Iddrisu Bature Heartily Endorses Akufo Addo for Election 2012

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

I have always known that it was only a matter of time, after a lot of soul-searching – that is, if, indeed, he has a soul – before the rambunctious and clinically erratic editor-publisher of the Al-Hajj tabloid, Mr. Iddrisu Bature, threw in his hat and with the latter, his full-weight and support behind the presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. And when he did so recently, predictably albeit circuitously, Mr. Iddrisu Bature did not disappoint his readers and even his detractors.

In doing so, the Al-Hajj newspaper editor-publisher had no other choice but to unreservedly and pontifically celebrate Nana Akufo-Addo’s sterling and distinctive achievements in both Ghanaian legal and political circles. Still, the question of whether the Bolgatanga native needed to commend Ghana’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice by presuming to impugn the political significance of the founding-father of Mr. Bature’s own party, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), is a question that can be best answered by the Al-Hajj newspaper publisher himself.

Anyway, in his article wholeheartedly endorsing the presidential campaign of the former Foreign Minister and former Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa South, this is what Mr. Bature wrote: “For close to two decades, the former Airforce [sic] pilot-turned Head of State and President of the Republic of Ghana, for obvious reasons, detested the legal luminary and ace human right[sic] campaigner and now flag bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo” (See “JJ’s Son to Marry Akufo-Addo’s Daughter” Modernghana.com 6/26/12).

In other words, what Mr. Bature clearly seems to be saying here is that much of Mr. Rawlings’ widely acknowledged animosity towards Nana Akufo-Addo may be squarely predicated on the relatively far more enviable achievements of the NPP presidential candidate in the areas of Nana Akufo-Addo’s globally recognized human rights record of achievements, which has been written about by New York Times’ three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, commentator and author Mr. (actually Dr.) Thomas L. Friedman, among others. Needless to say, while he is without any shadow of doubt a remarkable achiever in his own right, nonetheless, on the question of the salutary practice and promotion of human rights and democratic governance, Mr. Rawlings may be aptly deemed to be the classical “Lilliputian,” where Nana Akufo-Addo is relatively and unarguably the “Gentle Giant” of Ghanaian politics – my profuse apologies, of course, are duly rendered to former President John Agyekum-Kufuor.

Then also, Mr. Bature quite aptly and poignantly underscores the fact that in the field of Ghanaian legal praxis, Nana Akufo-Addo has a few peers among the ranks of the members of his own generation. And, in fact, remarkable students and scholars of the country’s legal system are quick to heartily point out that when it comes to professional preparation in defense of his clients, the eldest son of Justice Edward Akufo-Addo is the equivalent of a Gold Standard. Indeed, an insignificantly few practitioners of the legal trade are known to have been quoted more often in Ghanaian law school textbooks than Nana Akufo-Addo.

Anyway, what does the foregoing critical assessment of the significant stature of the man Akufo-Addo represent in the otherwise largely mendacious, clinically deficient and outright flighty imagination of the editor-publisher of the Al-Hajj newspaper? Well, dear reader, the best and most reliable answer to the preceding question inheres in the fact that Mr. Iddrisu Bature (aka Alhaji Iddrisu Bature) would so shamelessly and deviously couch his clearly unqualified endorsement of the presidential candidacy of Nana Akufo-Addo within the context of a flagrantly concocted story romantically linking Mr. Rawlings’ only publicly known son, Kimathi, to Ms. Adriana Dokua Akufo-Addo, a daughter of the NPP flag-bearer (See also, “Re: Kimathi Rawlings Weds Akufo-Addo’s Daughter” Ghanaweb.com 6/26/12).

The fact of the matter is that, so dishonest and clinically mendacious has Alhaji Iddrisu Bature (or Bature Iddrisu) become that the editor-publisher of the Al-Hajj newspaper finds it simply too difficult, if not outright impossible, to accept his own public confession of his unqualified endorsement of Nana Akufo-Addo.

*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 Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net. ###