By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Folks, another episode in the NPP’s “Concert Party” shows for 2014 has just been enacted under the title: “Akufo-Addo will be President in 2016 come what may”.
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie , General Secretary of the NPP—whom I consider as the Chief Comedian of the pack of “Concert Party” dramatis personae— has been reported as vowing that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be the President of Ghana in 2016, come what may.

He said on Saturday that: “Even if 10 presidential candidates stood for the 2016 election, only Akufo-Addo will be President”.

Owusu Afriyie said the means by which the party intends using to ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo wins the 2016 presidential election is known only to the NPP.

He had earlier told Radio XYZ on Thursday that the door for the party’s presidential race for 2016 was closed to other contestants, except Nana Akufo-Addo.

“I have said that I believe that Nana Akufo-Addo will be an excellent President in 2016 and I think that I stand by that. That is not to say that the door is locked or shut against those who may be interested in future in 2020 or 2024”.
(Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=296906)

MY COMMENTS
What exactly does Akufo-Addo think God has planted in him alone that he can use to develop Ghana for which he must move heaven and hell to be Ghana’s President, come what may?
Such a maniacal ambition is dangerous and must be snuffed out, as will happen sooner than later.
To me, the most intriguing aspect of this Chief Comedian’s utterance is this part: “… the means by which the party intends using to ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo wins the 2016 presidential election is known only to the NPP.”
I want to second guess him to say that if he thinks that the NPP has any sophisticated means to influence the elections, he is deceived. Whatever the party’s leaders and followers may be hatching to embolden them that only they know how to put Akufo-Addo in power at Election 2016 will explode in their faces.
Let it be made clear to these NPP “book” politicians that their kind of politicking won’t fetch them electoral victory. It will only deepen their woes and confirm the fact that in their current configuration, they are not capable of winning elections in Ghana. They need to do more than what they have been doing all this while.
And if they make the mistake to roll out anything detrimental to common sense, good conscience and patriotism, they will be dealt with as never before. It is not a threat, but a gentle toe-stepping to rouse them from their self-righteousness.
The extent to which Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie is carrying his desperation and shouldering the responsibility of keeping the “Concert Party” shows alive is indeed befuddling but unexpected. When “Gbeshie” is in control, anything goes!!
Every reasonable person should know that the NPP is already sinking very fast, apparently because of the posturing and utterances of the Owusu Afriyies and all others in that NPP cabal who are expending energy propping up Akufo-Addo to be the flagbearer of the NPP at Election 2016, even at the time that the man himself hasn’t come out to say that he had seen the “face” of God and been told his future political direction.
We acknowledge the fact that Akufo-Addo has been in London for months now, claiming to be on holiday and waiting for the hand of God to touch him and push him where he should carry his political ambitions.
We have dismissed such a flight into the transcendental as a subterfuge, a ploy designed to throw dust into the eyes of the unwitting segments of the NPP membership who have remained captives of the Akufo-Addo ambition to become Ghana’s President as a birthright.
Akufo-Addo made politically pointed utterances while on that holiday, which were charged with strong indications that he had already made up his mind to stand for re-election at the March delegates’ congress of the NPP to contest the 2016 elections.
His appointed spokesmen have also not hidden their overzealousness to do his bidding as they made it clear that he won’t abandon his quest to lead the NPP again. While Akufo-Addo himself hid behind such manouevres to re-position himself for the March congress, his emissaries were covertly running around in the UK, the USA, and Ghana, reaching out to the party’s constituencies and testing the pulse of the party’s followers. Apparently, they have been wetting the ground for him.
We were smart enough to see through that veil and to point it out to those people that the brickwall that they had been skirting all along would soon stand between them and their ambitions. There are just too many hot potatoes rolling around in the NPP’s corridors!
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie has been the main town-crier for Akufo-Addo and has virtually torn the party apart because of this one-sided approach to handling issues.
Some Akufo-Addo fanatics have even vowed to use the last drop of adrenaline in their system to root for him.
We note that the complaints made by Dr. Konadu Apraku and all other prospective flagbearer aspirants have rather been turned into a bait to entrap and clip their wings. Dr. Apraku has already faced the NPP’s Sanhedrin and been browbeaten to swallow his tongue. We haven’t heard anything from him ever since. Other victims are still nursing their grievances.
Beyond that, others interested in contesting at the March congress fell all the more threatened, especially when those in charge of organizing the congress have already taken entrenched positions detrimental to their political interests.
Indeed, Alan Kyerematen is out now, airing his views and becoming more visible, apparently in preparation for contesting the flagbearer position at that congress. His spokesmen and special aides have already bluntly said that he will contest the position.
Interestingly, those already lined up to do Akufo-Addo’s bidding are quick to dismiss complaints from those in the party rooting for other contestants or simply saying that the kind of internal democracy needed by the NPP isn’t what all the manouevres to ram Akufo-Addo down their throats will yield.
At this point, minds are already made up. Will there be any need for the March congress, after all?
What, then, is the implication? Let’s say for now that these utterances and public posturing antics by Owusu Afriyie and those thinking and acting like him to privilege Akufo-Addo will further deepen the crisis in the party.
It is only those human ostriches with their heads still stuck in the hot sand who will claim that there are no cracks in the fabric of the NPP throughout the country.
Obviously, the Akufo-Addo opponents will also intensify their elbowing moves to ensure that he is not settled on automatically, as seems to be the situation now. They will not budge.
What do I foresee? Either the party will be rocked all the more and totter toward the precipice of self-destruction or those not in favour of Akufo-Addo will simply withdraw into their shells as apathy immobilizes them. They will detach themselves from the party and resign themselves to the sad fate that they are by now familiar with in Ghanaian politics.
Eventually, those not in favour of Akufo-Addo will either campaign secretly against him or thwart his efforts at election time. In times like these, anything can happen.
And the most important issue of all is that the factors that worked against Akufo-Addo’s two previous bids are still standing out like a boil on a bald man’s head. Nothing has been done to tackle those factors and, like a sore thumb with a searing whitlow, they will follow him and checkmate his next bid to become Ghana’s President.
Time won’t neutralize any of those negative factors. Is imposing Akufo-Addo on the party, then, the most important thing to do now or rebuilding the party and making it more appealing to the electorate?
True to their character, they have chosen to do what will worsen their plight. Indeed, these “book” politicians have a long way to go!!
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.