body-container-line-1
01.09.2020 Feature Article

Does NDC Need Akyems' Vote?

Does NDC Need Akyems' Vote?
01.09.2020 LISTEN

Dear Hon. Isaac Adongo, Y. E. John Dramani Mahama, and Good Friends of the Great NDC;

Re: ๐‘จ๐’ˆ๐’š๐’‚๐’‘๐’‚ ๐‘น๐’๐’š๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’†๐’” ๐‘ญ๐’“๐’‚๐’–๐’… ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ณ๐’‚๐’”๐’• ๐‘บ๐’•๐’“๐’‚๐’˜: ๐—ง๐—›๐—˜ ‘๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐—ฆ๐—”๐—ž๐—”๐—ช๐—” ๐—•๐—ข๐—ฌ๐—ฆ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ฅ๐—”๐—ก๐—ฃ๐—”๐—ฆ ๐—บ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐—š๐—ผ’

I am a student and fun of Finance and Economics and will not spare reading any political comment on controversial political issues about the Economy and Finance irrespective of the political ideology of the writer.

I read a lot on pieces shared by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Hon. Seth Terkper on political-economic issues. After reading the beautiful and constructive piece from the finest Alex Kofi-Mensah Mould a.k.a. Sir Alex Mould on the Agyapa Royalties deal; I was excited about his trend of discourse. He raised constructive issues such as the illegality, unconventionality, lack of good corporate governance and prior experience of the SPV itself (Agyapa Royalties); and went ahead to propose alternatives. That is why I follow his page and read a lot of pieces from him.

Another write-up on the Agyapa Royalties deal cropped up and has attributed to Hon. Isaac Adongo (MP for Bolga Central) with the heading above. I initially thought it was fake and falsely attributed to Hon. Adongo, until I saw the same write-up copiously posted on the Official Facebook Page of H. E. John Dramani Mahama [on 31-08-20 at 9am with over 740 shares] with his (JM) remarks, ‘๐‘จ๐’ ๐’Š๐’๐’•๐’†๐’“๐’†๐’”๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’‘๐’Š๐’†๐’„๐’† ๐’‡๐’“๐’๐’Ž ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’. ๐‘ฐ๐’”๐’‚๐’‚๐’„ ๐‘จ๐’…๐’๐’๐’ˆ๐’ ๐’๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘จ๐’ˆ๐’š๐’‚๐’‘๐’‚ ๐‘ซ๐’†๐’‚๐’’. I was utterly shocked! Frankly speaking, after reading the heading; ‘๐‘จ๐’ˆ๐’š๐’‚๐’‘๐’‚ ๐‘น๐’๐’š๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’†๐’” ๐‘ญ๐’“๐’‚๐’–๐’… ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ณ๐’‚๐’”๐’• ๐‘บ๐’•๐’“๐’‚๐’˜: ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ‘๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐—ฆ๐—”๐—ž๐—”๐—ช๐—” ๐—•๐—ข๐—ฌ๐—ฆ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ฅ๐—”๐—ก๐—ฃ๐—”๐—ฆ must Go’ and the first sentence which read, ‘๐‘จ๐’ˆ๐’š๐’‚๐’‘๐’‚ ๐‘น๐’๐’š๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’†๐’” ๐’…๐’†๐’‚๐’ ๐’Š๐’” ๐’‚ ๐’ƒ๐’Š๐’ˆ ๐’‡๐’“๐’‚๐’–๐’… ๐’๐’ ๐‘ฎ๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’‚ by ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—”๐—ธ๐˜‚๐—ณ๐—ผ-๐—”๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐— ๐—”๐—™๐—œ๐—”.’

What stopped me from proceeding to read the Hon. Adongo’s write-up was the use of ‘๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐—ฆ๐—”๐—ž๐—”๐—ช๐—” ๐—•๐—ข๐—ฌ๐—ฆ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ฅ๐—”๐—ก๐—ฃ๐—”๐—ฆ’ and ‘…๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐— ๐—”๐—™๐—œ๐—”’. But should that be an issue at all?

‘๐’๐€๐Š๐€๐–๐€’ is a Ghanaian term used for ๐’„๐’š๐’ƒ๐’†๐’“ ๐‘ญ๐‘น๐‘จ๐‘ผ๐‘ซ๐‘บ๐‘ป๐‘ฌ๐‘น๐‘บ ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’๐’”๐’† ๐’˜๐’‰๐’ ๐’–๐’”๐’† ๐’”๐’‘๐’Š๐’“๐’Š๐’•๐’–๐’‚๐’ ๐’Ž๐’†๐’‚๐’๐’” ๐’•๐’ ๐’”๐’„๐’‚๐’Ž ๐’๐’“ ๐’…๐’†๐’‡๐’“๐’‚๐’–๐’… ๐’‘๐’†๐’๐’‘๐’๐’†.

‘๐Œ๐€๐…๐ˆ๐€’ is an ๐’๐’“๐’ˆ๐’‚๐’๐’Š๐’›๐’†๐’… ๐’Š๐’๐’•๐’†๐’“๐’๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’๐’‚๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’๐’…๐’š ๐’๐’‡ ๐’„๐’“๐’Š๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’‚๐’๐’”, operating originally in Sicily and now especially in Italy and the US and having a complex and ruthless behavioural code.

I tried to know who Akyems are to deserve such adjectives such as ‘Mafia’ and ‘Sakawa’ or ‘State Capture’ from leading members of the NDC including Hon. Adongo and endorsed by not less a person than the former Vice and President of Ghana, Leader and Flagbearer of the major ‘alternative’ party, NDC; especially in an election year when the vote of a very Ghanaian is needed to successfully accomplish the ‘Rescue Mission’ of the NDC.

I googled ๐€๐ค๐ฒ๐ž๐ฆ and found that ‘๐€๐ค๐ฒ๐ž๐ฆ๐ฌ’ are an Akan people comprising of four traditional states; Asante Akyem, Akyem Abuakwa, Akyem Kotoku, and Akyem Bosome located primarily in the Eastern Region of Ghana which has significant NDC voters. NDC obtained 42.0 percent and 36.6 percent of votes in the Eastern Region in the 2012 and 2016 elections respectively.

H. E. John Mahama and NDC has often times accused NPP of tribal bigotry and condemn it most of the time. Yes! Tribal bigotry is one of the things I hate so much in my life. Tribalism and racism are strictly against the teaching of Islam, Christianity, the UN Laws, and any civilised society or ideology.

There is a certain feeling about tribal bigotry and how politicians have used it. NDC mostly accused NPP of tribal bigotry. I wonder whether NDC and its leadership has really introspected about their incessant use of phrases such as ‘๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐— ๐—”๐—™๐—œ๐—”’ or ‘๐—”๐—ž๐—ฌ๐—˜๐—  ๐—ฆ๐—”๐—ž๐—”๐—ช๐—”’ to describe the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and government officials or NPP members who are Akyems. Has the party thought about how NDC members who are Akyems will feel about these attributions?

Well!

๐—ž๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ (๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป) ๐—ž๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—›๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—จ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ป ๐—™๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ, ๐—ž๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—”๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฎ ๐—™๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ – ๐‘จ ๐‘ท๐’๐’‚๐’š

Tribalism is one of the most sensitive issues to play with. One lesson I learnt from Ola Rotimi’s play titled ‘๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’…๐’” ๐‘จ๐’“๐’† ๐‘ต๐’๐’• ๐‘ป๐’ ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’‚๐’Ž๐’†’ was the degree of sensitivity of tribalism which must never be downplayed in national cohesion, peace and unity. Those who’ve read the book recalls when Odewale (son) and his father (King Adetusa) had an encounter over farm ownership at the time they had no knowledge of their blood relation.

What led to the son (Odewale) killing his father was the father (King Adetusa) remarks that, ‘๐’€๐’๐’– (๐’“๐’†๐’‡๐’†๐’“๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’•๐’ ๐‘ถ๐’…๐’†๐’˜๐’‚๐’๐’†) ๐’‡๐’“๐’๐’Ž ๐’‚ '๐‘ฉ๐‘ผ๐‘บ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ป๐‘น๐‘ฐ๐‘ฉ๐‘ฌ' ๐’„๐’๐’Ž๐’† ๐’•๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’” ๐’๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’„๐’‚๐’๐’ ๐’Ž๐’† ๐’‚ ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’†๐’‡?’ In response to the ‘๐๐”๐’๐‡ ๐“๐‘๐ˆ๐๐„’ remarks by King Adetusa, Odewale said, ''๐‘ป๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’†๐’๐’… ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“. ๐‘ฐ ๐’„๐’‚๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’‚๐’“ ๐’Š๐’๐’”๐’–๐’๐’• ๐’•๐’ ๐’Ž๐’š๐’”๐’†๐’๐’‡. ๐‘ฉ๐’–๐’• ๐’•๐’ ๐’„๐’‚๐’๐’ '๐‘ด๐’€ ๐‘ป๐‘น๐‘ฐ๐‘ฉ๐‘ฌ' ๐’‚ ๐’ƒ๐’–๐’”๐’‰ ๐’•๐’“๐’Š๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’ ๐’”๐’†๐’“๐’Ž๐’๐’ ๐’“๐’Š๐’‡๐’‡-๐’“๐’‚๐’‡๐’‡ ๐’•๐’ ๐’Ž๐’๐’„๐’Œ '๐‘ด๐’€ ๐‘ด๐‘ถ๐‘ป๐‘ฏ๐‘ฌ๐‘น'๐‘บ ๐‘ป๐‘ถ๐‘ต๐‘ฎ๐‘ผ๐‘ฌ', ๐‘ฐ ๐’Ž๐’–๐’”๐’• ๐’…๐’Š๐’† ๐’‡๐’Š๐’“๐’”๐’•.'' Alas, Odewale killed his unknown father (Adetusa) all out of anger of ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜†.

‘๐—•๐—จ๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—ฆ๐—” ๐—ช๐—”๐—ฌ’ ๐—–๐—ข๐— ๐— ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง

In February 2018, during the vetting of Martin Amidu as then Special Prosecutor nominee, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu jokingly used a common joke to address Martin Amidu. Haruna had indulged Martin Amidu to "๐’”๐’†๐’•๐’•๐’๐’† [๐’‚ ๐’Ž๐’‚๐’•๐’•๐’†๐’“] ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ‘๐‘ฉ๐’–๐’Š๐’๐’”๐’‚ ๐‘พ๐’‚๐’š’.'' Martin Amidu is Builsa by tribe. The rather peaceful light joke angered Martin Amidu who asserted that he would never use that expression to describe Haruna Iddrisu's ethnic group, Dagombas. "๐‘ฐ๐’• ๐’Š๐’” '๐‘ผ๐‘ต๐‘จ๐‘ช๐‘ช๐‘ฌ๐‘ท๐‘ป๐‘จ๐‘ฉ๐‘ณ๐‘ฌ' ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ด๐’Š๐’๐’๐’“๐’Š๐’•๐’š ๐‘ณ๐’†๐’‚๐’…๐’†๐’“ [๐‘ฏ๐’‚๐’“๐’–๐’๐’‚ ๐‘ฐ๐’…๐’…๐’“๐’Š๐’”๐’–] ๐’•๐’ ๐’–๐’”๐’† ๐’‚ '๐‘ป๐‘น๐‘ฐ๐‘ฉ๐‘จ๐‘ณ ๐‘ฌ๐‘ท๐‘ฐ๐‘ช' ๐’•๐’ ๐’…๐’†๐’”๐’„๐’“๐’Š๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’Ž๐’š ๐’‘๐’†๐’๐’‘๐’๐’† [๐’•๐’“๐’Š๐’ƒ๐’†]…๐’Š๐’• ๐’Š๐’” '๐‘ถ๐‘ญ๐‘ญ๐‘ฌ๐‘ต๐‘บ๐‘ฐ๐‘ฝ๐‘ฌ' ๐’•๐’ ๐’Ž๐’†," Martin Amidu said.

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—–๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ž๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ญ๐˜‚, ๐—ก๐——๐—– ๐—”๐˜€๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ข๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ’๐˜€ ๐——๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ช๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ

In September 2019, Mr. Kwame Zu made a statement which was (mis)interpreted to mean that the King of Okyeman (Okyehene) drank the same water with animals prior to John Mahama led administration coming to power; and that John Mahama came to give them potable water. The written apology of Mr. Kwame Zu was rejected by the Okyeman Traditional Council and unless and until the whole ‘NDC national leadership renders unqualified apology and pacify themselves ritually’ the party ‘could not take up any campaign activity in [any of] the 942 towns and villages under the Okyeman council.’ Chief Linguist to Okyehene warned, adding that ‘๐˜€๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ข๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—น ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ … ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต [๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜†] ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„.’

At last, the NDC led by its national executives including the Chairman, Samuel Ofoso-Ampofo; Second Vice Chairperson, Betty Mould Iddrisu; Emmanuel Victor Smith, and the foul-mouthed Secretary, Kwame Zu; had to throng the Ofori Panin Fie, the Seat of Okyeman Traditional Council at Kyebi to render unqualified apology to the Okyehene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin. Recall that it took an intervention of Okyenhemaa Nana Dokua for Kwame Zu’s fine to be reduced from 98 sheep to 48 sheep and 48 schnapps to purity the stool at Okyeman Bosam Bouso before the party and Zu was forgiven.

I thought we would learn lessons. ‘๐—”๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฎ’, ‘๐—”๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐—ฆ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ’, ‘๐—”๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—–๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ’, ‘๐—”๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐——๐—ฒ-๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ’, ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—ธ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜, etc. has done this or that, is this and that should be a worry for all who despise tribal bigotry.

Yes! We can criticise and call names, but never should we associate people’s tribe to names and adjectives especially those that are derogatory in nature. We have had politicians being called names before, but no such links were or are made to their tribes. We never head of ‘๐—š๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ท๐—ฎ ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜’, ‘๐—š๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ท๐—ฎ ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ผ๐—ฎ๐˜’, ‘๐—š๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ท๐—ฎ ๐—”๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น’, ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ‘๐—š๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ท๐—ฎ ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ ๐—ก๐—ผ’. Even as I equally condemn insults on politically exposed persons who have rendered service to this nation, the absence of tribal tag in ‘incompetent’, ‘dead goat’, or ‘papa no’ calls for less worry. Those issues are pretty political than tribal.

I sit down and imagine how we will feel if Haruna Iddrisu becomes president one day and people continue to tag everything about him with Dagbon. I imagine how I will feel when he and other Dagomba appointees are tagged as ‘The Dagomba Mafia President’, the ‘Dagombas State Capture’, ‘The Dagomba Sakawa Deal’ etc. It might have to take recitation of a Qur’anic verse or Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to calm my anger at such persons making those derogatory remarks and associating same with my tribe.

I certainly will be uncomfortable if NDC comes to power one day and John Mahama is called derogatory names with Gonja attached to it; or Hon. Adongo becomes an appointee and is being called derogatory names with Frafra attached to it. And I definitely will not wish such a thing for any tribe in Ghana.

Dear NDC, by attacking the tribe of you political opponent, you are endangering our oneness as a unified Nation. Not only that, you are endangering your votes from among people of that tribe. You can't tell me that NDC does not need Akyems vote. So separate Akufo-Addo's tribe from his person, as a president, a political figure or a political opponent. Do same for Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea and Ken Ofori Attah. That attitude will not add any vote to NDC in the 2020 elections. It is not a power rescuing strategy. For goodness sake, you are an opponent to their political party (NPP) or political ideology or respective persons. You are not an opponent to your political opponents’ tribe.

This piece of advice is not for sale. It is free. It costs nothing except a change of direction in the political discourse of the great NDC. However, rejecting this costless piece could cost the party heavily in the 2020 elections and beyond. The unity and oneness of our beautiful Ghana may not be spared.

Sorry for hurting you with this unsolicited advice!

Voice of a Ghanaian Voter from ๐—ฆ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜†๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ.

๐—”๐—•๐——๐—จ๐—Ÿ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฌ๐—”๐—ž๐—จ๐—•๐—จ (๐—บ๐—ฟ. ๐˜๐˜†๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ป)

[31.08.2020] Tel: 024-042-3100

Email: [email protected]

body-container-line