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Opinions of Thursday, 19 January 2017

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson

How NPP Supporters and Lovers of Akufo Addo Can Unconsciously Undermine Him

How NPP Supporters and Lovers of President Nana Akufo Addo Can Unconsciously Undermine Him




His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo is publicly known to have
certain enviable qualities, aspirations and beliefs. He believes in treating all
Ghanaians with fairness and dignity irrespective of their social and tribal
backgrounds. He is an embodiment of unity who is colour and tribal blind when it
comes to dealing with Ghanaians. He sees every Ghanaian as a compatriot who must have
the same right to justice despite their status in the country. On top of all, he is
incorruptible, dynamic, and dedicated to be of service to Ghana and his people, being
the father for all, but not only for the privileged few or members of his NPP party.


Going by his qualities and aspirations to serve Ghana in absolute faith and honesty,
I shall only advise his supporters, members of the NPP, and anyone who claims to
share his dreams of better Ghana for all, not to do anything to undermine him.


What do I mean by this? Before then, let me explain what UNDERMINE means. By
dictionary definition, it means, to make someone less confident, less powerful, or
less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually.


There are two major ways of undermining someone as per my view as regards this very
publication. They are (1) deliberate (conscious) efforts made with the motive of
getting a person fail in whatever task, aspirations or execution of their good or bad
intentions. (2) Unconsciously doing something that has the potential to negate
someone’s plans, good intentions or the job that they are doing.


Today, I will relate my advice, suggestions and solutions to how those who claim, or
may claim, to love or support His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo,
may unconsciously do things that have the clear potency to undermine him to render
him a failed President in the end.


If you love or like somebody without just pretending to, you will never do anything
questionable that will either tarnish the reputation of, or undermine, the person.
Love is not mischievous. According to 1 Corinthians 13:4 - Love is patient, love is
kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, and is not conceited.


Let me pause a second to define the word UNCONSCIOUS as in the dictionary and as
being applied by me in this write-up. An unconscious thought or feeling is one that
you do not know you have or not consciously realized, planned, or done. When you do
something without intent, with whether or not your action so taken, or the thing
done, favours a cause or not, you are said to have done it unconsciously.


Going back to the reasons for putting out this publication, it has come to the public
domain that some NPP sympathisers or activists are on crusade to pay the NDC people
back in their own coin. In December 2008 and early 2009 when the late President Mills
won the election and was sworn in as the President of Ghana, the former spokesperson
of former President Rawlings, Victor Emmanuel Smith, who had just been sacked by his
master, led gangs of NDC people to seize cars of the outgoing Ministers of former President
Kufuor’s NPP-led government. The NDC gangs used force to chase out suspected NPP
people manning public toilets and even at Agogloshie in Accra, it was alleged these
gangs maimed and murdered some NPP sympathisers.


Mr Victor Emmanuel Smith later became Ghana’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom
until he resigned to proceed to Ghana to contest for the parliamentary seat of
Abuakwah North in the Eastern region in the 2016 Elections but which he lost
miserably.


Yes, the NPP supporters have every right to pay them back in their own coin but do
two wrongs make a right? No! Let me quote Apostle Paul in the bible to buttress my
contention. 1 Corinthians 6: 12- "I have the right to do anything," you
say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have ... "Everything is permissible
for me," but I will not be mastered by anything. ... There is a liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast”.


Does forcibly lawlessly taking over public toilets or tollbooths help advance the
cause, or the intended achievements, of, the President to better the lives of
Ghanaians? No! His election as the President of Ghana alone has set us free from the
economic slavery, lawlessness, practice of selective justice, cronyism and extreme
tribalism that were brazenly in orchestration and perpetuation by former President
Mahama and the NDC government and party. We have to be proud of it and make sure we
safeguard it.


Surely, the public toilets and the tollbooths must be taken over but in a lawful way.
I know for a fact that those attending such facilities generate money for themselves
but not for the government or the Ghanaian taxpayers. Most of the money collected
goes into the private pockets of the hired or the self-nominated operators of the
facilities hence people always fighting over their possession or ownership by
adopting all sorts of illegal means. I know this for a fact.


I shall write to suggest how this periodic fighting over public toilets and
tollbooths at the change of governments will be resolved once and for all.


Anyone who means well for the President won’t engage in lawless acts thinking
he/she can get away with them because they are members of the NPP, or they voted for
Nana Akufo Addo or campaigned for him to win the election. No, that is not his vision
and that is not the trait of an incorruptible person or a man of integrity. Please,
do not let our emotional actions taken, or the satisfaction of our selfish interests
put the President in bad light.


With President Nana Akufo Addo, although the law is an ass, meaning the legal system
or a particular law is wrong or not good enough, and should be changed; the law is
still no respecter of persons, meaning, all men are equal before the law. Period!
Therefore, there is no room for anyone to commit acts of lawlessness in the belief
that he is a member of NPP or a supporter of President Akufo Addo so he can get away
with them. If anyone does that, they are unconsciously undermining the authority of,
or the trust the public has in, President Nana Akufo Addo.


Anyone who behaves in the manner that I have just spoken against, is in effect
seeking the failure or the downfall of the President but unconsciously.


I shall advise all the supporters of the President and NPP to behave in a manner that
is responsible and lawful to give no room to his detractors or political rivals to
speak ill about him. We have the duty to help him succeed to the admiration and
expectation of all Ghanaians as he has promised.


Please, let us not engage in any malpractices that have the likelihood of denting the
credibility of our President if indeed, we love him and wish him well in the
performance of his functions.


I pray that the President will in the few days ahead stamp his authority to be the
firm, fair and friendly incorruptible person that we all know of.


I hope the supporters of NPP of whom I am one, will listen to me in good faith to do
as I have suggested without seeking to settle personal scores with the NDC now by
resorting to illegal means. We should wait for the law itself to hold them by their
balls as soon as the President and his government settle in and set the ball
rolling.

No lover or supporter of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo,
should engage themselves in acts that are frowned upon by the law, but in the hope of
getting away with them when caught, by the mere fact of their affiliation to NPP.
Whoever does that either consciously or unconsciously must see themselves as
undermining the President and his government.

Rockson Adofo