‘If you fool me once, shame on you; if you fool me twice, shame on me.’ Gomer Pyle

President Mills and Mahama fooled the people of the Volta Region. Do you allow yourselves to be fooled the second time? I believe the answer is a big NO! The recent defeat of Hon. Kwesi Ahwoi, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, and Mrs. Comfort Adjei, has unleashed a political inferno on the political landscape. From monitoring the Internet – Ghanaweb, Joy FM, Modernghana, and Peace FM, our most reliable sources of information – it is obvious that the epicentre of the NDC is in a shakeup not from the man, the CEO of the land, who should have acted long ago but from the kingmakers of the party – the party delegates - and there is no end in sight to the political conflagration.

A statement by the NDC Socialist Democrats’ Forum, indictment of deceptive, insulting, and incompetent politicians from the Volta Region by Togbi Afede VII, admonishment by other chiefs and queen mothers from the Volta Region, and articles sampled on the Internet, indicate that public opinion is hugely against the NDC, especially in its so-called World Bank, the Volta Region. To begin with, there is no doubt that the current crop of politicians from the Volta Region think very lowly of their own people. Mr. Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto, for example, has never lived in the North Tongu area and knows nothing about the area. He grew up in Dansoman, Accra, and has spent all his life there until he became one of the lucky ones to have benefitted from the toil and sacrifices of Former President Jerry John Rawlings, the wife Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, and the foot soldiers of the NDC. Knowing too well that his government has no message for the people of Ghana in the run-up to 2012 Election, he is fast scheming to find a foothold into Ghana’s deliberative council or parliament in order to maintain a job after the 2012 elections, afraid NDC may be shown the exit and he will become unemployed. If Ablakwa has lived all his life at Dansoman, logically that is where one would expect him to contest an election. Even more so, he cannot speak the language of the people (of North Tongu) that he is scheming to represent. One wonders what kind of language he is going to use in the consultative process on which parliamentary representation is based when he goes to this constituency to speak farmers, artisans, market women who do not speak English.

In Joy FM online news, Ablakwa parades himself as a humble, approachable, dynamic, development-oriented modern leader and promised to leave concrete legacies for the youth of the North Tongu constituency. Does he mean to say that the current MP is arrogant, unapproachable, passive, development-disoriented and archaic? Is it because his employer, John Evans Atta-Mills, has failed to rein his insulting behavior and that of other deputy ministers, so he will now turn around to throw dust in the eyes of the people of the North Tongu? If the basic argument in support of the current President, John Evans Atta-Mills, was that he must be supported for a second term because he has done well, then we expect Mr. Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto, who is part of that government, to tell us what he has done so well as a person, apart from trading insults, childish tantrums, and aberrant behavior, which places him over and above the current MP for whom he must be a replacement.

If the ruling government has failed to bring development to areas where they have sitting MPs, I do not think those sitting MPs are magicians who would conjure development from the high heavens to appease their people. It is invariably a failure on the part of government. Interestingly, however, the same members of government who have failed to work with their members of parliament to ensure development reach their people now turn around finding ways to elbow their colleague MPs out because they are unsure they would have jobs after the 2012 general elections. My brothers and sisters of North Tongu, Ketu South, and Ho West, do not be fooled by these greedy, overambitious, disrespectful deputy ministers (Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto, Fifi Kwetey, Dzifa Ativor, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, and Ludwig Hlodze). The people of the Volta Region cannot allow these individuals to play on their intelligence.

Mr. Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto who, persistently, has been insulting the founder of his own party and the wife, Jerry John Rawlings and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, now wants Ghanaians and the people of North Tongu to believe that he is their humble servant who would listen to all of their grievances. He simply cannot reap where he has not sown. The good people of North Tongu must do their own reality checks and understand what it means to choose a parliamentarian. Is Ablakwa using the word just because he needs votes? Is he truly humble and innovative and would bring new dynamics to bear on the constituency? If that were the case, what has he to show for the past three years? Does he think going to the constituency to share laptops provided by the United Nations to a select few of students in that constituency is enough to get him into parliament? It is on record that Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who was an unemployed youth, was able to commandeer three jets from Accra to Tamale for his engagement alone. This is a man who claims to have social democratic values and would vow any day to defend his socialist values. But the more we examine his actions as a person, who claims to be opposed to wanton and arbitrary accumulation of wealth, the more confused we become with regard to his understanding of these words and values. A socialist unemployed youth who becomes a member of government commanding three jets to his engagement ceremony? We are at a complete lost. A man who could not afford to even remit the man who sacrificed his all to support him through his most formative ages can now afford to commandeer three jets to an engagement ceremony? Greed, deceit, manipulation, and unbridled lust for power have become their hallmark. They have no sense of shame to even be moderate any longer in their own actions and inactions.

If Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings was consumed by selfish ambitions and disregard for the values of the NDC to embark on a project they considered objectionable, then their own enterprise is just a misguided political gamble, chicanery, and a miscalculation that will consume them. If constituencies in the Volta Region are looking for a replacement for old failed politicians, those deputy ministers in the Mills administration are not good materials for replacement. If it is about age, we urge more young and dynamic constituents to look among themselves and support young people who can place community first. Though they may not have the resources these deputy ministers have to bribe their way, the constituents should understand that resourcefulness in terms of competence, dynamism, commitment to community far outweigh the money these young ministers are now throwing about to buy their votes.

Voltarians and Ghanaians should not make money an overriding factor in the political equation. When that happens, we might miss this God-given opportunity to, in fact, elect people who will truly represent us. If they come to you with money, please take it and ensure you obey your conscience. Ensure that you maintain your moral high ground so that we can all continue to speak against corruption. Agona-East and the others have shown the way.

There is no question about the dominance of the NDC in the Volta Region. But I can advise the Voltarians to do well to elect people who can truly represent their interest and carry their voices to the house of parliament, not insulting deputy ministers who will sooner or later turn the house into a ground for trading insults.

SAY NO TO ABLAKWA; SAY NO TO FIFI KWETEY; SAY NO TO DZIFA ATIVOR; SAY NO TO LUDWIGN HLODZE; SAY NO TO KOKU ANYIDOHO; AND SAY NO TO ELVIS AFRIYIE ANKRAH. We urge more dynamic young people to come forward to pick forms and be considered for the honorable job. Money should not scare them. The 2012 is already producing its own dynamics. The chickens are now home to roost.

By, FUSEINI YAKUBU, ndcsocialdemocrats@yahoo.com NDC Social Democrats’ Forum http://www.akatamanso.blogspot.com