By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Nov. 28, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
There is no gainsaying that anybody among the ranks of the membership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who decides to contest Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia for the plum and meaty job of General-Secretary would have a hard time of doing so. The sharp-tongued wiry man is a brazen and brash street fighter who has fought hard to entrench himself in his present position. Then also, he has the mercury tongue of a congenital con-artist who is able to make the longstanding bloody record of the Rawlings revolutionaries seem like a perfect fit for the Ghanaian voter.

Anybody skeptical about the foregoing observations needs to simply track the acrobatic contours of the rhetoric of the man popularly called General Mosquito to arrive at the most appropriate conclusions. And on the latter count, of course, the allusion is to the Nayele Ametefe Scandal. For those to whom the name does not readily resonate, Ms. Ametefe (some media reports append the letter "h" to the end of her last name) was the 32-year-old woman arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on Nov. 10 with 12.5 kgs of the narcotic contraband commonly known as cocaine.

In spite of strong evidence linking the Austrian-Ghanaian criminal suspect to highly placed operatives of the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia vehemently denies any such linkage and instead prefers to blame the infamous Amoateng Cocaine Scandal, that occurred under the watch of President John Agyekum-Kufuor, for being the gold standard of drug-trafficking in the country. And so far, predictably and interestingly, the well-practiced NDC trademark of "diversionary denial" appears to be working perfectly. It also has not hurt matters the least bit to have Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong curiously go to bat for President John Dramani Mahama.

Indeed, just the other day, the rabidly anti-NDC stalwart of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) was battling ferociously to have Ghanaians believe that President Mahama had absolutely nothing to do with Nayelegate; and that, rather, it was the President's younger brother, Ibrahim, who had unwisely struck a romantic relationship with the convicted drug courier and been selfishly using the same to tarnish the name, image and reputation of Big Brother Dramani.

But what is even more damning on the part of Mr. Agyapong, the obnoxiously talkative media operative and the New Patriotic Party's Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, in the Central Region, is the Oman-Fm Radio proprietor's implication of both major political parties as equal-opportunity sponsors of the illegal drug trade. Could this nose-cutting gimmick be Mr. Agyapong's payback gesture for Mr. Asiedu-Nketia's public admission, in the wake of the 2012 presidential election, that the-Transitional President John Dramani Mahama had not really won the election, as officially pronounced by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the country's Electoral Commissioner, but that Mr. Mahama had simply been gifted a 4-year residential term at the Flagstaff House because his main rival, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had been too cavalier and lax at the polling booth for his own good.

Well, according to some news reports, campaign or not, a 44-year-old man by the name of Abdul Ishaq Farrakhan has been gunning up to challenge General Mosquito for the NDC Chief Scribe's job that the Bono-Seikwa native has held ever since anyone can remember. Informed about this obviously annoying challenge from Mr. Farrakhan, the Mosquito General reportedly volleyed his most poignant campaign spiel as yet: "I prefer spending my precious time in planning for a successful congress in Kumasi than fighting for this job which I already have." The Skeeter General is reported to have quickly added, "If the congress comes off successfully and I even lose my seat, it is better and in the interest of the party."

Well, I hope Mr. Farrakhan is strong-backed enough to absorb the ton-weighing Mosquito brick that just landed on his rear end. For yours truly, though, the coveted post of NDC General-Secretary is just another executive slot on the Nayele-Certified NDC Pharmaceutical Tour Bus.

______________________________________________________________