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Opinions of Saturday, 7 August 2010

Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea

Nana Addo, Cheat Them All And Come Back Alone

My dear Nana Addo,



I perfectly understand the kind of political arithmetic

that inform your current tactics and stratagems. Whilst an early congress

was sought to deprive the other contestants the time for gaining ground

before the primaries, from all indications, this has not been enough to

ensure a clear 50+1 win for you. A run-off is exactly the kind of situation

you hate to see, and yet that is what is starring at you in the face. The

run-off is simply put, an Allan Cash veto to the hasty congress and to buy

the time he needs to give you the necessary punches once and for all. Thus

your electoral engineers have been very busy, with a team on board to

scrutinise the electoral list, voter by voter, in order not to verify the

authenticity but to disqualify all known and incorrigible supporters of

Alan Cash twenty four hour before the congress!



It is only fair play that can create the healing conditions of sincere

concessions of defeat, reconciliation, mutual trust, respect, friendship and

solidarity, the basic ingredients of party unity. No doubt the Akufo Addo

camp have been busy throwing dust into our eyes that all is well within the

great elephant family, but reading between the lines, the troubles keep

piling up and the carefully sealed secrets and dirty linens are once, more

bound to burst through the seams in media explosions after explosion, as the

party implodes under the weight of its own voluptuous contradictions. The

like to gravitate towards money. And once Alan Cash begins to pay more, the

delegates would begin to be very confused. Any additional amount of money

from Alan after initially "confusing" them become very "convincing".



As for the NPP delegates, they seem not in any mood to exchange their status

as delegates even for a cocoa plantation. It involves too much work, and

even though it is seasonal so are the elections. All you need to do is to

"harvest" your "empowerment" and then vote "wisely"! You have no cocoa beans

to dry. No pods to break. Cool money. Sometimes they come with rice and

cooking oil, party T shirts, a lot of free drinks, girls, and occasional

fighting. Like dogs, the elephant is a very territorial mammal. It pays to

put people in their place in this unwieldy family otherwise your own

position would be up in the air in no time at all! The property owning

democracy cannot be built on hungry stomachs, and foreign multinationals in

whose interest the party seeks to promote are there to put their wallets

where their mouths are. The money is there in this party. If you don't take

your share, someone is always willing to short-change you with unrestrained

pleasure! It seems the delegates are aware of this and owing to the seasonal

nature of their new profession, they are going to squeeze the hell out of

both of them should there be a run-off.



Thus a run-off is definitely what most professional delegates want. They

have their own arithmetic. And on this point, the desires of the individual

aspirants for a one-touch sound very naive in their ears. They know they are

going to eat again during the campaign, but the professional eats

step-by-step. Why hurry when a run-off even pays desperately more money than

a simple primaries campaign? This Akufo Addo understands and has been

foresighted enough to do something about the appetites of these greedy

bastards. The election is going to be rigged. There shall be no run-off. In

any case, he is not going to commit a single pesewa above what he is

officially supposed to pay to the party until he is elected a flag-bearer.

The reason is simple: the money is not there yet. He needs to secure the

post before he can formally open the conduit from his neo-colonialist

owners. The NPP is broke. The chairman had to take a bank loan with his

house as a guarantee in order to get the money to organize tis congress. The

headquarters is facing threat of a public auction due to court order over

default in very outstanding debts.



A run-off is going to be a financial nightmare as each candidate would

prefer to directly "empower" the delegates than to foot the very bill of the

second congress. Ghana is going to be auctioned on a very competitive tender

between the two top dogs of the NPP. It is clear the winner is going to be

the one who pays the most. There are very extremely deep pockets behind Alan

Cash. I do not think that Kufour is just reading the news about what is

going on as a passive spectator. and that already means a lot, unless Kufour

is telling me he has no contacts and imperialist fat cows to milk of his

own! It is also extremely bad for the healing process after the vote, since

the contradictions sharpen and battle lines get their fresh drawings!



But I would prefer a free, fair albeit vigorous and keenly contested

run-off, to a fraudulent one-touch victory on Saturday, August 7, 2010. It

is by far easier to get people back on track on the democracy train when

they feel to be part of the system rather than cheated by it. This is why it

is not wise to cheat. As you, Akufo Addo yourself admitted recently, without

unity there can be no victory. I want to add that without cheating, there

can be unity. If you cheat you are going to lose the main race. so the

choice is yours. Win honestly and try to go to the castle, or cheat them all

and come back home alone!



Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

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