By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
May 16, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Whenever I hear Mr. Mornah, of the so-called People's National Convention (PNC), impugning the leadership competence and integrity of any of his political opponents, especially leaders of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), I cringe. I cringe because the leadership of an Nkrumaist splinter group like the PNC has absolutely no moral or political credibility to call the bona fides of an established and astute statesman like Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo into question (See "NPP Brouhaha: Akufo-Addo Not Showing Leadership - Mornah" Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/17/15).

Every Ghanaian of age knows that Mr. Bernard Mornah, the General-Secretary of the People's National Convention, is smack-dab in the pay of the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), in particular the northern-wing leadership of the National Democratic Congress. He denies this, but every knows he is being dishonest about it. The inability of the Nkrumaist splinter groups to get their act together, as it were, appears to have left the PNC scribe with no other viable alternative but to opportunistically shill for the Rawlings posse as a means of survival. They are also well aware of the fact that they will never assume reins of governance in our lifetime. At best, the PNC, like the Samia Yaba Nkrumah-led rump-Convention People's Party (r-CPP), and the Kwesi Nduom-patented Progressive People's Party (PPP), is a nuisance on Ghana's political landscape.

We saw his retrogade shenanigans, when Mr. Mornah vigorously attempted to abort the Akufo-Addo-led 2012 Presidential-Election Petition by mischievously resorting to the riotous placement of legal blocks in the path of the seasoned trial lawyer and astute diplomat. And so it is not even clear whether Mr. Mornah half-appreciates what he is talking about, when the young vacuously ambitious marginal political operative sarcastically lauds the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for having added a positive dimension to the otherwise dull edge of Fourth Republican Ghanaian political culture.

The young man seems to be genuinely concerned about the raging strife among the top leadership of the NPP. Unfortunately, however, either Mr. Mornah is too naive or simply too mischievous to appreciate the fact that the internal turmoil in the NPP is far less about the leadership flair or mettle of Nana Akufo-Addo than the drawn-out regressive attempt of some of those among the party's leadership who feel a sense of "divine" entitlement to spearhead the Election 2016 NPP Agenda without having to play by the rules.

Indeed, those who know him intimately and have studiously followed his public and political career for some four decades, witnessed Akufo-Addo at his best in 1998 when, having been defeated in a presidential primary by the now-former President John Agyekum-Kufuor, the former NPP-MP for Akyem-Abuakwa South decided to fully and unreservedly throw his weight behind the man who had just defeated him to make Ghana far and much better than the Stygian mess bequeathed us by the Rawlings-led rag-tag government of the so-called National Democratic Congress.

What Mr. Mornah ought to be asking is whether Nana Akufo-Addo, in turn, has received the same level of commitment and support that he invested in the then-Candidate Kufuor's Election 2000 Campaign, as well as Mr. Kufuor's 2004 reelection bid. Then also, if he were endowed with any remarkable intellectual depth, the PNC General-Secretary would also have bothered to find out precisely what has gone wrong here, before cavalierly and nauseatingly presuming to fault Akufo-Addo for the apparently concerted and well-orchestrated attempt to destroy both his hard-earned reputation and his chances at clinching the presidency. And he ought to make no mistake into thinking that Nana Akufo-Addo's unquestionably savvy and mature decision to fully commit himself to then-Candidate Kufuor's presidential campaign necessarily had anything or everything to do with the leadership genius of the former Popular-Front Party (PFP) Member of Parliament for Atwima-Nwabiagya.

Akufo-Addo cannot force either unity or conciliation on any key player of the NPP sworn to derailing the political fortunes of Ghana's former Justice and Foreing Minister. And that is a fact that cannot and ought not be overlooked. About the only progressive measure capable of inducing a remarkable modicum of sanity among the top-echelon membership of the New Patriotic Party, is a prompt and radical reformation of the administrative structures of the party, in particular the imperative need for the Flagbearer or Presidential Candidate of the NPP, whoever that person happens to be, to be able to select or have a major say in who becomes National Chairman and/or General-Secretary of the party.

The current situation whereby party headquarters leadership is wholly determined by an electoral "coin-toss" does not serve the best interests of the party, especially where factional infighting comes to override all other concerns bordering on the short- and long-term interests of the New Patriotic Party and the Republic of Ghana at large.

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