CPP/PNC: A Piteous House of Cards

When I initially heard about the People's National Convention's evidently expedient electoral alliance with the rump-Convention People's Party, I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my chair. I, however, couldn't stop torrential tears of contempt from running waddies (or gullies) down my cheeks, the way brooks and creeks (or streams) overrun their banks after heavy downpours.

I couldn't stop myself from crying tears of disdain because it continues to stagger my mind how some supposedly highly educated Ghanaians, like Drs. Paa Kwesi Nduom and Edward Nasigre Mahama, adamantly refuse to accept the simple commonsensical, fact that neither the rump-CPP nor the ghost of Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, founder of the original, albeit copycat, “Convention” People's Party, would ever resurface at either the old Slave Castle at Osu or the boondoggled Flagstaff House. And the latter observation is for one simple reason: Ghanaians are highly unlikely to either forget or forgive the untold atrocities perpetrated against the most talented and astute of their fellow citizens and forebears by the pseudo-socialist ideology of Nkrumaism.

More specific, though, is the problematic fact of the perennial and pathological inability of the so-called scions of Mr. Kwame Nkrumah to healthily and constructively rally around the banner of a single political party in order to make themselves relevant to the Fourth-Republican electoral process, as well as render their pseudo-socialist ideology a potent force to reckon with.

And the preceding, of course, is not in the least bit surprising, because the CPP has no substantive track record in democratic governance. And to be certain, the most significant legacy (if any at all) bequeathed Ghana by the CPP is the patently regressive concept and praxis of one-party dictatorship. And it was, indeed, for the latter reason that I promptly received the news of the electoral alliance between the Mahama-led People's National Convention (PNC) and the Nduom-led rump-Convention People's Party (CPP) with the utmost amused contempt that it aptly deserved.

First of all, the very ideological spirit of Nkrumaist dictatorship presupposes the outright domination and/or rulership of a single imperious personality. Thus, it was quite difficult, if not simply impossible, for any avid student of Ghanaian politics to see how such two proud personalities as Drs. Nduom and Mahama were going to be able to deftly, and even expediently, balance themselves on the single and non-starter ticket of any one political party.

Secondly, his shameless and opportunistic portrayal of himself as the sole and only genuine avatar of the putative African Show Boy, predetermined that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom would also be hell-bent on ruling the proverbial roost in strikingly the very same manner exhibited by former President Nkrumah. And so when Dr. Mahama claims to have been callously betrayed by Dr. Nduom, one wonders whether, indeed, Dr. Mahama fully appreciates the nature and fundamental dynamics of the operational intricacies of Nkrumaism. Chances are that the quite staid and noble-looking Dr. Mahama, an ob-gyn specialist by trade, is also, sadly, one of the unsuspecting victims of Nkrumaist “Young Pioneerism,” in much the same vein as Dr. Nduom, a risibly faux Nkrumah look-alike.

Strangely or, perhaps, not so strangely, Dr. Mahama appears to have become hearing impaired in recent weeks; else, he would have heard Dr. Nduom loudly and clearly enunciate, publicly, his avowed epic refusal to enter into an electoral alliance with any political party, whatsoever, going into Election 2008, irrespective of that alliance-prone (or –warm) party's ideological orientation.

On the latter score, therefore, while, indeed, Dr. Nduom could be aptly described as single-mindedly Machiavellian, or downright unprincipled (a knave, in fact), for readily going back on his own avowal, at least in the overture, Dr. Mahama, for naively consenting to an expedient alliance with the flagbearer of the rump-CPP, is the abject sucker for such cheap and tawdry move.

In the final analysis, though, it is Mr. Freddy Blay, the astute Nkrumaist statesman – actually Mr. Blay more closely resembles Dr. Danquah, vis-à-vis the latter's patriotic and proto-nationalist orientation – who comes off the best among the legion. For the foregoing reasons, it is also not in the least bit surprising that Mr. Blay should also appear to be, perhaps, the most hated CPP bigwig alive.

*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 the author of 17 books, including “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Atumpan Publications/ lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: [email protected].