With the publication of his piece titled “Kufuor continues to campaign for Atta-Mills and NDC,” Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe continues to remind me of “Animal Kingdom.”

Columnist: Peter Owusu Boahene

At some point during my secondary school days in Ghana, there was a guy in my school whom my fellow students nicknamed “Animal Kingdom.” “Animal Kingdom” was, at the time I was in the school, an upperclassman. He was a senior, a sixth-former, as they were called in those days under Ghana’s then 5+2 system of secondary education. I did not know what the guy was really called. As a matter of fact, I do not think many people, apart from those who were in the same class with him, knew his real name. We all called him “Animal Kingdom.”

You may be wondering why, of all the names in the world, we would choose to call someone “Animal Kingdom.” The fact is that Mr. Animal Kingdom really earned his nickname. Here is how: From time to time, the guy would be appointed the senior on duty for a particular week. In those days, what the senior on duty did was help the school authorities in ensuring orderliness in the school. That duty entailed making sure there was quietness at school gatherings in places like the Dining Hall and the Assembly Hall. In what appeared to be Mr. Kingdom’s attempt to ensure quietness in the midst of noisy students, he would usually get up and yell the following words: “Even in the animal kingdom where chaos, lawlessness and incivility are the orders of the day, quietness sometimes prevails.” “Keep quite.” And trust me, before the guy could get to the really important words “keep quite,” the students will greet him with a roaring “Aay.” Animal Kingdom’s apparent attempt to keep us quiet often fell on proverbial deaf ears. It never worked. Here is another favorite saying of my dear school mate Animal Kingdom: “A blow which is inevitably yours, earlier on encountered, extricates one from further torrential hostilities.” Yes, Animal Kingdom loved big words. It was when the students noticed that the guy was really fond of using big words that they wasted no time in Christening him “Animal kingdom.” That is how the guy came to earn a nickname which may sound odd to many people.

Animal kingdom was not unique to my secondary school. In many secondary schools across Ghana, there were, and I believe there still are, many “Animal kingdoms.” Under the pretext of getting a message across, these people, who often happened to be seniors, would drop a couple of big words. The real aim of such people is usually this: They want to impress people, especially the ladies, with how educated they are. And they think the best way to do that is to drop as many big words as they can. They do not really care whether people listened to the messages they delivered or not. As long as people got to hear them drop a big word or two, they were okay.

Animal Kingdom finished secondary school before I did. I have never seen him since then. For some time now however, there is one man who has consistently reminded me of “Animal kingdom.” That man is a Professor of English and Journalism at Nassau Community College in New York. He has a PhD. He is very educated. He never hesitates to let anybody know he is very accomplished. Also, he never fails to remind people that he is related to J.B. Danquah, the man he calls the “doyen of Ghana’s democracy.” He is Professor Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe. Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe also likes people to know that he is related to the current presidential nominee of NPP, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo. There is something else the learned professor likes to do. He likes to call the immediate past president of Ghana, Mr. J.A. Kufuor, some unflattering names. His beef? According to the learned professor, Mr. J.A. Kufuor is responsible for his relative, Nana Addo’s loss to president Mills during the 2008 presidential election. But why does the Professor remind me of Animal Kingdom from my secondary school days? You guessed right. Yes, the Professor loves to drop big words. He just loves to do that, like “Animal Kingdom.”

In heaping insults at Mr. Kufuor, his “modus operandi,” as the man himself will put it in his professorial language, is to go the “Animal Kingdom” way; use very, very big words. By big words, I mean very big words; words that would make my buddy “Animal Kingdom” sound like a nursery kid in my village learning his first English words.

Out of a personal principle, I decided long ago not to submit an article to Ghanaweb. After reading the man’s latest article titled “Kufuor Continues to Campaign for Atta-Mills and NDC” however, I thought that it is about time someone responded to the learned professor. And I decided I should be that person. As the professor suggested by the choice of title, the former president is doing everything possible to ensure that NPP does not regain power from NDC. After going through the article however, one can easily see that although the author has some negative personal feelings towards Mr. Kufuor, his main aim for writing the piece, at a subliminal level, is not necessarily to criticize the man. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe is, as usual, more concerned with letting people know that he is a great person. He wants all of us to know that he is endowed with an enormous amount of intelligence. As he also does usually, he suggests in his writings that in case we are wondering why is so smart, well-accomplished, and impressively published, it is because he is related to some of the smartest people in the world. Yes, Mr. Okoampa-Ahoofe wants everybody to know that the reason he is able to use words like “incessantly,” “immitigably,” “modus operandi,” “lambasting,” and “apocalyptically,” is that he is related to Dr. J.B. Danquah. You see, the professor cannot help being smart. Intelligence runs in his family.

What the professor fails to do however, is to make a solid, straightforward, point. In this article, as in many of his articles, the professor sounds confusing at best, and helplessly unconvincing and immature at worst. His arguments are weak. His train of thought is difficult to follow, and worst of all, he sounds very shallow.

Mr. Okoampa-Ahoofe will like us to think that Kufuor’s administration was flamboyant and openly wasteful. In the same sentence he uses to make this accusation, he suggest that it can be acknowledged the Kufuor’s eight years in office can be arguably considered “the most productive eight years in recent Ghanaian political history.” I am still waiting for the professor to tell me how an administration can be “profligate,” as he terms it, and productive at the same time. The word “profligate,” Mr. Professor, has a connotation of wastefulness. I don’t think you will disagree with me on that. How then, Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe, can someone be wasteful and productive at the same time? That’s quite an oxymoron, is it not? You see, that is what happens when one is so obsessed with impressing people with the use of big words. One can hardly make sense. Preference for the use of big words, professor, is like excessive rhyming. It hardly helps one make sense. If you think I’m lying, just listen to Biggy Smalls’s rhyme “Every beauty with a booty bought a Gucci.”

The professor’s confusion and immaturity was also apparent when he said that Mr. Kufuor’s decision not to criticize president Mills is not because he is necessarily a statesman. According to the man who never wastes time in letting us know that the legendary Kwame Kyeretwie Danquah was his relative, Mr. Kufuor is not even close in statesmanship to Dr. Busia and Dr. J.B. Danquah. As a result, Mr. Kufuor’s apparent decision to act maturely by not criticizing the Mills administration cannot be attributed to statesmanship. Unbelievable. As someone who is proud to call myself a member of the Danquah-Busiah-Dombo family, I have always respected Dr. Danquah and Dr. Busia. Of course, these two founding fathers were great academics and outstanding statesmen. Actually, one of my happiest moments was when I met Dr. Danquah’s daughter in Worcester, Ma, for the first time. I told her that her father is my intellectual godfather. That should show you how much I love and respect Dr. Danquah. But my question, Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe, is that should the fact of your uncle being a great statesman prevent Mr. Kufuor from at least attempting to be a statesman? We all agree Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player. But should that prevent Dwayne Wade from making a few extraordinary dunks? Should that not even inspire the Dwayne to perfect his craft? After all, what is wrong with “I want to be like Mike?” Picture the son of the legendary Pele commenting thus after Ronaldo has netted a beautiful goal: “His scoring of the goal is not because he is a great soccer player.” He is not a legendary soccer player in the way that my father was.” However that kid would sound like, with all due respects, that is exactly how you sounded, Mr. professor, when you suggested that president Kufuor cannot be a statesman because your uncle and Dr. Busia are the greatest statesmen of their generation. Kufuor may not be as great a statesman as your uncle. But he is still a statesman.

The reason some of us respect president Kufuor the way we do is that he is very disciplined. He knows when to criticize and when not to criticize. As a former president, he is keenly aware of the fact that he is not only a politician, but also a statesman. Admirably, he switches these roles as and when necessary. It was Kufuor the statesman who was responding to that question on the current president’s performance when he was outside the country. It was Kufuor the politician who criticized the Mills administration at the time your relative Nana Akuffo-Addo won the NPP nomination. There is a difference. Please take note.

The last time I checked, there was a former president in Ghana who never passes up an opportunity to rain insults on his political opponents, and even people who are on his side of the political aisle. That man does not care whether he is speaking to his political supporters in a town in Ghana or he is speaking to some foreign journalists in a foreign country. He will find an opportunity to insult. The man’s name is Mr. J.J. Rawlings. Hate him or love him, Kufuor is very different from Rawlings. He does not insult people simply because they happen to disagree with him politically. He is not going to insult Mills simply because you want him to. Please do not equate this with campaigning for Mills. That is such a cheap thing to do.

If indeed there is anybody who is campaigning for NDC, it is Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe. Your utterances on this Website is not doing the NPP any good. You have mainly succeeded in promoting anti-NPP sentiments. Also, with your not-so-subtle attempt to show how superior the Akyems are, you are working very hard at increasing tribal animosity. I have always believed that the allegation that there is an Akyem mafia within the NPP is mainly the work of an NDC propaganda. But if indeed there is an Akyem mafia, Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe is the head as well as the entire membership of such a mafia. Remember that if your relative is going to win the presidency, you need everyone, including the people you have been insulting, to help.

You have acknowledged yourself that Kufuor’s eight years in office is the most productive in modern Ghanaian history. Don’t you think that it is this the kind of platform Nana will need to campaign on? If you insist on calling Kufuor all kinds of names, all the NDC would have to do is pick up your lines and link Nana to them. Don’t forget that Nana was a prominent part of the Kufuor administration you call wasteful and flamboyant. Also, don’t forget that NDC is a very powerful and able political party, even if it is sleazy. And please remember that Nana is going to run against the only party in the world that admits to spreading propaganda. Not even the Nazis did that. They have a propaganda secretary. We don’t. I’m not suggesting we should appoint a propaganda secretary who will spearhead a cheap campaign against Mills the way the NDC does things. Trust me, there is a less divisive and noble way of winning an election, and the NPP has shown it. But please don’t do Asiedu Nketiah’s and Okudzeto Ablakwah’s jobs for them. It is those guys whose job it is, or least they think it is to paint Kufuor in all kinds of unflattering colors, not yours.

With all his faults, and he certainly has many of them, Kufuor represents the biggest political success of the Danquah-Busiah-Dombo tradition. Yes, we may be the pacesetters in Ghanaian political history. But we never tasted a really full political success until Kufuor was elected. The founders of UGCC had a foresight. But after they sponsored the struggling Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana and introduced him to politics, they looked on helplessly as Kwame overshadowed them and dispossessed them of all political fortunes. In spite of all his brilliance and accomplishments, Dr. Danquah, for reasons we are all aware of, was never able to wrestle power from Kwame Nkrumah. Our family was excited when Dr. Busia became a prime minister and Akuffo-Addo senior became the ceremonial head of state. But our taste of power under Busia was short-lived. I don’t even want to talk about what happened between Dr. Hilla Liman and Victor Owusu. And yes, Professor Adu Boahen is credited with breaking the culture of silence Rawlings imposed on Ghanaians for years. But the guy could not wrestle power from Rawlings. Kufuor lost once to Rawlings. After his second attempt became a charm however, he gave us eight years of power. That is something the Danquah-Busia-Dombo family had never seen in its political life. I am not saying that Kufuor should solely take credit for that. All of us members of the Danquah-Busia family, including Nana, contributed to that political success. But don’t forget Kufuor was the face of that eight year administration you like to call profligate and productive in the same sentence. Whatever you do therefore, please make sure you put reigns on your incessant insults on the man. Of course, you have every right to insult the man however you want. But remember that the greatest book of wisdom tells us that although we have the right to do everything, not everything is worth our while. An attack on Kufuor can easily be turned into an attack on your relative Nana Addo, and by extension, the NPP.

Also, remember that Kufuor has spent eight years of his political life making decisions. Making real life decisions that affected the lives of people will surely ruffle some furthers. Some of these decisions may not be very popular, especially with political opponents. Dr. Danquah, despite all his academic accomplishments, never got to make decisions as a president. If he did, we would have had the opportunity to see his weaknesses; weaknesses I’m sure would have been magnified by his political opponents. Dr. Busia barely spent two years making some of these important decisions before he was kicked out of office by the military. Within those two years, we were able to see some of the guy’s greatness as well weaknesses, even if the greatness outweighed the weaknesses. I’m sure we all remember the famous, or infamous if you will, Busia saying: “No court can declare my act unconstitutional.” That was not very commendable. Even those of us who admire Busia do shake our heads when we recall that statement. What I am trying to say is that Kufuor’s situation is a little different from that of Dr. Busia and Dr. Danquah. You should therefore not forget when comparing and contrasting him with these two founding fathers.

Moreover, remember that Kufuor belongs to a different generation, and he created very different atmosphere during his rule. We are talking about the man who was fully aware that he was dealing with a party that is not ashamed to admit to engaging in propaganda, and yet went ahead to repeal the criminal libel law, a tool he could have effectively used to silence his opponents, like Rawlings did. I am also talking about a president who was criticized by people like Rawlings, a man who spent almost twelve years eliminating people who disagreed with him, and another eight years using the criminal libel law to a full advantage. If you think I am exaggerating, look at what happened to Ato Kwamena Dadzie and Nana Dakwah under the Rawlings NDC. These should probably tell you the kind of president Kufuor was. Whenever I hear NDC guys saying that Kufuor was corrupt, I ask them if they could say the same thing when Rawlings was a dictator. Don’t you remember what Rawlings did to people like Pratt, the man who found his voice all of a sudden when Kufuor became a president, and dubbed himself “the voice of the people?” People called J.J. junior Jesus because that was all they could say about the man under whose regime former heads of state and military officers were shot while judges disappeared. Where were those newspapers who make all kinds allegations against Kufuor during the Rawlings revolution days? Perhaps if rawlings had allowed them to exist by then they would have had a more reliable way of judging whether Kufuor is indeed the most corrupt president Ghana has ever had, as they claim. If you are going to be fond of criticizing and insulting Kufuor, don’t forget the big picture.

Yes, Kufuor had his own faults. There is definitely some truth in the accusation that he was flamboyant and corrupt. How can we deny that as a sitting president, he inappropriately created an award through which he gave himself a very expensive medal? That was a very low moment in the guy’s life. It is bad enough when a president hires foreigners and pays them thousands of dollars to make an expensive jewelry. It is worse if that president happens to be the recipient of that same award. Talk about abuse of power at its lowest. Then there was also the infamous Dr. Anane’s case which he handled like he had no clue what is considered an appropriate conduct in a public official. Trust me, the guy’s faults are uncountable, and of course some of these contributed to Nana’s defeat. However, it is very wrong for you to talk as if Nana did nothing to contribute to his own defeat. He was in charge of the campaign, remember? What I am trying to say is that Nana has now been chosen once again as the leader of our party. Let us hope that he wins this time. He deserves to win. But insulting Kufuor at this time will definitely not yield that result.

By the way, you are yet to come up with Nana’s contribution to his own defeat. What does Nana say to the man in the mirror? Like I said, the NDC is very good at propaganda. They even admit to it. Do not expect that they are going to hand over power easily to Nana. Despite the fact that president Mills is a lame duck, they will still like to hang on to power. Once again, they are going to accuse Nana of snorting cocaine. They are going call him arrogant. In fact, they will call him worse names. They have done all of these before. I hope he counters these unfounded accusations with class and dignity. Also, I hope that you help him in so doing, instead of wasting your time on what NDC loves to do, which happens to be heaping insults oh Kufuor and other prominent NPP members. Professor, if you continue to do this, and use your big words in doing so, you will only succeed in reminding me of my buddy “Animal kingdom.” That, of course, will get Nana nowhere.

There is an important job ahead of us. We have a campaign to run. We need each other more than ever. Let us focus on what is important. Let us help Nana get elected. We owe it to the good people of Ghana. God bless the Danquah-Busiah-Dombo family. God bless NPP. God bless Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo. God bless Ghana. Asalaam Alaikum.

*The auther, Peter Owusu Boahene is a humble African farm boy. He grew up in a cocoa-farming village in Ghana. Like many Ghanains, he happens to love his country. Also, he sometimes gets his interest raised by political issues. ###