Who Betrayed Kofi Adams?

“Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become”. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The late Palestinian Leader, Yasser Arafat once stated that, “Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.” Love him or hate him, Arafat may have given this famous quote based on certain things he went through in life. We may have heard on countless number of times that life is full of intrigues, which is why we must at all times be very careful with the things we say, do and most importantly those that we associate ourselves with or consider as friends.

I want to take Ghanaians down to the memory lane about a former vice-president, Mr. Kow Nkensen Arkaah, who turned against the NDC government headed by Jerry John Rawlings at that time, and unleashed criticisms against the government whenever he got the least opportunity. I remember how the NDC faithful seethed with anger as they could not fathom why Arkaah had become the enemy within. Ghanaians could recall that apart from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the NDC faithful sympathized and rallied behind Rawlings as they condemned Arkaah in no uncertain terms. That was then.

But since Arkaah left the NDC and became the running mate of John Agyekum Kufuor in the 2006 Presidential Elections, the NDC never had such a “thorn in their flesh” until they won the 2008 elections. Either by external circumstances or not, the NDC had another Arkaah caste in the mould of Kofi Adams, who was elected by the party as a Deputy General Secretary in 2009. Before the election, Adams was the Spokesperson of the Rawlingses, which made his dichotomy role very dicey.

The fears which many NDC faithful anticipated due to the dual role of Kofi Adams were soon confirmed when this man started behaving in some bizarre ways. He would opt to defend anything the Rawlingses, but the NDC party. He would say things which made people wonder if the guy even knew the scope of his responsibilities as a deputy general secretary of the NDC. And he demonstrated in no time that the NDC should not count on him when it mattered most since he was not prepared to stand up for the party. It therefore, did not take long when most of the NDC faithful realized that indeed they have another Arkaah in their midst, “the enemy within.”

As a result, the past three years have been the most painful battle for the NDC national executives and party faithful who have done all what they could, but cannot come out with any credible strategy on how to handle Kofi Adams. The struggles of the NDC national executives and party members stem from the fact that Kofi Adams, whilst 'serving' the NDC also serves Rawlings, the founder of the NDC, therefore, he has taken undue advantage of his double role to spite the party anytime he wanted. This situation made the NDC to sit on tenterhooks because there was this “little fear” that if you touch Kofi Adams, you touch the Rawlingses.

There has been bad blood between the NDC and its founder since 2009. I do not want to go into details, but one would have thought that Kofi Adams who plays a dual role within the NDC should have done all what he could by pulling strings to bring both parties to a peaceful resolution. But in spite of the fact that Kofi Adams has not been able to do that he has always found cause to put the blame for the differences at the doorstep of the NDC party. This situation has made many NDC faithful to harbour the feeling that Kofi Adams might be the one fanning the tensions between the Rawlingses and the NDC party.

For instance, in the run-up to the NDC national congress in Sunyani last year, Kofi Adams could not restrain himself but openly supported Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings who battled President Mills for the party's flagbearership position. Kofi Adams went on air multiple times and made wild and unfounded allegations of fraud and intimidation of Konadu's supporters over and over again. Whilst everybody thought that by virtue of his dual role Kofi Adams should have played neutral, he threw every caution to the dogs, and 'harassed' the NDC. In fact, had it not been the magnanimity of some experienced and well tested NDC top guns, the national congress in Sunyani could have turned into chaotic scenes.

But since Kofi Adams and his mediocre crew made up of Ernest Owusu Bempah and others lost the battle to President Mills, who was elected as the party's flagbearer for the 2012 presidential elections, this guy has never been satisfied and continues to torment the NDC party from time to time. He had never agreed on any position with the party as he always has something negative to say about the NDC.

It was therefore, no wonder when like a thunder from the blue something incriminating about Kofi Adams popped up in the Ghanaian Lens. It is about his conversation with Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the one-man think-thank of the so-called Danquah Institute. The conversation which happened just after the NDC congress in Sunyani centered on how a peeved Kofi Adams vowed to do everything in his 'power' to send the NDC back into opposition. Kofi Adams, whose voice was on the tape also made some groundless accusations that the delegates at the NDC congress were each given 500 Ghana Cedis to vote for President Mills. Adams is also heard on the taped telephone conversation asking Gabby to arrange so that the two of them could meet outside the country to further plot a strategy on how to deny President Mills a second term in office.

This taped conversation which was played on Radio Gold to Ghanaians has generated a heated argument as to who may have taped the conversation and also leaked it to the Ghanaian Lens. Kofi Adams who got the chance of listening to his own voice being played to him denied that he was the one on the tape, whilst agreeing to the Radio Gold interviewer, that the other person on the tape sounded like Gabby Okyere-Darko. Ironically, when Gabby was also interviewed he jumped to the defence of Kofi Adams saying it was not his voice that was on the tape. Which brings us to the question of whose voices are on the tape, who recorded the conversation and who leaked the conversation to the Ghanaian Lens and the motive behind it all?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am making my pitch that unimpeachable sources have confirmed that the two voices on the taped conversation are that of Kofi Adams and Gabby. There is no two ways about that. Kofi Adams and Gabby who are trying to play defensive know that it is their rightful voices given to them by God which we heard on the taped conversation. They can weave and do the rope a dope but in their heart of hearts they know that the two of them had that conversation last year. I can put my last coin on this statement.

Before I make my second pitch I have this to say; that you should never make a fool of yourself into thinking that a secret divulged would forever remain a secret. Secrets are the ones that remain within the confines of your heart and never disclosed. Kofi Adams thought he has found a friend in Gabby, because he disclosed in the interview with Radio Gold that the two of them 'meet and strategize on media issues' occasionally. Two members of the two leading opposition parties with variant views on everything that one can consider, meeting to strategize on media issues? Heaven help you if you cannot make anything out of this loaded statement by Kofi Adams.

Kofi Adams, who also disclosed during the interview that he and Gabby talk a lot on the phone, perhaps deceived himself into thinking that the surest and probably the quickest way to undo the NDC or help in destroying President Mills' chances for a second term, was to dash straight to the 'enemy's' camp to pitch his tent and eat from the same bowl. But he miscalculated. Zig Ziglar famously stated that, “If you go looking for a friend, you're going to find they're very scarce. But if you go out to be a friend, you'll find them everywhere.” And that was what Kofi Adams who went out to be a friend of the Gabbys and the NPP found.

Kofi Adams who was happily heard on the tape lambasting the NDC and its leadership did not know what was happening at Gabby's end. Gabby was secretly recording the conversation. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what happens when you sell yourself for peanuts to your 'political enemy'. That is what happens when you cast your pearls among the swine, for they will trample upon it. Kofi Adams best political friend, Gabby was the one who recorded the conversation that the two of them had.

And the strangest thing of all is that, it is Gabby who sent his underlings to deliver the tape to the Ghanaians Lens. One may ask why Gabby decided to settle on the Ghanaian Lens and not the Daily Guide or the New Crusading Guide. The reason is simple. Gabby and the NPP are pissed that for the past 6 weeks the NPP has had bad press with no good political traction coming their way. Gabby and co. have realized that nothing they do seems to be working right in their favour with Akufo-Addo still reeling under pressure from misstatements upon misstatements. And the NPP know that one of the sharpest and serious bone of contention between the Rawlingses and President Mills bores down to the congress in Sunyani, therefore, they calculated that if the tape is released it would further bring some sharp frictions between the two camps. The Gabbys and the NPP further thought that when the tape is released the Rawlingses would jump to the defence of Kofi Adams thus further deepening the wounds between them and the NDC, whilst denying the NDC the chance of uniting towards the 2012 elections. The NPP also calculated that the tape would only receive the greatest attention from the NDC if it is released through a newspaper that projects the NDC, which is why they decided to go through the Ghanaians Lens. Therefore, it was never the Ghanaians Lens that recorded the conversation. It was Gabby who did the secret recording and delivered the tape on a silver platter to the Ghanaians Lens.

Kofi Adams may have found too late that playing with the devil has its serious or adverse consequences, and as he is about to go down with his political career on the line, I guess he would sit back and reflect on what a villain he had become in Ghanaian politics. I will end by entreating Kofi Adams that in life it is better to let friendship creep gently to a height; if it rushes to it, it may soon run itself out of breath.

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