“Ashanti Youth Caucus” Exposed!!!

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

When the posting captioned “Akufo-Addo Is Creating Enemies For Akans” first appeared on Ghanaweb.com (2/10/11), I knew almost immediately that something had to be wrong somewhere. First of all, one of the notorious masterminds of such poppycock signed off his name as “Brogya Genfi.”
I said to myself: either this bloke is a non-Akan fronting for the NDC, or he is simply a miserable illiterate desperately attempting to make himself relevant to his paymasters.
Of course, now it turns out that, indeed, not only is Mr. Brogya “Genfi” an NDC hireling, the young man is actually a pathological criminal of the Rawlings type who once forged himself a Spanish college certificate (See “Re: Akuffo [sic] Addo Is Creating Enemies For Akans!!!” Modernghana.com 2/13/11).
Anyway, if you are going to sport the surname “Genfi,” instead of “Gyamfi,” then why not also spell your first name “Broja,” instead of “Brogya”? Right here, the keen reader comes to the logical conclusion that this would-be rabble-rouser is a veritable psychological basket-case.
Then also, as several other commentators and writers have aptly pointed out, nobody ever heard of a demonstration sponsored by either the so-called Ashanti Youth Caucus (AYC) or the Organized Youth of Ashanti (OYA), over intra-ethnic divisiveness, when the now-President John Evans Atta-Mills vigorously campaigned on the Fanti Tribal Card of “Adze Wo Ofie a Oye.” And so other than abject and criminal hypocrisy being at play here, it was all-too-obvious that Mr. Brogya Genfi was a paid agent-provocateur fronting for the ruling National Democratic Congress.
After all, being an Asante/Ashanti is not akin to being a member of either the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the NDC or any of the other splinter ideological groupings. And if Asanteman is not a registered political party but, in fact, a sub-ethnic cultural identity, then how do Messrs. Michael Adusei and Brogya Genfi come by the organizational label of an Ashanti Youth Caucus? Or, here also, it is just a simple case of choosing a provocative political façade for the sake of maligning Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, whose 2012 presidential candidate the former Justice and Foreign minister under the Kufuor administration is?
Anyway, on the question of who is creating enemies for whom, it would be more constructive for Messrs. Adusei and Genfi to spend some time studying the history of modern Ghana, at least since 1957, before issuing such nonsensical and outrageous statements as “Akufo-Addo Is Creating Enemies For Akans.” Very likely, the NPP flagbearer is even older than the parents of Messrs. Adusei and Genfi.
I guess what is diplomatically being suggested here is that predicating a political demonstration on the basis of blissful ignorance does not advance the salutary cause of Ghanaian democracy. Most of all, it unnecessarily short-circuits the chances of our youth learning something meaningful about responsible governance and statesmanship.
As for Mr. Brogya Genfi, it is not too late to go back to school and continue to from where you left off and, perhaps, even learn a thing or two about intellectual honesty and respect for one’s elders and moral superiors. Needless to say, the preceding are indispensable character-building ingredients which the Atta-Mills universities of the Volta and Brong-Ahafo regions will not teach any student, except, of course, the Danquah flagship academy, the University of Ghana.
Not least of all, we extend our hearty thanks and unalloyed appreciation to Mr. Kingsley Kyere Boateng, spokesperson for the Ashanti Youth Platform (AYP) for his yeomanly service in meticulously exposing these NDC con-artists and charlatans parading as responsible and bona fide citizens of Asanteman. Now, in Kingsley Kyere Boateng we have a vintage Ghanaian statesman in the making.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and author of “The Obama Serenades” (Lulu.com, 2011). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
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