A Refreshing Parry-Off By Nana Akomea

I was quite certain in the wake of Nana Akufo-Addo’s landslide presidential-election victory last December that Nana Akomea, the Communications Director of the then-main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), was highly unlikely to be reappointed to his old post of Information Minister, which he had held in the waning days of the John Agyekum-Kufuor Administration. Back then, the Akyem-Nsutam native was a sprightly young man with remarkable rhetorical agility.

But he would rapidly and strategically become a great disappointment, at least in the opinion of yours truly, when he and Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the present Minister of Communications, joined a group of mischievous National Democratic Congress’ rabble-rousing propaganda scam-artists to demonstrate against Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former Kufuor miracle-working Finance Minister and subsequently Sports Minister. President Kufuor would eventually summarily dispose of the services of the Akyem-Oda native, for what many perceived to be a personality conflict.

The demonstration staged against Mr. Osafo-Maafo primarily emanated from the renowned businessman and banker’s bold decision to tread where the NDC bugbears, or Kaakaamotobis (my profuse apologies to Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia), had warned their relatively timid political opponents not to tread. He had told it like it is; to wit, that the John Dramani Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was inordinately packed with ethnic minorities who were robbing the resources of our nation blind. I would have a rare and privileged opportunity to set matters aright on Kasapafm Radio. At least I hope that was precisely I had done. At any rate, I would not be the least bit surprised if this inexcusable attempt to politically deep-six Mr. Osafo-Maafo played a significant role in the President’s decision not to induct Nana Akomea into his cabinet. But I had equally not expected that Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful would be appointed to the rather feet-thinking cardinal post of Communications Minister. The post of Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), maybe.

I was actually thinking about the Ministry of Gender, Children and Women’s Affairs, or whatever this most significant cabinet portfolio is called these days. She would have proven herself to be a perfect fit for the latter portfolio, being that long before she established her credentials as a formidable political force, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful had admirably distinguished herself as a rights advocate. In her present portfolio, nevertheless, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful could never perform below the abjectly abysmal level of her immediate predecessor, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, whose lackluster performance she had the great diplomatic misfortune to laud recently.

At any rate, the fake news thread that widely appeared on the Internet claiming that Nana Akomea had categorically rejected President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of him as Managing-Director of the Intercity State Transport Company (Intercity STC) quickly snowballed with credibility because Nana Akomea, at least from my copious media gleanings, had given the rather politically unwise public impression that his position in the still-gelling Akufo-Addo cabinet was all but assured, as Americans are wont to say. But it was quite obvious from the get-go that a lot of people were going to be disappointed, even if President Akufo-Addo decided to name 1,000 appointees into his cabinet. I am, however, elated to learn that the choice of him being appointed to the post of Managing-Director of the Intercity State Transport Company was one that he personally suggested to the Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House.

I was beginning to get worried because Nana Akomea is quite a decent and reasonably talented man. He has also been known to strategically misfire from time to time. But then, again, who among us is exactly what the proverbial good, old doctor ordered?

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
April 30, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]