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Opinions of Saturday, 6 October 2007

Columnist: Amankwah, Nana Kofi

Say No to Tribal Politics Akufo Addo; Rejoinder

The statesmen Newspaper article dated Tuesday 25Th September 2007 ?Say no to tribal politics Akufo Addo?. This individual has the audacity to tell Ghanaians do what I say not what I do. This is political nonsense talk from Akufo Addo to censure tribal politics at the time he wants to become the next president, while he was the master brain behind it. He has contradicted his own beliefs by flip-flopping. Akufo Addo and his friends Kojo Tiskata and Jerry John Rawling, the NDC founder, is the only politician in the country that has played ethnic and tribal politics. As I have already said Akufo Addo is the only UP tradition member who has divided the UP tradition for his own political ambition by playing the tribal politics against the late Victor Owusu?s Popular Front Party (PFP) in 1979 elections. The most ironic is that it was Victor Owusu who trained Akufo Addo in his law chambers and helped his father to become president in Ghana. When it reached Victor Owusu?s turn, he divided the Akans vote by forming his own party with his uncle William Ofori Attah. I challenge Akufo Addo to come out and explain his motives for destroying the PFP chances in 1979.

Akufo Addo said, ?to his party executives and sympathizers in Kumasi Friday the NPP to demand of aspirants a campaign based on their own acquired qualities and desist from exploiting their ethnic or religious background because that could spell doom for not only the party but the nation as a whole. He referred his audience to the conflict in la Cote d?Ivore, which he said was triggered by the whipping up of north- South sentiments.?

Apparently, Akufo Addo wanted people to corroborate with his political ambition by issuing imminent threats to his party members and the whole nation to watch out for his character. He has the tendency of creating division, which he did in 1979 against PFP. This time I assured Ghanaians that nobody is going to follow his stupidity. Ghanaians are not paranoid of Akufo Addo to be making such idiotic statements; he has forgotten that his own Boston friend Kojo Tsikata and Jerry Rawlings who have played ethnic politics for twenty years could not create a tribal civil war as the one in La Cote d?Ivore. How can people speaking their minds create civil war? Akufo Addo is irresponsible and na?ve for making such propaganda comments to threaten his own party. This aforementioned individual is now spreading fear among the NPP members. Such a person is the wrong choice for the delegates to nominate him as their leader to lead their party. During the (P) NDC time as the president of the Statesmen Newspaper who knows very well that Kojo Tsikata and Rawlings were playing tribal politics, Akufo Addo did not publicize the tribal issues in his newspapers. He turned his eyes from the issue. While some UP traditional members were brutalized by his Kojo Tiskata and Jerry Rawlings, now Akufo Addo thinks he can getaway with his ignorant comments. Ladies and Gentlemen, as we all know the nation is going to vote for a president for the next four years; we don?t know what is going to happen within these four years. As a result of this we need to elect a person who does not have any political; dirty laundry in his closet or a person who will not castigate his own UP member?s traditions for his egocentric political ambitions. This is what Socrates deems as cynical to elect a person like Akufo Addo.

From; Nana Kofi Amankwah (New York)

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