By Otchere Darko

[*Readers who are not sure about this writer and get confused about his name and identity may please read the information placed at the bottom of this article.]

When I read that Kofi Wayo was calling on Nana Akufo-Addo to resign his position as NPP flag-bearer, I laughed. Kofi Wayo too? What moral authority has this man got to tell somebody that he is not fit to lead his party? Then, I also read from the recent Wikileaks’ revelations that Kwesi Pratt of all people was claiming that Nana Akufo-Addo was indeed a drug user. Should anyone believe the “lie-lie” specialist, “Kweku Ananse” Kwesi Pratt, now or at any other time, when he makes allegations against the only man who could and still can beat his “adzi wo fie a oye” idol, Professor Mills? And, truly, Nana Addo in 2008 came very close to defeating Kwesi Pratt’s “adzi wo fie a oye” idol, for whose sake he, Kwesi Pratt, sought to play one of his “dirty politics”, [assuming that Wikileaks’ story is true]. Laughing is one thing; and understanding is another. I can in fact laugh, but I cannot understand why a renowned lawyer like Nana Akufo-Addo should, for years, allow his name to be dragged through the mud by people like Kwesi Pratt and Kofi Wayo, IF he, Nana Addo, does not use drugs. President Obama confessed during his campaign to become President that he had used drugs before. Despite this confession, he won the American presidential race. Why can’t Nana Akufo-Addo admit using drugs [now or in the past], if he uses or has used these substances? If he is not using, and has not used drugs before, why can’t he sue those defaming him? His lawyers recently made threats of suing but up to now, they have failed to go to court. Various excuses are given by Nana or his supporters for not going to court. Excuses notwithstanding, failure to go to court to clear ones name says only one thing...... which is that: Nana Akufo-Addo is lying about “something”!

This failure of Nana Akufo-Addo to go to court to clear his name about drugs reminds us about a similar failure by former President Rawlings, “the self-proclaimed anti-corruption campaigner”, to go to court to clear his name about allegations made against him by a Norwegian media house that he accepted bribes from a Norwegian cement company. In explaining why he has not gone to court to clear his name, Mr Rawlings said he did not have the money [to go to court]. Yet the same Mr Rawlings and his devoted wife have had money to waste on an election that, they both knew, was not winnable. The wife is also reported to be on a “go round the whole country” to thank the 3% of NDC voters who voted for her in an election she failed so woefully. Is this a couple that does not have money to clear its name about a corruption allegation against it? Wow! Even an idiot knows that their failure to find money to clear their name, while finding money to waste on an unwinnable election, raises eyebrows. There is a lie “somewhere”!

Besides Nana Akufo-Addo and former President Rawlings, there is the corruption allegation about Dr Hannah Bissiw which has persisted for a long time now. Instead of going to court to prove her critics wrong, the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing has chosen to confound Ghanaians more by saying she took a bank loan [with interest] to put up the mansion she is alleged to be building; while, at the same time, using her own money to undertake expensive humanitarian projects. Why will a person who wants to be believed borrow huge money to build her own house while, at the same time, spending equally huge moneys from her own resources on humanitarian projects? [Readers may refer to: “Group accuses Hannah Bissiw of corruption;” General News of Wednesday, 7 September 2011; Source: Joy Online]. Only a Ghanaian politician can give this “twist-and-turn” explanation in defence of a serious allegation made against her and hope to go free of charge. Dr Hannah Bissiw must tell Ghanaians something better, possibly by going to court to sue those accusing her of corruption; or she must accept the allegation of corruption and resign her position.

And what about the irritating defence that was once put up by Ghana’s political “Heavy-Weight Champion”, General Mosquito, who had the audacity to say that, after having worked for a long time in various capacities, he would be judged by Ghanaians to be a fool, if he could not build the two mansions he is alleged to be putting up. Why did General Mosquito wait until he became the General Secretary of a party in government before realising that he should rush to build, so that Ghanaians could not take him to be a fool? Mosquitoes can “suck” and deceive people with their light body-weight, but the blood inside them cannot.

Until we get a Ghanaian leader who will force contemporary Ghanaian politicians to tell the public the “truth”, or accept various criminal allegations made against them and face the consequences, we will continue to be bombarded by a litany of political accusations and concocted explanations, lies and other responses by our politicians who know that, apart from setting up one’s own church, the quickest way to make money [and a name] in Ghana [now] is through politics. If our politicians will not defend their names against “defamation”, it means allegations made against them are true. Let them own up; or let them go to court to prove their innocence! Even me, “a person with no big name to worry about”, I have gone the whole length below to defend my name and my person from “misrepresentation”, [for good or for bad]. Why should these politicians who have a lot to lose not take it upon themselves to defend their names and their persons, IF they are REALLY innocent of the accusations levelled against them? We can only conclude [from their “judicial silence”] that they are all “criminals”, if they cannot go to court to prove their innocence.

Source: Otchere Darko; [Personal Political Views].

*About the Author:

[This appendage is for the information of only readers who get confused about this particular writer because of the name he uses, and who therefore need to know more about him or about the name he uses. Ignore this appendage, if you are not one of such readers. *This writer is just one of hundreds, and possibly thousands of Ghanaians who use the name “Otchere Darko”, either on its own, or in combination with other names. Some users spell this same name as “Okyere Darko”, while other users conjoin it with the help of a hyphen to become one single compound name, “Otchere-Darko” or “Okyere-Darko”, depending on which spelling-mode they choose. This writer, who has officially used this ‘simple name’ from his school days in the sixties into the seventies and continues to use it officially to this very day, attended the School of Administration of University of Ghana where he finally left in September 1977, the year that students embarked on the “UNIGOV” demonstration. He has never before, or after September 1977 been a student of the Ghana Law School. Up to the end of 1981, he worked as a senior public servant in, and for one of the mainstream Ministries in Ghana. He is not working for, and has never worked at the Danquah Institute. He is currently also not a member of NPP, or of any other party in Ghana. He is not related to any practising Ghanaian politician who uses this same or other name. *May readers concerned, please, take note of this exhaustive clarification and stop drawing wrong conclusions that sometimes lead them to attack a wrong person. Thank you for taking note.