him can send people to the streets through fake news coated with lies. You heard him fully endorsing the strategy of Ofosu-Ampofo. It means if Mr. Ofosu-Ampfo fails to act, Kwaku Boahen will act because he has already bought the idea. People like Kwaku Boahen should be monitored closely.

The Mistake Dr. Hilla Limann Did

In 1981, when Mr. Rawlings and Kojo Tsikata were scheming to overthrow the government of Dr. Hilla Limann, the Special Branch of the Ghana Police Service got hint of it and warned the government. At a Cabinet meeting to discuss the threat, Dr. Limann said they should leave Rawlings and Tsikata alone because if the two guys tried anything funny, they will bite their own fingers. The late Colonel Zuarungu insisted that something must be done to stop the guys from doing anything untoward, but his warning fell on deaf ears. Operatives of the Special Branch were detailed to spy on the activities of Rawlings and Tsikata but the two were able to swerve the operatives and launched that bloody coup d'état. The rest is history.

President Akufo-Addo must not take things for granted. Mr. Mahama and his blood-thirsty people have not come to accept that there is a new Pharaoh in Egypt. They will do everything to come back to power through fair or foul means. The intelligence community must be put on red alert and our security forces must be on the lookout for troublemakers. Posterity will never forgive us if we lose our guards and go to sleep only to be overtaken by events. They know very well that rigging the 2020 general elections is unthinkable so they will do everything to make the country ungovernable. Joseph Yammin, an activist of the NDC, has served that notice already. If a dog loses one leg, it changes the way it walks. The watchword is VIGILANCE.

From Eric Bawah