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Shame On You, Ofosu-Ampofo!

Feature Article Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo
FEB 22, 2019 LISTEN
Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo

Now, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the National Chairman of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has also decided to beat a path of retreat from the earlier press release signed by the party’s longtime General-Secretary, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, cynically claiming that all the four appointees to the Emile Short Commission, charged with investigating the Ayawaso-West Wuogon byelection, and other election-related forms of violence, were dyed-in-the-wool New Patriotic Party (NPP) appointees who could not be trusted to be impartial in their findings and the delivery of their recommendations to the man who commissioned Justice Emile Short and his associates, namely, President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (See “Emile Short Commission ‘Doing Some Good Work’ – NDC Alters Stance” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/21/19).

This brings to two, the number of prominent NDC members and leaders who have decided to appear before the Short Commission. The first, of course, was Mr. Samuel George Nartey, who claimed to have been manhandled by agents from the country’s law-enforcement establishment. Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo, the former Eastern Regional Minister during the tenure of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, if memory serves me accurately, cannot fool anybody about the reason why, all of a sudden, he has decided to have a change of heart or reverse his initially cynical stance. Very likely, it has quite a lot to do with the savage-shooting death, a couple of days ago, of Mr. Wasihu Iddrisu, a member of one of the several NDC-sponsored vigilant groups called the Taskforce, by a known member of another NDC-sponsored vigilante group called the Hawks.

This apparently internecine internal-party bloodletting must have sounded a wakeup call to NDC’s movers-and-shakers like Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo, that their long-term safety and political survival lie with wisely and constructively cooperating with the Short Commission, if they are to find a lasting and definitive solution to the high spate of election-related violence in the country. The Kumasi killing, which also left another party vigilante operative fighting for his life at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and one or two other intra-party clashes elsewhere in the country has left party bigwigs like Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo with absolutely no other alternative but to cooperate with the Short Commission. Which also means that these hitherto cynical NDC leaders are fast coming to a realization of the fact that President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo may very well have the key to solving Ghana’s perennial internal security problems.

In other words, the decision by these bigtime National Democratic Congress’ leaders to cooperate with the Short Commission is a resounding, albeit oblique, endorsement of the presidential reelection bid of Nana Akufo-Addo come December 7, 2020 or thereabouts. Indeed, as the Dear Reader may have already read in a previous article authored by yours truly about a week or so ago, my research has indicated that, in fact, contrary to what Mr. Asiedu-Nketia would mischievously have the rest of the nation believe from his press release, Justice Emile Short had been appointed the first Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) by then-President Jerry John Rawlings, and not former President John Agyekum-Kufuor.

Then also, having so royally exposed himself and his party to irreparable ridicule before members of the locally resident global diplomatic community, some of the NDC leaders might have had their attention called to the fact that the diplomatic community’s heavy-lifters were closely watching to see whether, indeed, these self-proclaimed “bloody revolutionaries” had deported themselves and their members, supporters and sympathizers as decently and innocently as they claim to have done during the Ayawaso-West Wuogon byelection. As well, our background checks revealed that the ranking member of the Short Commission and former Inspector-General of the Ghana Police Service, Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, had actively served as a prosecutor on the Chairman Jerry John Rawlings-established Public Tribunals throughout most of the bloody and chaotic 1980s.

As well, our checks on the background of Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, inducted as President of the Ghana Academy of the Arts and the Sciences several days ago – Our hearty congratulations, Prof.! – indicated that this lambent-witted legal maven is more of a consummate clinical scholar than a partisan political activist, the way that Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia would have the rest of the nation and the global community believe.

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

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
February 21, 2019
E-mail: [email protected]

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