On the face of it, it seems to be purely speculative; and I doubt that Mr. Kennedy Ohene (Kwame Akompreko) Agyapong would be able to submit any forensically credible or sustainable evidence, if ordered by the judge of a legitimately constituted court of the land to do so. Nevertheless, it is not very farfetched to suppose that the late Vice-President Papa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur had not died of natural causes, as the general Ghanaian public was made to believe at the time (See “Amissah-Arthur Was Killed ‘Russian Style’ – Kennedy Agyapong” Ghanaweb.com 8/27/20). Still, I hope that the NET-2 media mogul would stop making inferences that unnecessarily seek to both demonize the Putin government as well as malign the ethnicity and nationality of the Russians, who have been on the most generous of terms with the Ghanaian people since Independence.
It is simply not savvy politicking, especially going into the 2020 general election, to be flirting with kicking a fuss or roiling up the hackles of the Russians, and the Assin-Central Member of Parliament on the neoliberal democratic ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ought to be smart enough to recognize this factual reality. Ghana has had very cordial relations with the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and so one does not suppose that a pathologically voluble Mr. Agyapong wants to do anything unsavory or inadvisable to either unsettle or mar this most precious relationship. The preceding notwithstanding, there appears to be reasonable cause to believe that the Mahama Posse could very well have been motivated to metaphorically, and even literally, put a bounty on the noggin of the Number Two Man in the John “Airbus” Dramani Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who was widely alleged not to have been on the best of both personal and professional terms with his immediate boss.
This largely media rumor and downright speculation would be eventually confirmed publicly by the widow of the deceased man at the state-sponsored funeral of the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, when the infamously acerbic Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur venomously told a packed audience of mourners and sympathizers that, indeed, Vice-President Amissah-Arthur had been treated by his former boss as anything or anybody but his legitimately elected and sworn Vice-President of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana. To hear a livid and vengeful Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur tell it, her dear husband and high school sweetheart had been disdainfully treated like the mange-infected family dog, routinely ordered by his boss and the latter’s most notorious Presidential Staffer to sit out on most of the most important policy-shaping cabinet meetings.
It was also common knowledge, even long before he was democratically ousted by an overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian electorate, that Vice-President Amissah-Arthur was a prime candidate of being afforded the boot and promptly replaced by Mr. Mahama’s Foreign Minister, Ms. Hanna Serwaa Tetteh who, rumor had it, was Papa No’s paramour and most intimate and trusted confidante. That both Hanna Serwaa Tetteh and Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur were of Fante ethnicity made such tactical strategy all the more intriguing, if also because it left the “loyal” Fante vote perfectly intact. Remember: the entire shoehorning of the then Governor of the Bank of Ghana into the running-mate slot of the National Democratic Congress, in the wake of the “mysterious” death of President Atta-Mills, was clearly a tokenistic strategy aimed at holding on to the Fante Vote that had been “naturally” won or garnered by the nomination of the former Rawlings’ Arch-Lieutenant as the substantive Presidential Nominee of the National Democratic Congress.
The recently affirmed Interim-President John Dramani Mahama would follow up the preceding strategy with a comically but, nevertheless, quite successful staging of an “Accept Me As Your Son” revue. Recently, former President “Papa No” Dramani Mahama attempted the same skit and stunt while on the stumps in the Volta Region, but it was not clear whether such revue was successful this second time around. You see, increasingly, the Voltaians are fast getting fed up with their votes being taken for granted by the lead operatives of the National Democratic Congress. But, of course, the fact that, according to Mr. Agyapong, the former Mahama right-man had established an office in the East-Legon suburb of Accra and was poised to fiercely contesting the presidential nomination of the Mahama-cannibalized National Democratic Congress, may very well have sent some shivers down the spines of the operatives of the dominant Mahama Faction of the National Democratic Congress.
It is also very conceivable that the Kumasi Kidnapping Gang, led by Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the indicted National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, may have launched a subtle but deadly preemptive strike against the most formidable rival of Mr. John “Papa No” Dramani Mahama. This certain possibility may be what Mr. Agyapong is talking about.
*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
August 27, 2020
E-mail: [email protected]
We’ll no longer tolerate your empty, unwarranted attacks – TUC blasts Prof Adei
Bawumia donates GHc200,000 to support Madina fire victims
IMF to disburse US$360million third tranche to Ghana without creditors MoU
Truck owner share insights into train collision incident
Paramount chief of Bassare Traditional Area passes on
Two teachers in court over alleged illegal possession of BECE papers
Sunyani: Victim allegedly shot by traditional warriors appeals for justice
Mahama vows to scrap teacher licensure exams, review Free SHS policy
Government will replace burnt Madina shops with a new three-story, 120-store fac...
