Obed - The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

This world is really an interesting one; but Ghanaian politicians would always love to do things that would always make it more interesting by consistently trying to portray themselves as angels sent by the Good Lord to redeem the poor people of this country from their suffering.

If you are tempted to doubt what I am saying, then perhaps you have not keenly been following the activities and pronouncements of politicians like Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the government of the now opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) whose party was launched last Saturday.

Dr. Asamoah, who has been pronounced as the Life Patron of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), the party he managed to put together with the support of a bunch of his colleague NDC renegades, has been portraying himself as someone who has the nation at heart and would do just the right things that would ensure nothing less than the development of the country.

I strongly have a difficulty understanding how and why someone like Dr. Obed Asamoah would find it so easy to stand on a political platform to say things like those he said last Saturday, seeking to convince people that he should be taken as a credible person when it comes to politics in this country.

I have followed the political activities of this man very closely and I think he doesn't deserve the least of political credibility.

This is a man who was part of the military regime of the PNDC and the civilian regime of the NDC, which were both under the leadership of Jerry Rawlings. He still holds the title as the longest serving Foreign Minister the country has ever had.

He obediently served under Mr. Rawlings, whose principles and ideas he adored so much in those days.

While serving under Mr. Rawlings, Obed did not have a problem about internal arrangements in the NDC. He did not raise questions about the credibility of Mr. Rawlings.

No questions were raised about the pronouncement of the NDC founder vis a vis the education of his children outside the country. He did not, as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, raise any questions about the operations of the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM) that was headed by Mrs. Rawlings. In fact Rawlings, to him, was the best of people in the country at the time.

Interestingly, when the NDC was voted out of power, Obed still did not have any problem with the organizational structure and operation of the NDC - he contested to become the Chairman of the party and held onto that position for four years!

That was not the end of the story about Obed's affiliation and love for the NDC. Less than a year ago, he contested to retain the chairmanship position during the turbulent congress of the party held in Koforidua last December. In that contest he lost miserably to the incumbent, Dr. Kwabena Adjei. When he lost he attributed it to harassment, forgetting that he had failed to live up to his job as the chairman of the party.

After serving diligently under Rawlings for 19 years, chairing the NDC for four years, failing to get the nod to chair the party for a second four-year term and succeeding in putting together the DFP, Obed would now want Ghanaians to forget his association with Mr. Rawlings and the NDC. This is never going to be possible Obed. You would forever be known and seen for the roles you played in the (P) NDC governments and your subsequent role as the first chairman of the NDC in opposition.

In fact, Obed, if Obed should be remembered for anything for which people would either join the DFP or not, the first is his opposition to the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law (CLL). Today, the man who told Ghanaians that as the Attorney General, the repeal of the CLL could only be over his dead body would want to have journalists championing the crusade for the strengthening of his party.

Obed has no shame to talk about human rights issues, forgetting that but for the commitment of the NPP to press freedom, news about the launch of his party would just have remained at the corners of the Arts Centre, where the function was held.

All of a sudden, Obed has become an apostle of human rights and a man who hates what he calls 'the double standards of Mr. Rawlings.'

I wonder whether the DFP life patron did not know that Mr. Rawlings had his children being educated abroad when he was with him. I also find it difficult to understand whether Obed did not know about the activities of the DWM, until the formation of his DFP.

We are tired of the political hypocrisy going on in the country if Ghana should move forward as a nation. At the moment, there is the need to wage war against politicians who have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted.

It is time to stop people like Obed Asamoah from deceiving the gullible masses. He has had his days under Mr. Rawlings and he is inextricably linked to the principles, ideas, practices and all that the NDC stands for.

Clearly, with people like Obed, Bede Zeideng, Okaidja Adamafio among others, who occupied key positions in the government of the NDC now preaching against things they either led or were part of, the DFP can surely not fly.

Did I hear some people already complaining that they were deceived and bussed to the Arts Centre for the launch, after which event the party failed to fulfill the promise of getting them some monies?

Oyiwa! There we go with the beginning of the deceptions. Who said these people can completely do away with NDC ploys? This can only happen over the dead body of the DFP life patron.

So long as Obed and his NDC renegades continue to lead the DFP, the party would only be a carbon copy of the NDC, so the DFP can only be better served if and only if Obed and his people would shut up ant stop exposing their own hypocrisy and double standards in their attempts to expose those of others.