By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Friday, April 11, 2014

My good friends, the NPP is at the crossroads, even as it is all set for its national delegates conference tomorrow.

The party's constitution is being tested by Akufo-Addo whose stature as the flagbearer ended when he lost the elections on December 7 and 8, 2012. His dogged resistance and failure to come to terms with reality didn't change his status, as would be confirmed by the August 29 verdict of the Supreme Court.
But he seems not to know his bounds and is behaving like the potentate that he has constructed himself within the workings of the NPP.

Indeed, all that has happened since the party endorsed Akufo-Addo to lead it to Elections 2008 and 2012 suggests that there is a creeping feeling of entitlement that reinforces the misgivings characterizing reaction to what Akufo-Addo has stood for all this while, losing genuine elections but refusing to accept the verdict until after holding the country to ransom.
I am tempted to conclude that the NPP's conference will be a confirmation of the reservations that will eventually doom the party again at the 2016 elections.

There is a lot happening to suggest an Akufo-Addo "hegemony" that isn't in the NPP's interest. He is too full of himself and is spreading that gem to the party's rank and file as if without him, the NPP can't survive.
Unfortunately, those thinking like him are encouraging him to sustain that atmosphere of delusion. Akufo-Addo's fate was clearly determined at the end of Election 2012 (even though he adroitly sought to use his petition hearing to extend his domain for nothing. After it all, he sought shelter in a so-called vacation in London, deceiving his unwitting followers that a God of Divine Mercies would appear to him to tell him his future political direction.
That was after he had already made it a cardinal principle not to shift in any way to allow anybody else to lead the NPP to the next elections. All that he has been doing ever since is ridiculous, to say the least. But it also betrays his lack of political maturity and astuteness. All that comes with a huge cost for him to bear!!)

The party's own constitution stipulates that whoever leads the party to a general elections and doesn't win the elections cannot hold himself/herself up as the leader of the party.

In truth, the NPP has no founder or leader/father, unlike the NDC that suffered from that designation in the case of Jerry Rawlings before his being "emasculated" by stronger forces (that might explain his ambivalent stance regarding his loyalty---whether to the NDC that he was instrumental in founding or his wife's National Democratic Party that was spawned by empty hatred for a party heirloom and an unbridled desire to be in power).
Now, it seems Akufo-Addo is taking the NPP on a rough roller-coaster ride, carrying himself as the de facto leader of the party at all times (regardless of all that he took the party through after losing the 2012 elections). Isn't it too much already?
We can tell from the way he is bulldozing his way through the NPP's terrain that he already has established himself as the be-it-all-and-end-it-all for the party's political fortunes: without him, there will be no future in Ghanaian politics.
That's a very dangerous stance to take. As we can see from goings-on, he has already positioned himself as the only choice for the party for Election 2016. A sorry case of political miscalculation.
We know that other interested persons (especially Alan Kyerematen) are doing things on the quiet to have their way. But from the manner in which Akufo-Addo and his backers are flexing muscles and exploiting the situation to advantage, there will be little room for the other interested personalities to register any strong presence, which will annoy them to the marrow and prepare the grounds for something unpleasant in this political cabal.
Even, proceedings at the party’s national delegates’ conference speak volumes to reinforce my stance that Akufo-Addo’s manipulation of the situation to outpace any other contestant for the flagbearership is problematic:
• A peace ambassador, ten year old Ivy Adwoa Ofori, mounts the big platform to crusade for peace within her "beloved" NPP. She says Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has shown the way for peace and all others must follow suit. She gets a rousing applause from delegates.
• The Tamale Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bugri Naabu, delivers a short address. He says the party is determined to win power in 2016 and charges Nana Akufo Addo and his counterpart, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to deliver victory for the NPP.
• The crowd cheers when Alan Kyeremanten is introduced but the atmosphere turns electric when Nana Akufo Addo is introduced. The delegates cheer, wave, and shout as Daddy Lumba's Muntum ma Nana song is played.
Everything is skewed in Akufo-Addo’s favour, which raises two major questions: Why is the situation being controlled as if Akufo-Addo has already been settled on as the party’s flagbearer? Do you see how easy it is for the NPP to set traps for itself?
I am being bold here to say that Akufo-Addo is really setting himself up as the "black sheep" of this cabal at this stage. It is likely that the outcome of the Tamale conference will shed more light on the situation; but as the situation stands now, Akufo-Addo is holding himself up as the NPP's leader, contrary to the provisions of the party's own constitution. What does this anomaly tell us?
I shall return…
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