Opinions of Sunday, 4 May 2014

Columnist: Akwah, Nana

Et tu, Kufuour, A Backstabber!

"Et tu, Kufuour?" is the irrefutable in a series or process of beyond description betrayal by Kufuour, but few remember that Brutus and his buddies meant well. Sure, the disgruntled cohorts and coterie of Kufuour who are bent on reducing to ashes Nana Addo are doing so in settling scores, personal and political.

The question to be asked, are they trying to save “democracy” or want to institute “kleptocracy”?

In this contemporary age of spinning, life stories offer politicians on each side of a double-cross to unsheathe their rhetorical knives and let readers judge for them.

Many do not realize that as we grow up we don't lose friends; however, we just realize who the true ones are. Least we can do is to stop believing the liars, trusting the backstabbers and loving the heartbreakers, all because the biggest mistake we ever make is letting people stay in our life far longer than they deserve to.

It is also important and informative to know that, in every organization there is at least one person who would rather backstab than get the work done. While others eventually may discover the truth about backstabbers, they can damage your career and make your job unbearable unless you take a stand.

Friends are supposed to be reliable and trustworthy. But there are certain people who, in the veil of friendship, take undue advantage and try to exploit our weakness. Such backstabbing friends should be immediately identified and avoided.

Is ex-President Kufuour a "backstabber? From all indications it points to that.

By analyzing things, we observe that backstabbers are strong only when our back is turned. If we are strong enough with great will power, not to heed to the unworthy advice from such friends, we will not offer a chance for them to back stab us. What we ought to understand is that, these ‘Backstabbers’ will almost always seek to gain your trust and this usually involves some form of flattery on their part.

Backstabbing friends are afraid of their insecure status which drives them to indulge in such worthless acts and might or will repent for their actions one day. So, identify such people and avoid them. Egotism, cliques and cowardly backstabbers – it is politics after all.

Those in the National Patriot Party plotting to overthrow Nana Addo have achieved what many of us might have considered impossible. By their very inordinate actions, compared to their low conniving they have managed to make the Nana Addo look worthy, a leader of high principle.

It could be speculated that Nana Addo is among the most successful Attorney Generals in the history of Ghana and the NPP, although losing two elections in a row, it is being used to hound from contesting the Party Flag bearer-ship by a handful of snapping sprats, non-entities whom even experienced political journalists might be hard-pressed to recognize in the “Elephant Family”.

One need not or you do not have to be a supporter of Nana Addo to discern the maneuverings and the intended conspiracy to get rid of him for reasons that can easily be conjectured. We should all see this shameful and indecent spectacle as a new low in the falling apart of our political life.

The newspaper overload of character assassins of Nana Addo could be compared to the more or less giant of Gulliver, pinned down by a mob of tiny assailants, might give too much weight to Nana Addo's status. But they well illustrate the Lilliputian political standing of the opposition.

Whatever one thinks of Nana Addo, he has at least been trying to act like a leader, albeit on the basis of his professed ‘inner self-belief’ rather than any outwardly obvious political principles. But what do those betrayers and traitors involved in the revolt offer by way of an alternative?

Which political issues or ideals motivate their attempt to oust Nana Addo? You would search their circulating interviews and statements in vain for any mention of such matters. Their sole concern appears to be their personal prospects for election, and their cronies’ promotion within government if the need be.

This is a cowardly coup, by those who lack the nerve even to demand that Nana Addo goes immediately – surely the only logical stand to take is that of their belief, he is such a liability.

It can be easily reflected on that, His Excellency or call him His Highness, the former President, the figure behind the coup and its intended beneficiary, is left looking like the biggest moral coward of all – mumbling mealy-mouthed words of support for Nana Addo while manipulating his pet pygmies in the NPP party against him, and no mention of any political alternative.

But then, as sensible figures on all sides have observed, there are no ideological differences between the Nana Addo and Alan camps. There is no left v right or Old v New Elephant struggle for ‘the soul of the Party’ – something that was sold long ago.

Even compared to Kwame Nkrumah's battles with the CPP ‘wets’, the likes of Krobo Edusei in his Cabinet, this is a contest devoid of political substance. Instead, as I have pointed out before, the Nana Addo-Alan business is more like an exercise in the old-fashioned politics of a royal court, where cliques and factions rally around individuals rather than ideologies, maneuver for influence and access to the Crown.

This impression of melodrama has been strengthened over the past few days, by the sight of careerists and wannabe king-makers changing sides and stabbing backs, accompanied by cries of ‘he is old and cannot rake in floating votes'!

I think Kufuour’s actions ever since his exit from the presidency had been absurd, indecipherable, or a difficult problem and a tight spot. He is full of mean and a backstabber to the NPP as true friend. He is who he is through NPP. Kufuour is not innocent of backstabbing and from all indication is selfish and look after himself and not the Party.