Anyidoho Has a Chance to Found His Own Party

He has not been engaged in any overtly hostile activities that may be legitimately deemed to be inimical to the interests and the political agenda of the country’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). So, it comes as rather curious, as well as surprising, that the so-called Functional Executive Committee (FEC), acting on ungodly behalf of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), would publish a media announcement summarily suspending Mr. Samuel Koku S. Anyidoho indefinitely from his membership of the National Democratic Congress, under which he was for at least four years one of the four or five Deputy General-Secretaries (See “I Told Koku Anyidoho of His Suspension before It was Made Public – Allotey-Jacobs” E-TV Ghana / Ghanaweb.com 2/17/21).

Unlike the party stalwarts who suspended him, the Communications Director of the Atta-Mills Presidency has neither been indicted nor implicated in any seditious and/or treasonous activities such as the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, presently stands charged with. Interestingly, it was Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo, the former Minister of Local Government and Rural Community Development, who signed the memorandum summarily suspending Mr. Bernard Allotey-Jacobs, the retired Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, from the party indefinitely a couple or so years ago. Like Mr. Anyidoho, well after him, Mr. Allotey-Jacobs had been summarily relieved of his NDC membership because the self-described Fante Fisherman had dared to publicly commend President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for such progressive and unprecedented policy initiatives and achievements as the resuscitation and significant improvement of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the John Agyekum-Kufuor-minted program that was effectively bankrupted by a clueless and grossly incompetent former President John “European Airbus Payola” Dramani Mahama and the previous regime of the National Democratic Congress.

In particular, Mr. Allotey-Jacobs has not spared the prime opportunity to glowingly laud Nana Akufo-Addo for the latter’s creation of an ultra-modern National Ambulance Service (NAS) with state-of-the-art vehicles. On the latter count, it may be vividly and embarrassingly recalled how then-President Mahama and Mr. Alexander Segbefia, Mr. Mahama’s Health Minister, imported over 300 engineless vehicles into the country in the leadup to the 2016 General Election in the spurious name of a rejuvenated National Ambulance Service. Mr. Allotey-Jacobs’ crime was to have commended Nana Akufo-Addo for having enviably dignified the National Health Service (NHS) with vehicles and professional working tools that virtually put Ghana on par with the healthcare systems of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.

In the wake of the tragic passing of his own uncle in Europe, Mr. Anyidoho has had occasion to publicly commend President Akufo-Addo for the latter’s around-the-rock indefatigable efforts aimed at stemming the inexorable tide of the deadly Coronavirus Pandemic which, according to Mr. Anyidoho, brutally felled his uncle in the British capital of London or thereabouts. Following his uncle’s passing, Mr. Anyidoho also served notice to the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress that he was no longer going to blindly hew towards the dogmatic party line by quixotically and flatly refusing to commend President Akufo-Addo and the dynamic and national-development focused operatives of the ruling New Patriotic Party, where such encomiums were duly and unmistakably deserved. This is clearly what Mr. Anyidoho has been gratuitously charged with as a heinous crime by the democratic free-speech shy leaders of the National Democratic Congress in the dubious name of “fomenting antiparty activities.”

It was also precisely the same party laws with which both Messrs. Allotey-Jacobs and Anyidoho were slapped silly with indefinite suspensions, namely, Articles 46(1); 46(6) and 46(8). On the latter count, we need to critically underscore the fact that this laughable travesty of disciplinary sanctions goes well beyond these two “criminal suspects.” It also even more significantly sends an unmistakable signal about the fact that all the highfalutin talk by the leaders of the National Democratic Congress’ Minority Caucus of their eagerness and willingness to working with their New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Majority Caucus counterparts is sheer poppycock. The leaders of the New Patriotic Party would be far better off going about their duties and legitimate business on behalf of the people practically as if their National Democratic Congress counterparts practically did not exist and have never existed.

The indefinite suspension of Messrs. Allotey-Jacobs and Anyidoho may actually be a blessing in disguise. If even half this degree of intolerance had occurred among the leadership ranks of the New Patriotic Party, we would have had Animal Farm-like characters like Mr. Sammy “The Squealer” Gyamfi hopping from one radio and television station to another “exposing” the democratic hypocrisy of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo neoliberal political pretenders. The good news here is that the prophetic signal may very well be the June 12, 1949 resignation of the young Mr. Kwame Nkrumah from the Danquah-Grant-founded United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Indeed, it is more than obvious that Ghana is in dire need of a progressive third force, if only this would help keep the leaderships of both the ruling New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress on their toes.

Already, Mr. Anyidoho has adumbrated on the fact of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) being one such political and ideological alternative. I am, however, of the firm opinion and belief that Messrs. Anyidoho and Allotey-Jacobs could very well be the paradigm-shifting founders of a new radical left-leaning institutional establishment that is apt to give the increasingly complacent leadership of the National Democratic Congress the proverbial run for its money. Gentlemen, you just think about it. Sleep over it for just a couple of nights, and then just let us know what you think.

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

February 17, 2021

E-mail: [email protected]