By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

It is all well and good for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to strenuously, and even vigorously, promote internal cohesion among members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the lead-up to Election 2016. It is also quite savvy for the former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister to feel compelled to go to bat for his former boss, on the quite laudable grounds of disarming the sharp-shooting mischief-makers among the topmost ranks of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The fact of the matter, however, is that Nana Akufo-Addo has absolutely no copyright patent on the knowledge and experience of those of us avid observers and students of both NPP internal political dynamics and the political culture of the country at large. I also don't presume that the two-time flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party thinks that Ghanaians have such a short memory that any well-meaning, albeit historically false, statement that he puts into the public domain in the name of party cohesion, or unity, would be conveniently envisaged to have summarily and definitively proscribed the indelible and sacred truth of memory (See "Akufo-Addo: I Enjoyed Great Support from Kufuor in 2008, 2012" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/30/14).

If, indeed, it is absolutely untrue that former President John Agyekum-Kufuor had not been deviously and covertly partisan against the former NPP-MP from Akyem-Abuakwa South, then why would Nana Akufo-Addo obliquely complain bitterly about the fact that the biggest kahuna of the party was being widely rumored and perceived by party stalwarts to be passionately in the corner of one of his competitors for the 2008 NPP flagbearership, to the extent of such gripe forcing the former president's younger brother, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, the former Defense Minister, to come out to publicly state that he had privately conferred with Mr. Agyekum-Kufuor, and that the latter had vehemently denied hedging his bet on any particular horse in the lead-up to the party's 2007 presidential primary?

By now, it ought to be crystal clear to Nana Akufo-Addo that he cannot force "party cohesion" if the latter state of affairs does not already exist among the top-echelon membership of the NPP and its rank-and-file membership as well. It is also significant to observe that Nana Akufo-Addo does not need to become the bosom friend of the former president to ensure the success of his avid, or keen, and repeated bid for the presidency. All he needs to do is to cultivate a good working and/or professional relationship with Mr. Kufuor. And on the latter score, Akufo-Addo appears to be performing creditably.

One such evidence of his apparently good working relationship with Mr. Kufuor is Akufo-Addo's own public testimony that "We [i.e. he and the former president] remain in regular communication with each other." Still, to put paid to the negative perception being widely circulated about his relationship with the former president, Nana Akufo-Addo needs to address a few troubling questions. One: Why did it take Prof. Mike Ocquaye, in the lead-up to Election 2008, to get Nana Akufo-Addo's name listed on the National Honor Roll awardees, long after then-Candidate John Evans Atta-Mills, Mr. John Dramani Mahama and Capt. Kojo Tsikata, all of the then-opposition National Democratic Congress, had appeared on the same list?

Two: Why did Prof. Ocquaye have to pressure Mr. Kufuor's then-Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, to move up the then-NPP presidential candidate's name from the 2nd-tier, or category, of award recipients into the topmost tier? Needless to say, these are the sort of perceptions that Akufo-Addo needs to frontally address if he wants his public pronouncements about his purportedly good working relationship with former President Kufuor to be taken seriously.

And, oh, I have another question for Nana Akufo-Addo: "Your-Almost-Excellency," what do you make of then-President Kufuor's conspicuous failure to publicly participate in Mr. DaRocha's attempt to convince Mr. Cash from resigning his membership of the New Patriotic Party, with just four months to Election 2008? And also this final follow-up question, "Your-Almost-Excellency": What do you say to Mr. Cash's very public accusation that your Election 2012 campaign operatives had deliberately sidelined him from active participation in the same? Thank you and good luck!

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Board Member, The Nassau Review
June 4, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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