It Was a Beating Waiting to Descend

I have been studiously following the recklessly uncouth and virulent misbehavior of Mr. Kwame Baffoe (aka Abronye DC), who is also the Brong-Ahafo Regional Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), for quite some time now. And I must confess that I have not been very pleased with this young party operative at all. Not the least bit. For instance, I have watched Abronnye DC behave like an out-of-control vigilante running riotous and rampaging the Accra Metropolitan Area, and even once or twice questioned why the national leadership of the party would seemingly look on unconcerned, while Mr. Baffoe roamed the streets of our national capital, well outside his official jurisdiction of Sunyani and its environs, creating raising hell and whatnot for largely members of the political opposition, as well as other ordinary citizens who appeared to be responsibly going about their daily activities, by jumping into the seemingly erratic and chaotic activities of government taskforces of whose membership his presence did not appear to me to be the least bit clear or even appropriate.

Often, Mr. Baffoe’s name would be mentioned in connection with or within the same breath as that of Nana Obiri-Boahene, the equally rowdy and cantankerous professionally trained lawyer and former Brong-Ahafo regional operative of the New Patriotic Party who, thankfully, these days appears to be comfortably settled in at the Kokomlemle national headquarters of the party in Accra. It was only a matter of time, I have always thought, before the brutal beating which was reportedly meted him with surgical precision, it seems, by some party members in the township of Atebubu, also in the Brong-Ahafo Region, found its long- and well-intended target (See “Abronye DC Beaten to Pulp at Atebubu and Left with Fractured Arm” NewsGh.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/14/18). As of this writing, a seriously wounded Mr. Baffoe was reported to have been transferred from an unnamed hospital in Brong-Ahafo to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), in Kumasi, the country’s second-largest medical center, in the Asante Region, for treatment under heavy police escort.

Mr. Baffoe is said to be suffering from a fractured arm and a dislocated shoulder. The vehicle in which he had traveled to his prescheduled party meeting at Atebubu, in the company of an associate who also reportedly sustained some injuries, was reported to have been heavily vandalized. In recent months, Mr. Baffoe has frequently appeared in the media spotlight and been reported to have been incessantly attacking the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, a well-respected lawyer, describing the latter as being grossly incompetent and calling on President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to promptly have Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh removed from office or have hell and mayhem visited on the former Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. And so in a quite poetic and ironic sense, as well, Mr. Baffoe simply reaped the fruits of some of the sinister seedlings that he has been profusely sowing and generously watering for quite some time now.

We are also told that but for the timely intervention of some Good Samaritans, the Brong-Ahafo NPP’s Youth Organizer may very well have lapsed into a coma. Since the mayhem or assault allegedly occurred at a prescheduled party meeting, one hopes that Mr. Baffoe’s assailants would be promptly brought to book. At any rate, two things flashed through my mind as I read the news report of Abronnye DC’s apparently brutal mauling, namely, the nauseatingly depressing fact that most of the major hospitals and health centers in the country are in dire need of thorough upgrading and/or overhauling, and the imperative need for the leaders of the ruling New Patriotic Party to stop behaving as if they were still in opposition and take effective control and charge of the largest and most powerful political party in the country, and put in place the necessary disciplinary measures in order to forestall any such unpleasant occurrences in the near future.

We also hope that Mr. Baffoe is fast recovering and learning some good and hard lessons on civility and morally and civically constructive leadership here. Uncle Freddie Blay and his associates at party headquarters, over to you.

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

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
January 13, 2018
E-mail: [email protected]