Show Cause, NDC, Not Raw Envy!

Once again, I read the NDC gripe regarding the alleged use of national security resources in the protection of the New Patriotic Party's presidential candidate for Election 2008 with amused contempt. In another respect, I guess “fury” is the most apt terminology with which to characterize the blatantly mischievous attempt by the executive membership of the so-called National Democratic Congress to render Nana Akufo-Addo so vulnerable as to readily ensure, at the mildest, the curious kind of “accidental” mischief that nearly caused acute political crisis in the country recently.

And regarding the latter, the direct reference, of course, is to that lone reckless motorist who almost succeeded in, literally, knocking the living daylights out of President Kufuor. Needless to say, we appropriate the grave verbal of “succeeding” in view of the apparently clear signal to the offending motorist of the fact of the presence of the President's motorcade in the immediate vicinity of the former and, more significantly, the motorist's rather curious and brazen decision to flout civic protocol.

In sum, if, indeed, the swashbuckling NDC operatives, perchance, are on the lookout for any such murderous aperture, then, by all means, let the Rawlings Gang rest assured that under absolutely no circumstances are we ever going to allow the embarrassing recurrence of such a morbid incident.

Needless to say, it is the utmost priority of any legitimate government, particularly one, such as the ruling New Patriotic Party, that has time without number been threatened with mayhem by prominent operatives of the opposition, so-called National Democratic Congress, to unreservedly deploy every available national security resource in order to forestall any such dangerous possibility. And so far, this appears to be precisely what the responsible government of the ruling New Patriotic Party has been doing.

What is quite curious, and absurdly so, is the fact that the NDC deputy general secretary, Mr. Elvis Afriyie-Ankra, who issued the complaint, has yet to present any constructive reason as to why his party's executive membership would fain have Nana Akufo-Addo begrudged the most efficient system of personal security.

Instead, Mr. Afriyie-Ankra seems to prefer to childishly whine about the need for the ruling NPP to provide “a level playing field[,] characterized by equal opportunities for all the various political players” (Ghanaweb.com 1/5/08). In sum, what the deputy general secretary of the NDC ought to be doing, if, indeed, he fits his job description, is to advance cogent reasons as to why Professor John Evans Atta-Mills, the perennial NDC presidential candidate, like Nana Akufo-Addo, requires the same level of state security protection.

Significantly, it bears observing that during the past seven years that he has been gunning for the presidency, absolutely no highly placed operative from the camp of the NDC presidential candidate has publicly decried either the level or quality of personal security afforded the former Vice-President. And so other than raw envy, precisely what is the relevance of Mr. Afriyie-Ankra's gripe?

It is, indeed, rather cynically hypocritical for the NDC deputy chief scribe to be exhorting “the government of the NPP to be circumspect in their[sic] use of state resources in this election year. This call is even more imperative in the face of harsh economic realities characterized by unprecedented high prices of petroleum products, which has virtually eroded the purchasing power of the majority of Ghanaians.”

Hello, Mr. Afriyie-Ankra! For your information, Ghanaians have never had a greater purchasing power during the course of the last three decades than over the last seven years of the liberal democratic rule of the New Patriotic Party. And should anybody be in doubt, then, by all means, simply check the value of the Cedi as of January 1, 2008, as well as the current inflationary rate, and compare the same with 20 years of P/NDC tenure.

Indeed, Mr. Afriyie-Ankra's plaint could best be addressed to the inordinately freeloading Mr. Rawlings, the pathologically self-serving “revolutionary” who came to power touting communist frugality and left the same a multi-billionaire, having also totally bankrupted Ghana's national treasury.

*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 “When Dancers Play Historians and Thinkers,” a forthcoming essay collection on postcolonial Ghanaian politics. E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com.

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