This Politics Of Personal Hatred Will Not Work

He was Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Brong-Ahafo, when the then-main opposition political party in the country clinched a commanding victory in the December 2016 general election. And so Mr. Kwame Baffoe, alias Abronye DC, may need more convincing evidence than the mere electoral loss of a candidate supported by his arch-nemesis to shore up his accusation of gross incompetence against Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, short of his obviously virulent personal animosity for the man to validate his claim (See “NPP Sinking in Brong-Ahafo – Abronye DC” Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/5/18).

Those of us who have been studiously watching the Brong-Ahafo political scene over the course of the past 10 years, are also fully aware of the fact that until barely a year ago, the region was heavily skewed in favor of the erstwhile Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC). Indeed, the first problem that greeted the nomination of Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh as Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister came from the Sunyani Traditional Council, composed primarily and predominantly of the invested traditional rulers of the Sunyani Municipality. The latter, of course, is the capital of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The problem here was that until the New Patriotic Party clinched a commanding victory in the 2016 general election, the overwhelming majority of the Brong-Ahafo chiefs and queenmotherswere literally in the pay of the Mahama-led NDC regime. An obvious factor here was the strategic fact, for good or bad, that the First Lady, Mrs. Lordina Mahama, also hailed from Brong-Ahafo. Now, we can discuss the fact of whether this conjugal connection of the Gonja-born former President John Dramani Mahama had significantly redounded to the benefit of the citizens and people of Brong-Ahafo in another column expressly elected for the purpose. Then also, it hadn’t hurt very much that the tough-talking and hard-hitting and popular General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, hailed from Brong-Ahafo.

Unless Mr. Baffoe has curiously crossed ideological lines to collaborate with the region’s NDC operatives to strategically work against Mr. Asomah-cheremeh, the untenably vicious attempt by the NPP’s Regional Youth Organizer to make life a living hell for Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh, as New Yorkers are wont to say, is simply as clearly observed above, a gratuitous act that if not promptly stanched and any differences amicably resolved between the two gentlemen, could very well work to significantly undermine the strength and popularity of the ruling party in the region. I am not on the proverbial Ground Zero, and so it is not easy for me to credibly determine if, indeed, Abronye DC has any genuine case against the man who claims to have at least on three occasions legally and voluntarily defended Mr. Baffoe against the certain possibility of incarceration.

His incontrovertibly abrupt behavior and temperament ought to clearly tell the studious and critically-thinking observer that Mr. Baffoe needs to undergo anger-management training or therapy, the failure of which treatment and refusal to promptly amend his ways by respecting the need to discipline himself may very well necessitate his summary expulsion from the party. He could then take his so-called control of 28 constituencies in the Brong-Ahafo Region and explore the possibility of establishing his own political party. Or, better yet, Abronye DC could annex the same into the fold of the National Democratic Congress for whatever such merger may reap him. His claim that the Brong-Ahafo Chapter of the New Patriotic Party will be heading into the 2020 general election with two separate and uncoordinated communications teams, ought not to be tolerated by both the regional and national executive memberships of the party under any circumstances whatsoever.

The fact of the matter is that Abronye DC is either a committed party team player or he is the veritable enemy of the aims, desires, ideals and aspirations of the largest political organization in the country. If the Brong-Ahafo NPP Youth Organizer cannot swallow his empty pride and constructively and progressively rally around Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh and the rest of the NPP’s leadership to facilitate the salutary socioeconomic, cultural and technological development of Brong-Ahafo, then he might just as well pack up bag and baggage and promptly ship out of the party. If he has any forensically sustainable evidence of corruption against the Regional Minister, by all means, let him immediately come out with the same and stop bluffing and causing unnecessary tensions and distractions.

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