Togbe Afede Is a Serial Loser Who Refuses to Back Down

He was dead-set against the auspicious and visionary expansion of democratic governance by the creation of more regions in the country barely a year ago, by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and even morbidly attempted to roil up belligerent ethnic sentiments, largely based on illusive or perceived ancient animosities, incriminations and recriminations, especially vis-à-vis the very administratively savvy splitting up of the erstwhile Volta Region into the present-day Volta and Oti regions. What is also remarkable to point out here is the fact that had the John Dramani Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) retained the democratic reins of governance, no doubt, the NDC would have proceeded to create even more regions in the country than currently exist. But, of course, all this was absolutely of no moment to the Asogli Paramount Chief and his ilk. Predictably, the Afede Frigate of fierce protest would shortly run aground even long before it could take off.

And now, the Yale Business School-educated President of the National House of Chiefs is at his trademark game again. This time, Togbe Afede and the Vice-President of the National House of Chiefs, Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, VII, are reported to have released a press statement vehemently urging Ghanaians to roundly and resoundingly vote “NO!” against the all-too-sane and salutary decision by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party to have Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive Officers (MMDCEs) elected into office by popular franchise, instead of being undemocratically handpicked and appointed to their local administrative jobs by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. This undemocratic governance process, cynically crafted and implemented by the infamous Ahwoi Brothers, has been the practice since the 1992 inception of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. During all this period, the neoliberal key operatives of the New Patriotic Party, in particular the now-President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, have been steadily and systematically fighting around the clock to enviably democratize Ghana’s political culture at all levels of governance to synch the same with best practices as the latter prevail among the most advanced of global democracies.

The foregoing is what thoroughgoing corrupt traditional rulers like Togbe Afede and Daasebre Ewusi seek to stall, and thus criminally regress the civilized political development of the country. This dastardly stonewalling of Ghana’s democratic development, too, shall definitely and definitively come to naught. Indeed, as of this writing, the progressive-minded Chairman of the Governance Committee of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi, II, had issued a harshly worded press statement asserting that the decision by Togbe Afede and Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi to draw the entire establishment of the National House of Chiefs into a headlong electoral/plebiscite collision with the passionately pro-democracy Akufo-Addo government of the New Patriotic Party, did not have the support of the overwhelming majority of the membership of the National House of Chiefs, as Togbe Afede and Daasebre Ewusi sought to portray, on the question of the December 17 Referendum, in the earlier press statement released by the aforementioned two chiefs (See “ ‘No Vote’ Position Doesn’t Represent House of Chiefs’ View – Member of House of Chiefs” Adomonline.com / Modernghana.com 11/16/19).

Even more significantly, Nana Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi emphatically noted that for the press statement released by the President of the National House of Chiefs and the Vice-President of the same establishment or institution to have bite or validity, the two-chief/two-man decision to fiercely lock horns with President Akufo-Addo over the impending referendum on the democratization of our local governance system, ought to first have been debated by the membership of the Governance Committee of the National House of Chiefs, which was clearly not done. Now, what the preceding observations incontrovertibly mean is that in unilaterally moving for the December 17 Referendum to be decided with a massive “No!” vote by the Ghanaian electorate against the proposition by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party, both the President of the National House of Chiefs and his Vice-President flagrantly violated the standing laws/rules of the National House of Chiefs upon which the authenticity and/or validity of the elective positions of the President and the Vice-President of the highest monarchical establishment of the land are predicated.

If, indeed, this publicly stated contention by Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi, II, has factual and/or statutory validity, then it goes without saying that it is imperative for both Togbe Afede and Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi to be promptly and swiftly sanctioned by a full-sitting panoply of the membership of the National House of Chiefs. Perhaps a suspension or even the summary removal of these autocratic leaders of the National House of Chiefs would be perfectly in order, if the chieftaincy establishment is to retain whatever vestiges of respectability it may still have among the citizenry of our beloved nation.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
November 16, 2019
E-mail: [email protected]