You are here: HomeNews2011 03 15Article 205021

Opinions of Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea

Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap!

Part 3 (Final) by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

I read to my very profound amusement, the news cation, "Nana Addo hugs Mills
as preacher man inspires", Ghanaweb General News of Monday, 14 March 2011.
The story began with, "President John Evans Atta Mills and his political
rival, Nana Akufo-Addo were on Sunday March 13, moved by a preacher man’s
sermon to shake hands and hug each other to end what appears to be a frosty
relationship between the two in the last few months."There is a Akan
proverb, which says, "When you see a frog hoping out of its hole on a sunny
afternoon, you have to know immediately he is running away from something"!
I knew Akufo-Addo was going to mellow down his "All-Die-Be-Die!" nonsense
because it was politically toxic and extremely suicidal to launch a campaign
platform in 2011 Ghana! They have insisted he would never apologize for the
inward-looking, ethnocentric, and intellectually bankrupt slogan. We have
been offered suggestions that by saying "We Akans are not cowards", Mr.
Akufo-Addo was referring to the NPP, which is national in character and not
necessarily a tribal Akan party!

In other words, the want to tell us that the "Akan" nature of the NPP is
national in character! There is no way Akufo-Addo is going to get out of
this hole without the ladder of "Excuse me, fellow countrymen, I was wrong
to use the words "We Akans are not cowards... 2012 is going to be All die be
die!" There is no amount of hugging that can doctor the image of a tribal
warlord beating war drums even before the vote! Considering the fact that
Akufo-Addo's own body guards have been very notorious in violently beating
up the body guards of his principal opponent at Cape Coast in the last
elections, the camera man of the ex-President Rawlings in Kumasi, he sounds
like a mad person complaining about himself!

I was speaking to a friend six months before the elections, and I was told
that the NDC was being increasingly perceived as aggressive, violent, and
too-much warlike, and so they are not liked by many people. Then six months
later, the same person told me the situation had changed and that the NDC's
Presidential candidate has managed to keep his title of "Asomdweehene", the
"King of Peace", and the NPP was losing because they have become too
aggressive and some of them are even looking for a civil war.

This was not music only to my ears, it was a confirmation of my own
thoughts. I knew instinctively when I heard Akufo-Addo on the radio, not
even bothering to say "We NPP" but "We Akans are not cowards... All die be
die!" , that he was finished, caput! Yes the Kapwewe is caput without the
saving grace of opening his toothless mouth to say "I am sorry for
threatening you with a tribal war instead of a right-wing political one from
the NPP. I meant to say the NPP and not Akans who are the cowards! The error
is deeply regretted!" Is this too much to ask?

This is the first sign that Akufo-Addo is feeling the heat of his
pugilistic, ethnocentric and extremely stupid comments. I saw it coming. He
now wants to present himself as a peaceful and reconciliatory individual by
pretending to hug the President. This is the nearest any one can squeeze out
of an arrogant individual of that calibre. It is comforting to note that not
even the arrogant aristocratic and self-appointed elites can feel the heat
of public disapproval. This is good news. How can any political leader in
Ghana be able identity publicly with one ethnic group and threaten death and
destruction to non-Akans, and get away with it?

As usual, he has shown no intention of rendering his unqualified apologies
for this unqualified nonsense! The Akan-tribalist presidential candidate of
the NPP is clearly retreating from the aggressive and warmongering image he
has cut for himself. Like a beast that defecates in public places, and fails
even to clean its own anus, Akufo-Addo fails to render apologies and resorts
to hugging! Is this man too short to say "I am sorry"? Is it because of his
arrogance that he is not able to come out to publicly say "I am sorry, what
I said was a slip of the tongue, or in a bad taste!"?

Even if he had said, "We members of the NPP are not cowards", it would still
have been a very low point in his political career! But coming out to say
that "We Akans are not cowards" and promising hell fire and brimstones on
innocent Ghanaians simply because it is his last chance at the presidential
race is extremely disgusting! He should stop the hugging and apologize for
the nonsense! Hugging President Mills shall never help, even though we know
he is trying to beat a retreat!


Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Sincerely,
The Odikro, Nana Akyea Mensah

Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro,
Blogs: Feature Articles: nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com,
Comments: theodikro.blogspot.com)