Tony Aidoo’s ‘Offensive body language’ bunkum

Memories of village life are fascinating. They become so when current life
situations depict real examples of what was learnt many years ago in the village. In
the village, my grandfather used to tell us stories and fables when we were young to
illustrate some real life situations, to teach us great and moral lessons meant to
guide our future.
Presently, Dr Tony Aidoo remarks about Akufo Ado’s ‘offensive body language’ bunkum
has reminded me of one such story grandpa told us about a hunter who had three
wives. For some unknown reasons, he just lost interest in the 2nd wife and vowed to
divorce her. The 2nd wife somehow got to know about her husband’s stratagem so her
parents devised ways to frustrate her husband’s idea. The plan was to shower
expensive cloth gifts onto the husband and also to cook frequently the choicest
parts of ‘akrantee’ (grass cutter) meat, her husband’s favourite; for his soup. Of
course the woman’s parents supported her financially in this attempt to sustain the
marriage. It did not work. The man was never persuaded. Eventually he
operationalised his plans and divorced the woman sadly:- Of course this happened
long ago and there was no WAJU or DOVVSU to save the situation. Grandpa ended up by
saying that:- ‘Akoko sa deén ara a enye akroma fé ’- to
wit, ‘the chicken’s greatest dance performance can never please the hawk’. There
is no way the hawk will never prey on the chicken-- It will be difficult to please
your hater no matter what.
The reference is on the Radio Gold's "Alhaji and Alhaji" programme last Saturday.
Dr. Tony Aidoo former Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, who is
always energised discussing Akufo Ado, the 2008 and 2012 NPP flagbearer, said that;-
‘ My perception is that Nana Akufo-Addo has a body language that does not appeal to
people and I don’t know if he is conscious of that offensive body language of
his---” and also that:- “the element of humility is not visible in his (Nana’s) body
language and so it leaves people to the conclusion that he is arrogant and so full
of himself” that if he is given the chance at the presidency, he might be more
arrogant.’
You can trust Dr Tony Aidoo , in any situation will want to steal the headlines with
some english word so it was a good opportunity for him to confuse and bamboozle
listeners by creating the word ‘communication therapy’.—however nebulous and
incongruous the word or expression might seem. Listen to Dr, Tony Aidoo ;- “may be
appearance may be deceptive and it is not all that glitters that is gold but so far
as appearances are concerned, I think sometimes his (body language) is a put off and
I think he (Nana) is in dying need of communication therapy”.
There was no badmouthing of Nana Akufo Ado throughout his challenge of three
military dictators since 1975, namely, Gen Acheampong, Gen Akufo and Ft Lt Rawlings-
during which time; he was a champion of the people. But ever since, Nana Akufo Ado
became NPP flagbearer for the 2008 election, he has been negatively described in
several ways by many of his detractors to explain away why they would not vote for
him. We have people who say he is too short. Some say his accent is not Ghanaian.
Some say he urinated near a Masalachi. Some say he touched a woman on TV. Others say
he smokes wee and others say he is arrogant and a warmonger. Etc etc . Haaaba!
The real reason people won’t vote for Akufo Ado is tribal. The minority tribes think
if he wins power, Ashantis would gain advantage. And to them Ashantis are too proud
and rich so they should be kept out of central power. Kofi Awoonor knew what he was
saying—‘Ashantis must be kept away from central power at all cost’. Every election
in Ghana is a referendum on a so called Ashanti hegemony. It is pure tribal game and
people don’t say it, because of its negative repercussions. But it is there. People
rationalize their reasons why they vote against NPP by hiding behind candidate Akufo
Ado being, short, urinating behind Masalachi, womanizer, arrogant, wee smoker. They
are all pretexts.
Dr. Tony Aidoo, has brought a new dimension to why people don’t vote for Akufo Ado,
that his body language is the drawback. In our Executive Presidential system, one
would think forward looking criteria like performance, vision, fearlessness and
capacity will override all other considerations, but alas Dr Tony Aidoo thinks
offensive body language is the key. But who told him the body languages of Rawlings,
Mills, Kufuor and Mahama and even Nkrumah, Busia and Limann of old were not
offensive? How sad.
Tell NPP whether Alex Kyeremanteng, Dr. Apraku, Dr, Mahmud, Joe Ghartey or whoever
becomes the flagbearer, NDC and their cohorts will have a way of using mundane
issues as pretexts to confuse the people why the NPP candidate should not be voted
for. NDC will never talk about performance or capacity or vision. The real reason
however is tribal which is hidden underground.That is Ghana's unspoken truth. Kudos
to grandpa;-‘’Akoko sa deén ara a enye akroma fé ’ indeed.