NPP’s Tribalism Re-surfaces - CPP

49 years ago the CPP founding fathers of our beloved Ghana dreamed and planned a nation where all the peoples and tribes of our nation shall live in harmony, with equality and social justice for all.

For this reason the CPP opted for and fought for the Unitary State that Ghana has today as opposed to a Federal State. The Unitary formula has served Ghana well and helped to avoid the tribal clashes that we have seen elsewhere in Africa.

The unity and harmony that Ghana enjoys has been threatened on many occasions since our independence, often by elements close to the antecedents of the ruling NPP Government. Every Ghanaian's hope however is that our Political Parties and politicians will maintain the peace and harmony bequeathed to us by the CPP founders of our nation and nurture tribal harmony.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is in Government today and thus has seemingly come a long way to dispel a widely held perception that it is a tribal party. The Leadership of the NPP needs to be alerted to a resurgence of tribalistic tendencies within its ranks and from its supporters and sympathises who at every opportunity would seek to turn back the clock of peace and harmony. It is with grave concern that we bring to the attention of fellow Ghanaians how supporters of The NPP have taken advantage of the Press Statement by the CPP UK & Ireland, signed by its Regional Secretary Mr Kwami Agbodza - an Ewe from Kpando, to insult all Ewes as inward-looking, echoing the late Victor Owusu. The insults also echoes and confirms the view of Agbogbomefia of Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV who recalled at the meeting with Dr. Addo Kufour, the tribal slogans that heralded the formation of the NPP as a political party in the 1990's, and pointed out that a great majority of the people in the Volta Region were put off by the slogans like “Yeregye yen man” etc. The current insults even went further to use language that is unbecoming members of a ruling party. They then claimed that it was all in the name of politics thus further confirming the use of ethnicity in Ghanaian politics for the sake of political power. The attack came in the wake of the Statement of the CPP UK & Ireland that the Diaspora Vote Committee (DVC) is bogus and a democratic fraud and that the DVC has been lying that it represents the view of all Ghanaians in over 150 countries in the world including those in the UK.

Some of the very troubling insults couched in strong anti-Ewe language which has caused grave concern to the Leadership of the CPP UK & Ireland, can be found at http://www.ghanaweb.com/Ghana HomePage/ NewsArchive/artikel.asp?ID=99843, and read as follows ( with all the attendant errors verbatim): “Kwami Agbodza, It's not surprising to read this thrash from an "inward-looking" Ayigbe Rawlings school boy. It's a pity you have never voted in any Ghana elections and pathetically don't even realize what you lose by not voting.Avu kokulo!”;

“This illigal alien must be booted from uk or whereve he is to go back to serve his trokosi amaga to atone for his forefathers sin as prescribed amagas in volta region”;

“It's not surprising to read this thrash from this "inward-looking" Rawlings Ayigbe man.”; “You stupid ayigbeman, you rather wise up and grow up and stop being childish and naive.”; “What have you people got to offer mother Ghana apart from jealousy, hatred, violence and trokosi. Even the most educated among you, at the expense of the state, still expect handouts from the state. In the words of JFK, they have no knowledge of what they can do for their country but only think of what the country can do for them. Hence they stay at their so-called unmerited positions without any innovations or positive agenda to move the country forward but rest unashamedly on their farting asses and rust as well as waste the lives of the people around them. Such people are a waste to themselves, their own people, the tax payer and the state. Now what has Ayigbeland got to offer mother Ghana in terms of natural resources? Literally nothing. At least it was the cocoa and gold from the forests elsewhere in Ghana that sustained mother Ghana and continue to do so up to now and have enable those people from cocoa growing and gold producing areas to tolerate you parasites all along. Apart from hatred, jealousy, violence, tribalism, trokosi,intimidation and selfish, inward-looking individuals, ayigbeland cannot wholly boasts of anything meaningful. So you stop that loose talk and wise up? Please don't tempt people to say that some of you are generally a curse to mother Ghana”; “You want the repeat of 20 years of extra judicial killings. Executions without trial. Human rights violations. Disenfrichment of innocent citizens.

Unilateral consfication of personal properties. Which were hallmark of (p)ndc dominated ewes/ glorified ewe vampire cult with rawlings their high priest… Do you understand that Rawlings spared the ayigbe people and buchered some one in my family? You vampire pathological thief”.

The CPP UK & Ireland takes this opportunity to call on all Ghanaians from all ethnic groups whether busanga, wangara, mande-busanga, grusi, vagala, sisala, mo, kasena (paga), mole-dagbon, walba (wala), nanumba, nankansi and gurense, namnam (nabdon), mamprusi, kusasi, dagomba, dagarte (dagaba), builsa, (kangyaga or kanja), gurma, salfalba (sabulaba), pilapila, kyamba (tehamba, baasari), kokomba, bimoba, guan, yefi, Nchumuru, krachi, nkonya, gonja, cherepong, larte, anum, awutu, efutu, senya, avatime, nyongbo, tafi, akpafu, lolobi, likpe, ewe, ga-dangme, ga, dangme, wassa, sefwi, nzema, kwahu, fante, evalue, denkyira, chokosi, boron (brong) including banda, asen (assin), asante, aowin, akyem, akwamu, akuapem, ahanta, ahafo and agona among others, to rally behind the anti-racial and anti-ethnic philosophy of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) to ask the NPP Leadership in Accra to categorically denounce such sentiments and to boldly assure the nation that tribalism would not be tolerated in its ranks. Kwame Nkrumah's philosophy which was the basis of the founding of Ghana and can be found in his book Consciencism , teaches that all Ghanaians arise from the same matter and are therefore equal; that because, matter with its own pristine laws, in traditional African outlook, is seen as having an absolute and independent existence, with powers of self-motion that is the basis of categorial convertibility, Ghana for instance has many categories of ethnic groups without prejudice to their equality; so we are all one multi-ethnic nation with a common destiny and a common good and together, whether on the side of progressive forces or conservative forces, we can advance the nation Ghana free from the rancour of divisive ethnicity, of which the NPP have shown themselves to be crafters of as far back as the MateMeho terrorist days. The CPP UK & Ireland would like to point out that such language and intolerance from NPP supporters is unhealthy and can only lead to conflict with no particular ethnic group the winner, and thus in the interest of mother Ghana we call on The NPP Government to move swiftly and take action to disown such persons..

We certainly believe that only an Nkrumahist Government can safeguard the harmonies multi-ethnic legacy of Ghana from the NPP which as this incidence shows has time and time again shown its true colours to be be that of one-party, one-tribe and Conservative dominated state. We call on all Ghanaians for the sake of the common good to, as a first step put pressure on the NPP and their supporters to turn away from such sentiments, but ultimately to put a progressive Nkrumaist government into office in January 2009.

We call on all Nkrumahists to discuss with immediate effect, all issues to do with how - what we can do or what can be done – to get an Nkrumahist government into office in January 2009 , as the basis of our activism towards rooting out NPP tribalistic compassionate conservatism.

International Nkrumaists across the globe, our friends and sympathisers in Asia, Europe and the United States of America amongst others, in the light of the African Identity, in the love of the African Brotherhood, in the self-determination of the African Personality and in the plan and power of the African Social and Economic Reconstruction, wish Ghana well in the full knowledge that it is only an Nkrumaist Government that can rebuild Ghana our beloved nation.

The CPP rejects tribalism in Ghana and elsewhere.

Signed:

Nii Armah Akomfrah, Chairman, CPP UK & Ireland Branch [email protected]