There is a clear manifestation of the Akan proverb, “Otwen bebre, na 3b3fo3 nso bebre” currently going on in the Kumawu constituency with respect to the pending parliamentary by-election scheduled for 23 May 2023. The proverb as stated in Twi language can be translated into English as “both the hunter and the hunted will suffer exhaustion” as in, “the antelope keeps running away to save his life while the hunter chases him to kill”

Both the antelope (the hunted) and the hunter are suffering in one way or the other. Each is trying their hardest to gain the upper hand over the other. The hunter wants to kill the antelope for food, stealthily shadowing him with his gun wherever he runs while the antelope at the slightest noise raises his ears in the air and begins to run away to save his life.

Are both of them not suffering in a sense?

Again, the Akan says, “3bafan se oreye oni na nso onnim se ne to na 3re seye no” to wit, “the cripple thinks he is doing his mum injustice by dragging his buttocks along the floor without knowing he is rather damaging his own buttocks”.

Furthermore, there is this Akan adage that goes, “3bofo3 nnim se 3bewe aboa tiri a, anka 3hwe hoo ne yie”, meaning in English as “If the wicked person knew he would end up eating the head of the animal, he would have taken time to roast it properly”

All the above proverbs have come to torment the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as regards their collusive mistreatment of the late Philip Basoah (Hon.), the member of parliament for Kumawu Constituency. Their intentional or otherwise, discrimination against him coupled with the persistent victimisation of his political position to the point of the president having an undeniable passionate dislike for him, had a toll on his health to finally resulting in his untimely death on 21 April 2023.

I will not like to delve into why and how he was criminally disowned by many of the Executives of NPP but all for obviously stupid reasons. They saw him as standing in their way, making it difficult for them to execute their selfish agenda for their personal interests to the detriment of the constituents hence lying about him to the president who sadly swallowed whatever he was told line, hook and sinker.

Following his death, a vacuum has been created that needs filling hence the pending by-election.

The NPP would not have bothered much about his death and how the by-election goes if it were not for the current state of Ghana’s 8th parliament in the 4th republic. Ghana now has a hung parliament with both NPP and NDC having 137 legislators each in the house with one independent candidate (Asiamah) who aligns with NPP.

Therefore, the NPP cannot afford to lose Kumawu Constituency to either the NDC or to the independent candidate to relegate them to opposition.

The independent candidate in the person of Kwaku Duah gave Philip Basoah (Hon) a tough chase for his post during election 2020.

For the NPP government denying Basoah any requests he made for development projects for his Kumawu Constituency, the independent candidate campaigned on the importance of Basoah acquiring anything for Kumawu to turn the electorates against him.

The independent candidate could not have come so close to the votes garnered by Basoah to win the seat if the NPP had not side-lined him in the distribution of the national development projects to turn many a constituent against him, accusing him of doing fuck all for the constituency for all the years he had been in parliament.

Now that a by-election is about to take place with NPP scared of losing it, they have started doing the Kumawu urban streets to win over the heart of the electorates. The leaders are also trooping to Kumawu as never before to campaign in support of their candidate Ernest Anim.

Now, the NPP leadership is compelled to quicken up to provide the Constituency with its share of the projects it has been denied for all these years because of its hatred for Basoah.

If they knew Basoah would die in this period of Ghana having a hung parliament and with a strong independent candidate lurking in the dark to spring out to seize the seat, they would have treated Basoah fairly for him to continue to live.

From the headache presently created for the NPP and all that they are frantically doing to appease the constituents in terms of the road construction, I can only say that the proverbs above are practically in a clear demonstration for all eyes to see.

Basoah, the hunted, had suffered but the NPP leadership as the hunter is currently suffering.

Read an online publication titled, “Kumawu election: “You are a greedy person” – Wontumi slams Kwaku Duah over alleged sabotage”. It says it all about how the NPP is fearful of losing the election to the independent candidate. They are sweating.

I will do my bit to help them retain the seat. This will be a bitter lesson for them to desist from some of their unhelpful attitudes that I have already written about.