By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Friday, February 22, 2013

When Kwame Pianim said before the 2008 elections that any idiot can bear/carry the flag of a political party, many didn’t understand him. Is he not right, after all?

Of course, he was reacting to the rejection of his preferred Presidential Candidate, Dr. Frimpong-Boateng, by the NPP’s delegates who went for Akufo-Addo instead. His reaction provoked outrage and was deemed as highly unpalatable by his critics in the party, some of whom even went to the extent of denying him his rightful place in the NPP’s pecking order.
Others called for him to be ostracized. Forget about the insults rained on him. He has since been dormant in the affairs of the party, at least, as far as his public utterances about goings-on in the party are concerned.
But his poignant statement can’t be forgotten, especially when the moments are always ripe for it to be revisited or recalled to explain contemporary political developments. I will quote him as far as the word “idiot” in our political parlance as used by him is concerned. Don’t blame me.
Today, he seems to be more than vindicated. Of course, he had been right then because the “idiot” who led the NPP to the 2008 polls lost. And the party has ever since been struggling to get back on its feet, sort of—if ever it can—because of too much idiotic happenings at its front.
Again, the “idiot” was retained to bear the party’s flag at Election 2012, and was given a more bitter dose of electoral defeat, which has sent him and the entire leadership of the party into a terrible tailspin. In their state of emotional turmoil, they have succeeded in turning their front into a “Concert Party” and their MPs into political straws to cling to in order not to drown.
Not only are they still bearing the torn flag of the party but they’ve also reduced it to the status of a tailless kite that can’t fly. Or, that spins out of control if launched. More commotion than motion!
We recall that in the 2008 Presidential elections, although the “idiot” bearing the party’s flag had won the first round with a little over 49% of the total valid votes cast, he couldn’t hit the benchmark of 50% + 1 vote to win outright. The kangaroo dance ended abruptly when in the run-off, the good old Atta Mills swept past him to win with a little over 40,000 votes.
As an idiot would do, conceding defeat was too difficult for him; and he chose to go to court to contest the outcome of that obviously genuine electoral defeat only to be cut to size by the voices of reason in the party—the late B.J. da Rocha and former President Kufuor.
Lo and behold, Election 2012 brought along with it bitter memories of 2008, adding its own brand of torment to the “idiot” who again bore the party’s flag to the polls. We are long past Election 2012 but he has refused to accept that reality and is still kicking the hardest as a dying donkey does. And he has the backing of those like him who think that the law is an ass.
Everything has gone haywire. Running to the dark chambers of the Supreme Court isn’t helping them regain their composure because they have by their own actions complicated matters that will prolong the determination of their petition. Sadly, that is what they are celebrating.
In the interim, they must find ways to seek public attention. So, what are they doing? Boycott… boycott… boycott everything associated with President Mahama!! Desperation galore. Then, go ahead to make contradictory statements to throw dust into the eyes of their followers.
But who are they deceiving if not themselves and these uninformed followers? Here are the latest instances of how confused they are.
Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made an outrageous statement that reflects sadly on the NPP members’ lack of respect for democracy. Responding to criticisms that the NPP MPs’ boycott action might not reflect the sentiments of their constituents whom they represent in Parliament, he retorted that they are not obliged to consult their constituents on every issue on the floor of the House before they decide to participate.

He explained, however, that MPs sometimes draw on the views of their constituents on specific issues and that an MP could decide to take a stand on a particular matter before the House, according to the opinion of the majority of his or her constituents.
Are the MPs’ in Parliament at their own volition or they were put there by voters who withstood the sweltering heat and discomfort on voting day to empower them so that they could work to solve their problems and uplift living standards? Are the MPs more powerful than the voters who chose them? Or by boycotting Parliamentary responsibilities, do these NPP MPs deserve emoluments that the toil, sweat, and blood of their constituents generate?
As if that was not enough to confirm his shortsightedness, he added more drivel. We didn’t miss the equivocation in his stance. As is characteristic of snakes-under-grass of his type, he said one thing and meant another, thinking that he could do harm unnoticed or unscathed. How deceived he is!
He had earlier said that he and his colleagues “reserve the right not to attend when President Mahama visits the House on Thursday February 21, 2013, to deliver his first State of the Nation Address.”
In that same breath, he disclosed that the Minority would defy the party’s directive and attend the Parliamentary session, even when it was obvious that they couldn’t just do so without conferring with the National Executive Council of the party. The party’s leadership had directed them to boycott the session in protest against the conduct and outcome of Election 2012.
As he told Joy News’ Elton John Brobbey, “we will see the members in the House tomorrow.”
Then, no word on the outcome of the meeting that they were to hold with the NEC. Thus, in the morning of Thursday, they went through all formalities (beginning from their own homes) and settled in the chamber of Parliament, creating the impression that they were indeed ready to participate in proceedings.
But when all was set for the President to begin delivering his address, they got up and walked out of the chamber to confirm that their decision on boycott of official assignments hadn’t been rescinded.
To confirm their notoriety, some of them carried placards with the inscriptions "stealers" and "thieves," among others.

Worse than that, though, was the hypocrisy and shallow-mindedness that they displayed thereafter. Only two instances when some opened their mouths were enough to reveal all we need to know about them for what they are.
The MP for Asuogyaman, Kofi Osei Ameyaw and Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, who led Akufo-Addo to electoral defeat in 2008, reacted to the President’s speech and left no one in doubt about their confused state.
Osei Ameyaw told Joy News’ Evans Mensah that the NPP was obviously not satisfied with what came from the President. Thus, “on Tuesday or Wednesday, the NPP will give an account of the true state of the nation and will encapsulate the suffering of Ghanaians and provide solutions.”
As usual, idiocy has taken the better part. A “State of the Nation Address” by sore losers? Jokers on parade!!
Dr. Apraku also made some ugly noises, saying that the President's address did not in any way give hope to Ghanaians: "If I was looking back and I was a young man, is this a government that I can place my faith in that they can deliver to provide a standard of living that I aspire to? I did not find that in this speech that he presented."
He said the issues of concern to Ghanaians on the economy include "the high interest rate, the high unemployment, the high cost of living and then you can look into the sectors and look at the water, the energy and the agricultural sector."
Were these not the very issues that the President had iterated as what his government will address in the “Better Ghana Phase Two” agenda? How did Konadu Apraku process the President’s speech? With anger clouding his sense of hearing and comprehension?
There is much happening at the NPP front to prove Kwame Pianim right. We expect more of those self-defeating machinations because once they have set their wheel of mischief in motion, it will not stop spinning until the energy catalyzing its revolution gets exhausted.
We don’t expect them to end their boycott soon because that is the only means available to them to continue deceiving their benighted followers that they are fighting a good cause and should continue to be supported. But most of us know that they are out of control, wasting their time and energy for nothing.
Once their “idiot” has borne the party’s flag and led them to an electoral defeat, refusing to accept the reality and moving the idiocy a notch higher to push them into the labyrinth of the Judiciary, they will not abandon their self-destructive line of action in midstream. They will definitely expend their energies crossing the Rubicon only to worsen their plight. Should we be surprised? Not at all because that’s what one should expect when an “idiot” bears a party’s flag on a wild goose chase.
Until they do irreparable damage to themselves and their party, they won’t recant. Even when voices of reason emerge to set them right, they will take profound umbrage and dig in all the more. No LOGIC will make sense to them, as Gabby Asare Otchere Darko has already confirmed.
In doing all these acts in desperation, they are dragging their party more into irrelevance. We saw it after the 1992 general elections. It took them four years to regain their composure and return to normalcy.
What they have set in motion now surpasses the previous one and will bring them nothing but a harvest of woes, anguish, and self-hate. At the end of what I expect to be a protracted determination of their bogus lawsuit by the Supreme Court, they may come to realize too late why the tailless kite that they’ve all along been running won’t fly.
So should it be, especially when that kite is in the hands of an “idiot” who fails to know that what he has in hand is a tailless kite that can’t fly, or that even if it wants to fly, there is no favourable wind blowing to sustain it in motion. Wasted effort. Plump!!
I shall return…
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