Kobby Acheampong Jabs Nana

•Kobby Acheampong

NOT LONG after describing people from Kumasi and other cocoa-growing areas as typical villagers, the deputy Minister of Interior, Kobby Acheampong, has gone on another insulting spree, virtually calling Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, a mad man.

The deputy minister labeled Nana Akufo-Addo, 'fruit cake,' somebody who is crazy and lashed out at other NPP chieftains.

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines fruitcake as 'someone who seems to be mentally ill or behaves in a strange way.'

Addressing members of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Tertiary Education Institute Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi on Tuesday, Mr. Acheampong said there was no denying the fact that the NPP flagbearer was a fruitcake.

Kobby's abrasive and acerbic language comes on the heels of Rt. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Asante's last Sunday's sermon at the national thanks-giving service that politicians should refrain from using abusive language against their opponents. Prior to that, President Mills is also on record to have cautioned his ministers against using foul language.

According to him, Nana Addo gained his 'fruitcake' status when he made a declaration in a meeting with supporters of the NPP in Koforidua that 'all die be die.'

Mr. Acheampong indicated that Nana Addo did not only exhibit his fruitcake elements in that declaration but amply demonstrated that he was a typical villager.

'I wonder why the NPP selected Nana Addo as their flagbearer because the man is a fruitcake. We cannot do anything good with him,' he stated, adding, 'He keeps on going and going and I tell you give him two weeks, he will come up with something else.'

Stressing that the NPP flagbearer was a frustrated man, the deputy Interior minister noted that Nana Addo was a dying man who would not mind hanging on to a straw to survive.

As if the insults were not enough, the foul-mouthed NDC guru described Nana Addo as an untidy man who did not care about the type of clothes he wore when attending public functions of national interest.

'Didn't you see that Nana Addo appeared at the national thanksgiving ceremony at the Independence Square in Accra, the nation's capital in an untidy manner?' he asked.

He noted that it was not the intention of the NPP flagbearer to attend the national thanksgiving service and that he was compelled to do so by his political consultants because they knew that if he had not turned up, it would have spelt doom for his 2012 ambitions.

Turning to Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka 'Sir John', NPP General Secretary, Mr. Acheampong said, 'When I described Sir John as a typical villager from the cocoa-growing area, people did not understand me, but I have been vindicated.

'Have you realized that Sir John has not changed the way he speaks on radio, even when you are asleep and you hear Sir John speak on radio, you do not need to be told that it is Sir John who is speaking, I mean the man is so undignified.

'As for Sir John, I will no longer refer to him as a typical villager from the cocoa-growing area but will rather call him a messy villager who is not ready to learn the rudiments of civility.'

The deputy minister turned his attention on Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the national chairman of the NPP, describing him as a dubious man.

'I hope you know that dubious people do dubious things, that was why in 1999, Jake Obetsebi instigated the dropping of dead bodies on the streets just to cause disaffection for the ex-President Rawlings government,' Mr. Acheampong told the students.

He further noted that the NPP, as a political party, was composed of lowly folly people whose trademark was to play on the psychology of people who are not smart for the purpose of having their way.

'As for the comments the NPP people are making, I will forgive them because the hunger that is staring their faces is just too much for them to bear,' the deputy Interior minister, who sometime ago lied that ex-President Kufuor had built an expensive swimming pool in his bedroom, said.

Kobby Acheampong noted, 'Because the NPP is composed of lowly folly people, they could not even calculate right when they wanted to rig the 2008 elections, when we are busy calculating figures from Kumasi metro in the strong room, they were messing up with the figures.'

He charged the students at the meeting, which was held in camera, to be on the high alert so that they would not fall victim to the NPP's tricks.

Also at the meeting were Dr Hannah Bissiw, deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Stan Dogbe, a presidential aide, Francis Dodovi and Aloeke, all members of the Movement for Better Ghana, a pro-NDC pressure group in Kumasi.

The Mills administration appears to have deployed his ministers to the regions to water the grounds, ahead of the intended regional tours of the president next week.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi