By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Following former President John Agyekum-Kufuor’s rather classy decision to honor the invitation of the man who flagrantly slighted him during President John Evans Atta-Mills’ delivery of his third “State-of-the-Nation Address” on February 17, 2011, the Communications Director of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, urged President Mills to also promptly consider meeting with NPP Presidential Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, in order to hash out matters regarding the stability of the nation (See “Invite Nana for Talks, Too, Akomea Urges Mills” Ghanaweb.com 2/24/11).

Curiously, however, the President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Alexander Segbefia, came out swinging vehemently against the very proposition of such a meeting. We must also quickly add here that Mr. Segbefia just may well be at least partially responsible for the unprecedented diplomatic faux-pas that attended Presidents Mills’ delivery of his third “State-of-the-Nation Address.” So far, nobody appears to have taken issue with the fact that Mr. Segbefia, as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency, was a bona fide team member of the Dzelukope-Sogakope Mafia that deliberately caused the gaping omission of salutatory references to Chief Justice Wood, ex-President Kufuor and the entire membership of the diplomatic corps, on whose cooperation the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), or any other Ghanaian government, for that matter, significantly depends to effectively deliver on its campaign promises, in the crafting of the “State-of-the-Nation” address.
Anyway, according to Mr. Segbefia, absolutely no basis exists for President Mills to meet with the very political arch-nemesis against whom the latter issued a “Red Alert,” the highest security-threat signal to the Ghana Armed Forces and its allied security agencies, during the delivery of his third “State-of-the –Nation Address.”
Maybe the President’s address ought to have been composed and delivered in the Ewe native tongue of Mr. Segbefia, in order for Tarkwa-Atta’s Deputy Chief of Staff to fully appreciate the remarkable level of national-security risk which President Mills envisages Nana Akufo-Addo to pose.
It is also rather disingenuous, to speak much less of the downright silly, for Mr. Segbefia to paradoxically maintain that “the current political instability in the country” has far more to do with Nana Akufo-Addo’s all-too-sagacious counsel of measured self-defense – or “All-Die-Be-Die” to besieged NPP faithful and sympathizers, than either Mr. Rawlings’ vigorous and desperate attempts at replacing President Mills with the former’s own wife, or even the at once violent and rambunctious activities of the so-called NDC foot-soldiers. What chutzpah!
Anyway, those of us who have studiously observed his true colors these past two-and-odd years, have absolutely no doubt about the extreme difficulty that President Mills may have in attempting to arrange a tête-à-tête with Ghana’s main opposition leader. We know this because as pointed out earlier in another article, shortly after he assumed the presidency, Tarkwa-Atta attended the Ohum festival at Kyebi, at the invitation of the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin II, and to the utter embarrassment of most of the attendees, completely ignored the personality and presence of the man whom President Mills defeated in Election 2008 by the skin of his teeth, and whom Tarkwa-Atta now claims to be the greatest national-security threat since the Kotoka-led military putsch that auspiciously ousted Ghana’s self-styled “Osagyefo” and his so-called Convention People’s Party (CPP) on February 24, 1966.
It is also, characteristically, rather condescending when Mr. Segbefia attempts to reduce the status of the two-time NPP Presidential Candidate and former Justice and Foreign minister to that of a marginal political opponent. Just read the following, dear reader: “Is he [Nana Akomea] asking for a one-on-one meeting or all presidential candidates meeting with the President? If that [i.e. a meeting with all flagbearers is the case[,] then I would say that it is pre-mature and I do not know why there has to be a need for [such] call[,] especially when it appears the basis upon which he [Nana Akomea] is asking for the call was one that was created by the Presidential Candidate…so I am a bit concerned about the basis upon which the call is being made” (See “Call for Mills to Meet Nana Addo Unnecessary – Alex Segbefia” Ghanaweb.com 2/25/11).
Really, is Mr. Segbefia in his right frame of mind? I, for one, have absolutely no doubt, whatsoever, that, indeed, President Mills must have had his Deputy Chief of Staff in mind when he announced during his third “State-of-the-Nation Address” that he intended to reopen the MV Benjamin cocaine case. Tarkwa-Atta must have, in all probability, sniffed the coca-stuffed cushions in Mr. Segbefia’s living-room and sneezed, “Eureka!”

At any rate, Nana Akufo-Addo would rather have the President confer with his own “Foot-Soldiers,” in order to obviate the necessity of NPP partisans having to vigorously defend themselves against their thuggish NDC counterparts, come Election 2012.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and author of “The Obama Serenades” (Lulu.com, 2011). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
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