I am blinded with tears and my heart is heavy with sadness. I am writing at a time when our party, The New Patriotic Party is engaged in a latent battle to avert an intra-party despotism and deny President Kufuor a virtual third term he is madly seeking. The Kegs of gunpowder the president has mined the forthcoming congress which will take courage and fortitude to diffuse not silence and sheepish on-looking. This is a reckless gambit that must be engaged head-on. Our party must overcome this beat-up philosophy of not “washing our dirty linen in public”. For goodness sake, our linen is already stinking in public, thanks to the President, and wouldn’t hurt one bit if we clean it where it hangs.
Just yesteryear, we were beleaguered with unrelenting struggle to end dictatorship in our motherland—the struggle was against dictatorship in all its manifestations, and it continues. Democracy and subtle imposition are antithetical concepts. Those of us who actually fought in the struggle to bring about the Fourth Republic are determined to defend it with our sacred honor. The same non-violence method we used to let Rawlings eat his “handover to whom?” philosophy will be employed against Kufuor if he continues with his shenanigans. We demonstrated during the struggle that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.
Are you wondering what all this is about? Well, it is about Kufuor covertly working himself into frenzy to get Kyerematen nominated as the NPP flag bearer. This reckless move seriously undermines his credibility and underscores his renown notoriety as a palpable opportunist—the only member of our tradition who shamelessly served in a government of a sanguinary military junta that had dissolved the legislative body of which he was a member. Disregard all his flimsy excuses that the late Victor Owusu encouraged him to join the PNDC to forestall Ewe hegemony. While brutal murders and disappearances were the order of the day, his conscience was not quickened. He hanged in there until he was shamefully chased out of his office by PNDC cadres. It is this same Kufuor who submitted at a strategic Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ) meeting slated to organize mass manifestation against the PNDC this: “ I did not go into politics to become a martyr; I went into politics to make money to take care of my family and friends.” Indeed! What a self-fulfilling prophesy? With all these albatross dangling around his neck, he surprisingly managed to wrest the nomination from Prof. Adu Boahen in 1995, and questionably defeated Akufo-Addo in 1998.I believe these questionable political exploits have given him false sense of security and invincibility.
Though the president claims publicly that he is not for Kyerematen, his deeds prove otherwise. Kyerematen, though, no longer in the government was shamefully exposed through an accident that he is still using the trade ministry’s vehicles, manpower, and resources with impunity. It is an open secret that Abdul-Rahman Guma of Bawku, Liz. Pijit of Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo, and Salamatu fogor of Bole were purged from their District Chief Executive positions because they support opponents of Kyerematen. Meanwhile, Richard Anane, accompanied by Kofi Adjei(JOKAD), is driving around the Ashanti Region with his car trunk loaded with cocoa sacks filled with money to be given to delegates to induce them to vote for Kyerematen. Not to mention Afoko and the castle boys. What about the sickening display of opulence by Kyerematen in renting an Air Force jet at an exorbitant price and crashing Hackman’s event with impunity. The long list of such despicable and stinking abuse of presidential power is steaming along with a geometric progression ad infinitum leading to the “D” day. There is a virtual culture of silence within Kufuor’s government and all appointed positions because if you dare cough, you are “history” .It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Do you remember the culture of silence under Rawlings? Yes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. “ Forewarned is forearmed.”
It looks as if Kufuor is in a state of paranoia, afraid of his own shadow. Or has he got something to hide? The president must be mindful that none of the presidential candidates can shield him from the wrath of the masses if he dares. The president must be cognizant of the fact that our struggle was like a plane that made a successful voyage—The success of the flight was due the effort of the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. The known pilots are those of us who led in the agitations and made the headlines. However, there are millions, the “ unknown ground crew”, whose names will never appear even on notice boards of remote villages. It is these teaming masses, unsung heroes and heroines that Kufuor is insulting by scheming to foist Kyerematen upon. It is this same selfless youth who joined us several times under scorching sun and on hot pavement bare footed ( some shot dead) during the Preko and other demonstrations heretofore, that are being spat upon by Kufuor and his cronies by their disgraceful demonstration of interest in auctioning the NPP and the presidency to the highest bidder. The existential difficulties confronting our nation do not warrant such crass display of opulence and extravagance amidst abject poverty and depravity. These nationalist have learnt over the years that they are capable of influencing unfolding events which surround them, and this “cashmania” will not escape their wrath.
I believe with every strand of my faith and every fiber of my conviction that the tempest leading to the congress will definitely pass and there will be calm. Those doomsday prophets who have already written the obituaries of our party will bury their heads in remorseless shame. The secrete of the strength of our tradition that made us survive over forty years in the wilderness and will sustain us in the promise land is this : Our party, contrary to others with individual owners and founders is a party of the people, by the people, and for the people. That is why any individual who attempts to high jack the party for his own selfish ends will fail woefully and be disgraced.
The delegates must enter the hall this weekend to vote their conscience and vote against the president’s choice. If not for anything, do it for the sake of posterity. What the president is attempting to do is perilous, divisive, and rotten precedence that must not be tolerated by any genuine democratically minded individual. Virtue temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
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