The NPP's "IF-CLAUSE" against Dr. Bawumiah confirms it all

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Monday, February 17, 2014

Folks, the NPP's General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie is out again, confirming what some of us have long held as the fait accompli that guides the NPP's politics---that non-Akans won't easily get the chance to be the party's flagbearer anytime soon (Read:http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=300959).

He is reported to have said that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumiah, twice running mate to the defeated Akufo-Addo, will be supported by the NPP to lead the party to Election 2016 only if Akufo-Addo decides not to contest.

And the truth is that Akufo-Addo will definitely contest. So, for the third time, Dr. Bawumiah will remain where he has been since Fate puked on him and Akufo-Addo at Election 2008.

Third time serving as a running mate? Consigned to the shadows, and being sent on a fool's errands when appropriate! One such errand ended in disaster at the Supreme Court on August 29, 2013.

The point is clear that even though Akufo-Addo is still "hibernating" in the United Kingdom, his lackeys have already cleaned the slate for him, wiping out all others interested in leading the NPP to Election 2016.

For Dr. Bawumiah, the die is cast. He will remain a tool to be used to deceive those of his Northern Ghana extraction that they have a home in the NPP. But the reality staring us (the critics) in the face proves otherwise.

If you doubt it, read more closely, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie's statement and be informed as we are about the NPP's grand agenda!!

I don't know what specific purpose Owusu Afriyie's utterances are meant to serve; but I know and can say so with much certainty that those utterances are simply reinforcing the premeditated position against any other contestant, especially someone like Dr. Bawumia who would have been the best candidate for the party at Election 2006.

That is if Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie's own fawning of Dr. Bawumia is to be seen as approbation for his political ambitions. In the hearing of their useless petition, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie uplifted Dr. Bawumia to the status of a "god" whom he claimed to worship, apparently because of the mistaken impression of Dr. Bawumia's theatricals at the Supreme Court which he felt was going to win the case for the party.

Everything went haywire when the Court made its decision known and since then, Dr. Bawumia has returned to the backwoods of the NPP's politics. He is hardly in the news, especially regarding the jostling for attention to be in contention for Election 2016 as the flagbearer and not being propped to play second fiddle to Akufo-Addo whom the Fates have already ruled against!!

Beyond this personal level is the real substance: that no Akan will be tolerated to lead the NPP, especially when the proponents of the "Yen Akanfuo" agenda are still alive and bulldozing their way through the party's terrain to be given the chance to accomplish their childhood ambition of becoming Ghana's President "at all cost".

Folks, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie may be faulted for being a gasbag who garrulously churns out much to sustain the NPP's "Concert Party" shows; but he must be credited with leaking facts about the NPP's grand agenda too.

What he has just revealed has very serious implications for the party and will go a long way to shape its future political fate.

Of course, Akufo-Addo is playing hide-and-seek with himself, deceiving himself that once he is physically away from the country, anything going on will take its course and not be attributed to him. Only in the private chamber of his confused mind will he go that way and believe his own wiliness.

He claims he is looking up to God to determine his future political direction; that is, whether to put himself up for re-nomination to contest Election 2016 on the ticket of the NPP. He has also postponed his return to Ghana to avoid being blamed for the wranglings going on, especially prior to the national delegates congress to elect the party's national officers.

Yet, his surrogates are operating for him, making utterances of the kind that Owusu Afriyie has made. If, indeed, Akufo-Addo hasn't yet concluded firmly that he will contest Election 2016, why isn't he coming out to clear the air and prevent his name being bandied about and support sought for him?

By remaining silent and privately nodding his head as his hirelings do the work for him, he is adding more fuel to the fire that he himself has set.

As for the Bawumiahs and other "outsiders" in this cabal, they will not realize that they've already hit the dead-end and will continue to make themselves available to be used and dumped at will. I pity them.

Let nobody tell me to disregard the NPP’s internal issues and turn attention to how the Mahama-led administration is handling the affairs of state. We already know what the challenges facing the government are and don’t have to remain fixated on them for as long as we know that some of the problems are systemic while others are self-created (apparently because of the government’s own misjudgement and miscalculations, which have combined to make the going tough for it).

In the context of the open attacks on President Mahama by elements of the NPP wishing they had rather been in power—and viewed against their ongoing preparations toward Election 2016—it is fair and political prudent for us to pick on issues that expose them as either unfit to rule or as more unfocused beyond the wish to be in power. I will, therefore, remain unfazed by their insults to probe their kind of “rogue” politics till proved right again at Election 2016.

I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.