Someone Please Tell Obama To Come Again

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama of the United States confessed that when His Excellency President John Mahama speaks he wakes up the African in him. It was poignant, particularly to me as a Ghanaian.

I am sure you can hazard the reason for which Obama has that admiration for Mahama. Can't you? It is in a cliché, all too often, used in Ghana whenever we wish to assert the rule of law rather than the rule of men in the country.

At the hight of one of Obama's major African tours he spoke in our parliament and made that clarion call that Africa does not need strong men; it needs strong institutions. Till date, every politician in Ghana religiously preaches that gospel.

But as soon as you start to delve into the inner workings of the New Patriotic Party, that truism pales into a painful insignificance. Dr Arthur Kennedy, a one time contestant for the leadership of that party describes the situation as a role swap, compared to the NDC, from the rule of law to the rule of men.

Frankly, that description of the leadership of the NPP is apposite! And the elephant in the room as far as that misnormer is concerned is Akufo Addo. Indeed many are those who claim that Akufo Addo's whimsical leadership of that party started from 2008. But I was astonished to learn from one Kwabena Nyamekye that the man has been so since the 1979 general elections in which he exercised his expertise to cost the late Victor Owusu the Presidency.

The problem about Akufo Addo is not that he owes anybody his or her breath. The problem with Akufo is that he believes that everybody owes him their breath; and until they pay back with the Presidency of Ghana something ominous will occur. In that pursuit, any whiff of disagreement is seen by him as a blockade that needs to be cleared to make way for 'his crown'.

The irony is that Akufo Addo has practiced law in Ghana for years, whether qualified or not. Yet, he brazenly affronts and usurps the rule of law! A case in point is the dogged manner in which he hounded Paul Afoko around, and marshalled stooges whether legitimate or otherwise, to trample upon his party's law and due process just to say, 'I am in charge!'.

The question we have to ask ourselves as Ghanaians is, if Akufo Addo can defy and abuse all sensibilities, structures, cultures, nuances, basic rights and most critically his party's constitution for the sake of proving his 'I am in charge' ego, can you imagine what will happen if this same man is clothed with the overwhelming powers in the 1992 constitution for the President and Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces? Mercy!

Akufo Addo does not believe in the rule of law; he believes in the rule of men. He believes in the rule of his ego!

Unconvinced as I am that my recommendation would change a man who has plied his trade of rule by fiat for decades albeit without ever becoming president, I suggest that we ask Obama to return to Ghana and say the same thing repeatedly. Perhaps he should come with the marines and use Akufo Addo's own tool, of terror, to make him get it!

Else what option exists to turn the heart of man who simply refuses to learn? Please come back, Obama!

Until next week, hasta la vista.
Yours truly,
Kofi Adoli.