By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Sunday, January 3, 2016

Folks, it is disgusting to have the doomsday prophecies from charlatans of Rev. Owusu-Bempah's type begin fouling our air so early in 2016. After opening their mouths really wide to make all kinds of predictions and prophecies that never came true as far as the fate of Akufo-Addo is concerned at Elections 2008 and 2012, they are now turning their "searchlight" inwards and telling us what we don't really need so early in this year.

Owusu-Bempah is out to tell us that none other but those close to Akufo-Addo are planning to assassinate him because they don't want to have him win Election 2016 and become Ghana's President. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Some-people-are-plotting-to-kill-Nana-Addo-404878).
Eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhh. Asem ben nie? So early in this election year?
Is this an attempt to confuse Akufo-Addo or to drive him more into the labyrinth of religiosity in the deceptive belief that God will fight his battle for him to win Election 2016? Folks, God doesn’t fight such electoral battles; and anybody thinking otherwise will end up looking for dung where no cow grazed. Electoral battles are fought and won or lost on the basis of pragmatics and mundane happenings in the lives of the people vis-à-vis the manouevres of politicians, not on the basis of “faith” or any fuzzy belief in a God that no one has seen before or will ever see. God doesn’t sit at the seat of government; neither will he choose for the people who should govern them. It is the people themselves who do so on the basis of what they see about those seeking their mandate.

Whether God appointed rulers for Israel in Biblical times is not at issue here because we are not Israelites (of old) or Israelis (of now). We are Ghanaians!! No one should deceive anybody in this context. The people will choose the leader they want; and as is often said, a people get the government they deserve. Don’t ask me why.

Of course, I am not surprised at the use of violence as “prophesied” by Owusu-Bempah because the United Party (UP) political culture is known for using violence instead of reason and connections with the electorate in pursuit of its political objectives. How about the bomb-throwing in the First Republic, the murder of political opponents in this Fourth Republic, or the acid-bathing of their own leaders? Nothing stops them from using any means of violence to get their pound of flesh.
I wouldn't have batted my eyelid over this noise from Owusu-Bempah but for the fact that he was instrumental in pumping up Akufo-Addo's intransigence at the end of Election 2012 and creating the negative impression that he (Akufo-Addo) had won the polls but was cheated. Did he not even predict the death of president Mahama and the Asantehene?
And rather whimsically too, Akufo-Addo has bought into such vile prophecies and snuggled to these characters and many others to create the impression that he is favoured by God but defeated by human machination; hence, the NPP’s fixation on the vain and exaggerated claim that “the battle is of the Lord’s”.
Akufo-Addo’s desperate manouevres to use religion as a crutch ended in smoke, especially at the end of the Supreme Court’s hearing of his damn useless petition; but those who know that weakness of his won't let him be. They know how to bait him and are up on their feet to do so, as this Owusu-Bempah has just begun doing after a long spell of silence when disproved by reality. There are many others in the orthodox religious establishment (including Samuel Asante-Antwi, the unofficial spiritual leader of the NPP) and wayside religious groupings—be they Christian, Muslim, Traditional African Religion, Hare Krishna, or whatever—who are blowing hot air to make Akufo-Addo feel that God is with him in his quest to become Ghana’s President “at all costs”.
Folks, characters of this sort are roaming around, making this kind of noise because discipline has broken down in our Ghanaian system. Otherwise, why won't they be taken on to substantiate their claims and be put in the slammer if they fail to do so?
To assuage any doubt, let it be said here and now that nothing but Akufo-Addo’s own unbridled quest for political power and mindlessness of the forces arrayed against him will kill him. It is possible that the tension being built up in his system by his own over-ambition for power will boil over and cause serious health problems that will doom him.
I have tried hard to know why he is so invested in becoming Ghana’s President “at all costs”, having already told us that the incompetence of the Mahama-led administration has compounded Ghana’s problems and would be a huge burden to be carried by his successor. So, is Akufo-Addo really pushing himself to the point where he will carry that burden and not sag under it? Why push himself into that tight corner, anyway? Is it because he considers himself as the modern-day Sumanguru Kante to keep Ghana on its feet even when there are no Almoravids to threaten it? Or because he has seen a way out that no one else is capable of seeing?
Folks, as the situation stands now, I am more than convinced that there is a lot to worry about, especially if utterances of the Owusu-Bempahs are placed in context. Of course, I won’t be surprised if any plot is hatched in-house against Akufo-Addo, clearly because one reaps whatever one sows. With all the hatchet-man’s actions being taken against just anybody perceived as criticizing him, should anybody be surprised if some of those aggrieved people capitalize on the loopholes in the NPP set-up to do what Rev. Owusu-Bempah claims to have foreseen?
Of course, an action will definitely beget a reaction. Stepping on toes all over the place will have a negative sequel, which must be accounted for. In the long run, though, the future of the NPP lies in the hands of its own leaders and members. If assassinating Akufo-Addo is what will pave the way for the NPP’s “brighter future”, so be it. In any case, if the assassins turn out to be members of Akufo-Addo’s own inner circle, the NPP will have much to worry over. Is Owusu-Bempah sending the NPP on a mad search for its true identity in this contemporary era?
I shall return…
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