We Are Not Running Two Parallel Governments in Ghana

Finally, somebody got the clueless leaders of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to sit up straight and begin to use their cranial cream or gray-matter. First, the legally embattled National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, instructed the registered members, supporters and sympathizers of the country’s main opposition party to subject themselves to three days of fasting and prayers as a form of penance; these are the same leaders who are avid subscribers of the Socialist Union of left-leaning Marxist-Socialist and Communist governments and political parties around the world. “Evangelical Socialists” you say? Well, not quite. You see, the fact of the matter is that the NDC’s leaders were caught flatfooted by the outbreak of the China-originated Coronavirus pandemic.

To be certain, even in good times, the NDC’s operatives are infamous for not being the least bit inclined towards the visionary and progressive formulation and implementation of any worthwhile social-intervention policies and programs. Then, now, after being deservedly lambasted and mocked for being clueless, the Mahama Posse has emerged with an 11-member team of health experts, for the most part, that has been charged by Party Leader, to wit, Candidate John Dramani Mahama, the former President, with assisting in finding solutions for the fast-raging Coronavirus pandemic (See “We Welcome NDC’s COVID-19 Team But… - Oppong-Nkrumah” News Desk – Modernghana.com 3/24/20). Other than their somewhat quite impressive occupational designations and professional and academic titles, it is not clear whether this Mahama-cobbled team of healthcare operatives brings any significantly unique dimension to the crackerjack team of specialist practitioners and high-end experts that are already available to the Ghana Health Services (GHS) and, in effect, the Government at large.

Indeed, it is on the latter count that we hereby appeal to the Minister of Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, to promptly and seriously reconsider his decision to welcome the separatist team of health experts put together by the leaders of the National Democratic Congress and to, rather, have the members of the team promptly integrated or coopted into the much more sizeable and logistically endowed team of distinguished health experts already established by the Akufo-Addo Administration or promptly disband. You see, the one troubling aspect of this whole NDC gimmickry, for this is clearly what it is all about, is the fact that other than knavishly seeking to create a cheap publicity stunt, and Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah well appears to recognize this patently unpalatable fact and reality, the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress have actually been unconscionably engaged in either rampantly and riotously boycotting the official and parliamentary business of the people, or simply incessantly maligning and systematically sabotaging the same.

Which was why even while welcoming the formation of the Coronavirus-fighting team established by the leaders of the National Democratic Congress, the Information Minister was also quick to point out that the functional legality of the NDC-established team of health experts was directly dependent on the imperative necessity for either the team members and/or opposition party operatives not to unduly politicize whatever contributions the team had to offer by way of a solution to the nationwide battle to extirpate the Coronavirus pandemic from Ghanaian society. It is equally significant to note that absolutely no policy agenda or research or infection-testing funding was announced by Mr. Mahama in consonance with the unveiling of the names of his so-called Committee-of-Health Experts. We also call on President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to more studiously focus on voting substantial research and test-kit funding for already established and self-proven cutting-edge research establishments like the Noguchi Institute and the latter’s Kumasi-based institutional sister and collaborator, than be wastefully distracted by a politically desperate and cheap publicity seekers like the Mahama Posse.

Dear Reader, just mark this on the wall: pretty soon, we shall be hearing from Candidate Mahama, on the campaign trail, cynically claiming that, after all, it was his nondescript team of health experts and professionals that led the successful battle for the complete eradication of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana. We know this because, already, some mercenary Mahama shills and hangers-on have luridly and fatuously been attempting to credit Little Dramani for being the mastermind behind the Obama Administration’s opportune and visionary battle for the eradication of the Ebola Virus in the West-African subregion some dozen years ago, when then US President Barack H. Obama set up an Ebola-fighting Commander Center of the US Airforce in Accra.

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

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
March 26, 2020
E-mail: [email protected]