Ghanaian Politics: “A Renewed Sense of Potential”? Maybe! By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

I read Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama’s speech of the quoted title, presented at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and felt a dolorous sense of wistfulness (See the Opinions section of MyJoyOnline.com 5/26/13). I felt a palpable sense of wistfulness because the leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) expediently sought to shortchange the facts of history by rather mischievously describing Ghana’s first Prime Minister and President, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, as the “founder” of the erstwhile Gold Coast. The grim reality is that Mr. Mahama claims to be a remarkable historian in his own right.

His gaping failure, or even deliberate omission, to mention at least a couple of the Founding Fathers, and Mothers, of Ghana readily informed me that as a nation, we have a pretty long way to go, let alone to speak of a continent fervidly in search and in need of organic unification. The fact of the matter is that inasmuch as he is incontrovertibly regarded as a standout, or even foremost, among the ranks of the legendary and immortalized BIG SIX, Kwame Nkrumah is not the “founder” of Ghana in much the same way that Gen. George Washington is not the founder of the United States of America.

And until our leaders soberly come to terms with this objective and plain fact, the vigorous push towards African unification is unavoidably bound to be arduous and rancorous. I make the foregoing observation because recently, a young and apparently cynical reader of my columns wrote to demand why none of the African leaders celebrating the golden jubilee of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, had been heard to mention the name of Dr. J. B. Danquah, Ghana’s foremost constitutional lawyer and thinker of his generation and a fierce fighter for democratic governance.

Well, I don’t know that many staunch supporters of African Unification recognize the inescapable fact that without the democratic rule of law and order, the noble dream of a United Africa will continue to be a pipe dream. This is where the lofty democratic ideals of Drs. Danquah and Busia and Mr. Dombo come to the fore. In other words, it is absolutely nothing short of the unpardonably insulting for Ghana’s President Mahama to cavalierly presume to take for granted the high moral stance taken and hard fought by the putative Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics to ensure that Ghana became the virtually unique and/or exemplary bastion of democratic culture and governance that leaders like Mr. Mahama proudly brag about today.

In the main, and predictably, Mr. Mahama’s Addis Ababa speech was fraught with platitudes. But it was his allusive and brief concluding paragraphs that piqued my attention and interest the most. In concluding his speech, this is what the electorally embattled Ghanaian president had to recall: “At that first African summit [in 1963] in Addis Ababa, Emperor Haile Selassie said[,] ‘May this convention of union last 1,000 years.’ With the renewed sense of potential on the African continent, indeed, it shall.”

It is not clear exactly how Mr. Mahama appreciates this memorable quote from Emperor Haile Selassie; but it clearly could be interpreted in two distinctive ways: Either the Ethiopian monarch meant to say that the annual talk-shopping festivities of the erstwhile Organization of African Unity were apt to last a thousand years, or that an organically and politically united African federation was being wished a millennial span of existence.

Linguistically speaking, the first interpretation, as logically superficial as it may seem, was clearly what Emperor Selassie meant. Indeed, had he meant the second interpretation, the Ethiopian potentate would have worded his speech the following way: “May this [present] covention [or gathering] lead us to 1,000 years of continental African unity.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail:okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: So Long, Kojo Adu-Asare!!! – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

I have before me two news articles, respectively, titled “NDC Legal Team Denies Ever Implying 2012 Polls Were Flawed,” dated May 9, 2013 and sourced to JoyOnline.com and published by Ghanaweb.com. The other article is captioned “You Also Benefited From Electoral Fraud – Adu-Asare Tells NPP.” The latter article, also published by JoyOnline.com on April 25, 2013, is rather fascinating and edifying because it poignantly exposes the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the pathological cynics and unconscionable charlatans that they veritably are.

Anyway, speaking on Asempa Fm-Radio’s Ekosii Sen (How Did It Go?) program, Mr. Adu-Asare, the former National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Adentan Constituency, in Central Accra, was reported to have critically observed that New Patriotic Party “polling agents were not vigilant enough to protect the votes of their [presidential] candidate in the various polling stations around the country.”
The unmistakable implication here, of course, is that the lack of vigilance on the part of Akufo-Addo partisans opened the floodgates for a clinically theft-prone National Democratic Congress (NDC) polling agents to illegally bag ballots, or votes, belonging to Nana Akufo-Addo under the name of the then-Caretaker President John Dramani Mahama.

And so, clearly, what we have here is an open and shameless admission by a prominent member of the ruling National Democratic Congress that, indeed, contrary to what the Ato Dadzie-led NDC Legal Team would have Ghanaians and the global community believe, deliberate electoral rigging, as forensically and convincingly attested by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the second petitioner of the Election 2012 impasse, did, indeed, take place. Needless to say, this is the sort of significant unsolicited testimony which the Atuguba-presided panel of Supreme Court jurists ought to be sedulously studying and considering as they prepare to hand down their verdict in the offing.

The preceding is quite edifying and fascinating because in the aftermath of the fraudulent declaration of Mr. Mahama as the decisive winner of Election 2012, by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner (EC), the NDC general-secretary, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, made a strikingly similar remark to that of Mr. Adu-Asare which could be readily accessed and verified via Google, the global Internet search engine.
For me, however, what is even more intriguing is the patently lame and silly manner in which key NDC operatives have been desperately struggling to extricate themselves from their own proverbial Tar-Baby. That they are highly unlikely to succeed, no matter how hard they try, is a foregone conclusion. The tricky catch here, though, is that the limpid clarity and forensic soundness of the evidence presented by Dr. Bawumia may not necessarily carry weight with the Atuguba Court. This is a personal observation objectively based on the conduct of the presiding judge; but, of course, it ought to be promptly pointed out that Justice Atuguba’s is only one out of a maximum number of nine votes. And the fact that he is widely known and associated with the ideological tenets of the National Democratic Congress does not necessarily mean, or imply, that Justice William Atuguba is not his own man.

In fact, he may shockingly be his own man; and on a good day and in the best of moods may quite remarkably even surprise the viewing global public by clinically casting his lot on the strength of the evidence without qualms.

At any rate, Mr. Adu-Asare’s rather lame assertion that the New Patriotic Party may have remarkably benefited from “excess votes” in the Central Region, in 2004, does not constructively address the Akufo-Addo/NPP petition. First of all, Nana Akufo-Addo was not the the NPP presidential candidate or the running-made of the latter at the time in question. The man is also not even from the Central Region. But even more significant is the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo did not prevent the purportedly aggrieved National Democratic Congress’ presidential candidate from petitioning the Supreme Court for redress.

Predictably, in much the same lame and risible manner, the Ato Dadzie-led NDC Legal Team is now claiming, rather childishly that, in fact, considerable over-voting had occurred in the Asante Region, putatively the traditional stronghold of the NPP. Paradoxically, the foregoing state of affairs, even if it could be objectively corroborated, still falls under the statutory responsibility of Dr. Afari-Gyan and the Electoral Commission, and not either that of Nana Akufo-Addo or the main opposition New Patriotic Party.
It also clearly boosts Dr. Bawumia’s argument that there was a calculated and collusive decision by Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama not only to cause widespread over-voting, but also to illegally guarantee the electoral victory of Mr. Mahama at all costs.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Analysis: If not for Akufo-Addo’s victory, why is the NPP in court? Part I By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

At today’s sitting of the Supreme Court, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia made startling revelations that make me wonder why the NPP went to court at all to fight against President Mahama, the Electoral Commission, and the NDC concerning Election 2012.

When Tsatsu said that the starting point of the petition was to have the first petitioner (Akufo-Addo) declared winner of the election, Bawumia replied “That is not true”.

Indeed, if the purpose of the petition is not to have Akufo-Addo declared as winner of Election 2012, why are these NPP people in court, wasting everybody’s time and the country’s resources (with the live telecast, especially) and continuously assuring their supporters of victory to sustain their anti-Mahama activism? Are these people being honest to themselves and their followers?

I recall the numerous reliefs sought by them in their original and amended affidavits and can’t understand why Bawumia should be giving this answer. Is the ultimate goal no more to have Akufo-Addo as the President? I am not sure how to process Bawumia’s answer at this point. His revelation doesn’t surprise me because of the instances of dishonesty that he has demonstrated in answering questions. That is where his credibility problem lies.

Of course, the demand that over 4 million votes be nullified is itself not coming up again. So, what do the petitioners seek to achieve? Don’t tell me that they are looking for means to reform our electoral system because that’s a need the EC itself has identified and articulated and will do without necessarily being forced by any court of law before doing so.

When Tsatsu said that, based on that starting point, the petitioners made claims of malpractices, irregularities and violations just for the purpose of achieving the objective of getting Akufo-Addo to become the President, Judge Atuguba said the question was over flogged and over-ruled it; but the implication is that the petitioners couldn’t have gone to court if they didn’t see anything wrong with the elections. So, if the petition is not to reverse the election results, what is it worth?

That might be why Tsikata suggested that Bawumia and his co-petitioners were seeking to achieve what they could not achieve through the ballot box.

When he asked Bawumia if he knew about the General Secretary of the NPP’s declaring results in favour of the NPP and some leading members of the NPP asking their supporters to go in white to church to celebrate Akufo-Addo’s victory, Bawumia said he was not sure about that. Bawumia explained that several NPP leaders made comments to that effect but that the only institution mandated in this country to declare results in the country is the EC. So, if the EC did so, why should anybody complain?

Tsatsu’s lengthy cross-examination of Bawumia may have its ups-and-downs but it has largely succeeded in harming the cause of the petitioners in many ways. We consider some of those ways.

He has exposed the naivety of Bawumia and confirmed that the evidence presented by the petitioners is questionable at several levels. He exposed Bawumia to ridicule and scrutiny by the court.

Indeed, the numerous cautions given Bawumia by Judge Atuguba and other panel members attests to the fact that he lacks knowledge of the norms of court. That is why, for instance, he veers off into injecting his personal opinions into the answers that he was required to give. He does not know the difference between FACTS (evidence in the nature of the pink sheet exhibits submitted as affidavits) and OPINION (in the nature of his analysis of the entries on the pink sheets).

In fact, this ignorance was reinforced at today’s sitting when Judge Atuguba cut Bawumia short to tell him what he might not want to hear: “Bring your mind to the court and deal with the facts so the Judges would rule, based on the facts.”

This is a serious admonition, which Bawumia should accept as evidence of his lack of knowledge on what the Supreme Court is geared toward doing in hearing this petition.

Clearly, Bawumia’s flight into assertions concerning his ANALYSIS of the pink sheets—attempting to establish that even though there were duplications, triplications, quadruplications, mislabelling and inclusion of pink sheets for the parliamentary elections, he used them ONLY ONCE in his analysis—didn’t resonate with the judges. After all, no one is interested in his ANALYSIS (a mere opinion and not the facts that the Court is looking for to inform its judgement of the case).

Apparently, Bawumia doesn’t even know that the Court won’t value the evidence recorded on the CD-ROM that he vehemently requested to be allowed to use for a PowerPoint presentation. The Court has on several occasions attempted pointing him in the right direction on this score, which is why the hardcopies of the pink sheets are regarded as the only evidence on which the hearing of the petition will be based—which Bawumia can’t reconcile himself with. Pathetic.

At other times, Judge Atuguba had drawn Bawumia’s attention to his lack of knowledge on the norms of the court and what is expected of a witness. Thus, instead of indulging in what Judge Atuguba called “rally ground talk” (raw politics), Bawumia is expected to behave as all witnesses are expected to: that is, to answer questions directly without recourse to political gimmicks. In other words, by flying into rally ground talk, Bawumia is still at the level of making allegations instead of providing evidence. That is a terrible indictment.

Tsatsu’s interrogation of Bawumia also revealed the extent to which the petitioners’ shoddy work in respect of the pink sheet exhibits has contaminated their case before the Court.

By forcing Bawumia to admit such contamination as inconsistencies, anomalies, mislabelling, duplication, triplication, and quadruplication of the pink sheet exhibits, Tsatsu has cast a huge cloud of doubt on the quantum and quality of that evidence.

Obviously, his pointed interrogation clearly undermined the integrity of Bawumia and the admissibility of the evidence on which the petitioners have based their case, which is why the Court’s order for the international accounting firm (KPMG) to recount and audit the exhibits is relevant. If it were not, why would Philip Addison object to Tsatsu’s request?

The recounting/auditing of the pink sheet exhibits will tell us whether the petitioners are being truthful to the court or are acting in “bad faith” by padding the exhibits to “deceive the court” as vehemently and variously alleged by Tsatsu.

For one thing, Tsatsu’s interrogation has revealed that the quantum of exhibits submitted by the petitioners couldn’t be left unquestioned at several levels. Thus, his successful effort to determine whether the claim by the petitioners that they submitted 11,842 pink sheets as exhibits for that number of polling stations is tenable.

As Tsatsu sought to imply, the number fell far short of what the petitioners and Addison had insisted on. The implications of this aspect of the matter are dire because of the element of perjury involved.

I shall return…
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The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Politics: Justice, Not Political Advantage, Young Man – Urges Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

The Akan have a saying that “It is only the fool who permits his gonads to be stepped upon twice by his opponents/enemies.” I have thoroughly crushed the gonads of this SOB before; back then, he promised to file a lawsuit against yours truly for calling him the arrant and congenital fool that he inescapably and veritably is. Now, the SOB has come up with another chunk of rancid meat captioned “Televising Supreme Court Will Offer No Political Advantage” (Ghanaweb.com 4/17/13).

Anyway, it may be recalled that when I set his rotten butts on fire the last time, the SOB apologetically claimed to be “a critical neutralist” in the service of the salutary enhancement of Ghanaian democracy. But it is all too clear that the poor soul has absolutely no appreciation, whatsoever, for a transparent democratic culture; and this is the reason why he sees no advantage in having the Akufo-Addo/New Patriotic Party petition challenging the political legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama multicast.

You see, he has spent most of the last three months vigorously campaigning for the NPP petition to be summarily deep-sixed without any hearing because in his warped imagination, the international community has already approved of the declaration of Mr. Mahama as the winner of Election 2012 by the clinically roguish Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan who, by the way, announced a total voting figure that was way above the number of registered voters in the country. And inextricably caught with his pants down, as it were, Dr. Afari-Gyan fatuously insists that it was a genuine slip of the tongue, and that he ought to be allowed to get away with such seditious and capital crime. Fat chance! New Yorkers are wont to say.

The fact of the matter is that even a clinical idiot appreciates the fact that judicial transparency can only enhance the quality of deliberative arguments and the ultimate verdict that will eventually be returned. Thus having the Akufo-Addo petition multicast also implies, and rightly so, that the same much-touted international community that supposedly endorsed the legitimacy of Election 2012, would also have the legal right to examine whatever sustainable forensic evidence that the losing party has to back up its vehement protestation of a flagrantly rigged Election 2012.

And the foregoing, needless to say, is precisely what has mischief-makers like the author of the article under examination literally peeing and defecating in their pants. Unfortunately, the die has already been cast; and so far, true to form, the Akufo-Addo/NPP faction has set the global community into seriously re-thinking the credibility of Ghana’s Election 2012, and even others before the latter.

Indeed, it is my unabashed contention that had Nana Akufo-Addo won his party’s presidential nomination for Elections ’92 and ’96, the history of how elections are conducted in Ghana would be totally different today. Needless to say, Strongman Jerry John Rawlings would still have gotten away with capital crime, just as he did in the case of the abduction and brutal assassination of the three Akan high court judges – now, don’t you write to me bitching about the “tribal” undertones of my articles; the assassination of the judges was incontrovertibly an Anlo-Ewe orchestrated act of intimidation and ethnic cleansing. And this is why telecasting the Akufo-Addo petition globally adds a significant boost to the personal security of the sitting judges – Justices Sarkodie, Koranteng-Addow and Agyepong were not this lucky.

Then also, we now have an International Criminal Court (ICC) poised to taking “good care” of any certified butchers left among the knavish ranks of the so-called National Democratic Congress who may be spoiling for an open season on the Atuguba panel of Supreme Court judges.

The foregoing, of course, is what writers of articles like that which is captioned “Televising Supreme Court Will Offer No Political Advantage” fervidly wish Ghanaians to have forgotten so soon. So far, the Akufo-Addo side has forensically demonstrated beyond the proverbial shadow of any doubt that Election 2012 was anything but transparent and fair, minor glitches in evidentiary presentation notwithstanding. And on the latter score, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the former Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ghana and the NPP Vice-Presidential Candidate for Elections 2008 and 2012 deserves our unstinted admiration.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

Ghanaian Democracy: U. S. Has Not Applauded Mahama Government – Says Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

There is a Ghana News Agency (GNA) news report circulating on the Internet falsely claiming that the Obama Administration is in full support of the veritable bog-peat that is the ongoing New Patriotic Party (NPP) petition hearings before the Supreme Court of Ghana (See “US Applauds Ghana’s Political Institutions In The Wake Of Election Petition” MyJoyOnline.com/Ghanaweb.com 5/11/13).

The said article is full of the kind of propagandistic sophistry which the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has inimitably mastered and perfected with unenviable notoriety. For starters, if the Obama Administration wanted to dispatch a message resoundingly applauding the way and manner in which the Akufo-Addo/NPP election petition is being handled, such approbation would not be issued through a Ghana News Agency reporter on a study tour of the United States, as part of a routine professional enlightenment and enrichment package annually organized and hosted by the U. S. Department of State, or Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Needless to say, such a progressive and image-boosting message would have been retailed and/or relayed through the resident American chief diplomat or ambassador in Accra. Secondly, anybody who has been sedulously watching the trajectory of the Akufo-Addo/NPP petition is fully and embarrassingly aware of dastardly and relentless attempts by President Mahama, with the shameless complicity and collusion of Presidents Alassane Ouattara and Thomas Yayi Boni, of the Ivory Coast and Benin, respectively, to brazenly stampede and abort Ghanaian democracy.

Indeed, contrary to what the anonymous GNA reporter would have the rest of the world believe, but for the dogged and steely determination of the 2012 presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party and his associates, the entire institutional process of electoral redressing would have been cavalierly bulldozed by the key operatives of the ruling National Democratic Congress, with the flagrant and unconscionable support of former Nigerian strongman Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who led the dubious ECOWAS group of election observers into the country and curiously, albeit quite predictably, claimed that Ghana’s most massively rigged general election was also the finest of its kind in the entire West African sub-region in the postcolonial era.

And dear reader, do you wonder why the primeval continent’s march towards the democratic rule of law and order is as dispiriting as it presently is? Even more significant must be highlighted the fact that the aforementioned Ghana News Agency reporter specifically and categorically solicited the official opinion of Mr. Michael Pelletier, the deputy assistant secretary of public diplomacy and public affairs, as well as African affairs in the United States’ Department of State.

And on the preceding score, it goes without saying that even a cursory glance at the rather unusually long job description of Mr. Pelletier is enough to adequately inform a toddler of the fact that the most deserving pabulum of a response was what the American diplomatic official gave the obviously naive and exuberant GNA reporter.

You see, government-sponsored media operatives like our unnamed Ghana News Agency reporter, who participated in the 2013 Spring Professional Fellows Program here in the United States, ought to be frankly admonished about the glaring fact that recklessly gussying up patent falsehoods, such as the inescapably benighted manner in which the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress regime and the Afari-Gyan-chaperoned Electoral Commission handled the NPP petition, as a remarkable example of Ghanaian democracy, does little to effectively advance democratic political culture in both Ghana and the African continent at large.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com, http://www.africa-forum.net and http://www.wapsfeatures.wordpress.com

ENVY: The Number One Trokosi Killer Disease – Observes Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr., Ph.D.

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

Finally, Mr. Francis Yaonasu Kpegah, the retired Supreme Court of Ghana judge who has publicly and viciously accused the Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Election 2012 of criminally impersonating a slain lawyer for over 42 years, is about to have his wish. And on the latter score, it may also be vividly recalled that Mr. Kpegah claims to be in possession of forensically sustainable evidence backing up his accusation.

Well, on Thursday, April 4, 2013, Mr. Frank Davis, lawyer for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who also doubles as the Greater-Accra Regional President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), informed the general Ghanaian public and the global community at large that he had entered an appearance on behalf of the accused (See “Akufo-Addo Enters Appearance On Justice Kpegah’s Suit” Citifmonline.com/ Ghanaweb.com).

Mr. Davis also indicated that his client has 14 days within which “to either file a defense or bring consequential process” before the court. Well, I am not a lawyer, as most of my readers ought to be well aware of the same by now; and neither have I ever presumed to even play one. Nonetheless, my layman’s critical interpretation of “consequential process” vehemently informs me that the Akufo-Addo camp may be planning to launch a massive defamation lawsuit against Mr. Kpegah the likes of which has never been winessed in nearly 60 years of postcolonial Ghanaian legal and political history and culture.

We have a vivid hint of the foregoing because Mr. Davis has also observed to the general Ghanaian public and the greater global community that the onus, or burden of proof, regarding whether, indeed, Nana Akufo-Addo has been falsely and criminally passing himself off as a lawyer, or legal light, for more than four decades squarely rests with Mr. Kpegah, the accuser.

What is quite curiously fascinating here is that almost every one of his most ardent and prominent accusers is of Anlo-Ewe ethnic descent or affiliation, including, in the recent past, longtime Ghanaian first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. And when the dastardly attempts to impugn his integrity have not unconscionably targeted Nana Akufo-Addo’s sterling legal career, they have sought to malign his academic resume and institutional attendance record.

The most recent example of the preceding came from Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, the infamous career criminal convict and Oxford University alumnus, who deviously inferred, in the run-up to Election 2012, that Nana Akufo-Addo had left Oxford as an 18-year-old undergraduate student under questionable circumstances.

What the foregoing dangerously reflects is the desperate attempt by key operatives of the Anlo-Ewe/Trokosi wing of the Ewe-dominated National Democratic Congress (the so-called Keta-Sogakope Alliance of Agbeli Kaklo-Chomping Chimps) to prevent Ghana’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from acceding to the presidency, in the event of the highly likely delivery of a Supreme Court verdict roundly invalidating the credibility of Election 2012 and the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama, the veritable Anlo-Ewe stooge.

Well, I have said this previously and hereby repeat the same: and it is the fact that the Anlo-Ewe leadership among the rambunctious ranks of the National Democratic Congress, has yet to clearly and publicly explain why it ought not to be charged and/or tagged with being veritably complicit to Messrs. Kojo Tsikata and J. J. Rawlings’ summary abduction and brutal mid-night assassination of the three Akan High Court judges on June 30, 1982.

Not long ago, we learned from some very reliable sources that, indeed, Nana Akufo-Addo had barely escaped a similar fate as the savagely slain judges on that fateful night by sheer stroke of luck. The dauphin of the immortalized Chief Justice Edward Akufo-Addo had flown to the British Isles a day or two before the infamous murders to visit with some friends, associates and relatives.

And so it clearly appears that having epically failed in their cowardly attempt to physically liquidate Nana Akufo-Addo, the Trokosi nationalists are now hell-bent on character-assassinating their arch-nemesis. As to whether they will succeed in having their demonic prayers and long-held wishes answered, remains to be see.

They may, of course, very well achieve their apparently inexorable ambitions on The Road to Kigali, that is, if they make the direly unwise decision of pushing their luck beyond reason. Their quixotic wish of bringing the Ga-people – as cannon-fodder – along for the ride will definitely not succeed: for, needless to say, the Ga(s) and Akan(s) are a siamese twin.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of http://www.africanewsanalysis.com and http://www.africa-forum.net