By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
May 7, 2016
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

If she has not already done so, then it is well nigh time for her to decide what public-policy dimension she intends to bring to the presidency as Ghana’s first lady, should her husband be given the nod, come November 2016, as the next Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House. Indeed, I have been meaning to point her in this direction for quite some time now, but the messy clutter of our national political culture has contributed in no small measure to tarry my schedule quite a bit on this subject.

First of all, Auntie Becky ought to rest assured that the most dangerous detractors of the presidential ambitions of Nana Akufo-Addo are not his most obvious political opponents, but some virulently and pathologically cynical and divisive members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who clearly appear to have missed their ideological calling. She probably knows these reprobate characters more intimately and up-close than yours truly. If she really wants to offer a positive boost to her husband’s presidential electioneering campaign, then Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo (nee Griffiths-Randolph) would be better off steering clear of the purely domestic and personal and rather concentrate her creative energies on such evergreen policy issues as maternal and pre- and post-natal healthcare, for ready examples.

She could also focus on childcare, education and nutrition. In other words, there are a legion of pressing national issues and projects for her to address, besides the humdrum and purely personal issue of who denigrates her husband the most on the flimsiest of knowledge about the character and/or personality of his detractors’ target of malediction. Sulking and expressing outrage and irritation at the predictable and pedestrian attacks on her husband by his avowed detractors merely serves to further encourage these irredeemable character assassins in their wayward and troglodytic ways.

It also makes the work of those of us frontline defenders of the ideals of the party and its flagbearer and all the other key operatives of the New Patriotic Party all the more difficult and tedious, as much of our strategic efficacy depends on our not being unnecessarily sidetracked by issues not directly related to the needs, desires and aspirations of many a supporter and sympathizer of the NPP. Clearly, what seems to be sorely lacking is the need for our first-lady-in-waiting to be availed of savvy media experts who can assist her with the choice of when, where and how to address the press, and what or what not to say. She must also not feel obligated to speak to the press just about any time that she is called upon to do so.

After all, Mrs. Akufo-Addo is not a career politician gunning for office. It is all right for her to let on to the public, from time to time, about whom she really thinks her husband is; but she equally needs to bear in mind that different people relate to her husband at completely different levels of intimacy of which she may not necessarily be privy to. This is not to either say or imply that her views and opinions of her husband lack any dimension of definitiveness or authority, for they certainly do, except that in this particular phase of his electioneering campaign, the dominant focus ought to be on policy matters rather than the purely domestic and personal. We shall be studiously watching, and intend to offer the most meaningful pieces of advice where and when necessary.

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