Nana Addo, Tribalism and Political Violence: A case of “All die be die”.



Nana Akuffo Addo, the second time flag bearer of the NPP, who won the flagbearership after being defeated about three consecutive times has indicated, “The NDC believes that we the Akans are soft and cowards, so we should be courageous because the NPP was founded by courageous men”.



Indeed, only one thing comes to mind after one hears this part of the statement.

The question that quickly comes to mind is that, is the NPP an Akan party?

No wonder the usual campaign team of Nana Addo has been changed to reflect their party’s position.



All the non-Akans who otherwise played a very major role in Nana’s campaign in his flagbearership campaign have been dropped for Akans, most of which come from the Eastern Region.



Mr. Boakye Agyarko the national campaign coordinator, Nana Akomea, the Communication Director and almost all the four deputies are from the Eastern Region.



Samuel Jinapor, Dominic Nutiwul who are Northerners and Titus Glover who is a GA, were all dropped from spokesperson into an unclassified and amorphous team of incoherent communicators because of their tribes.



What is even more disturbing is the fact that, the NPP won in only two regions which apparently is the Akan based regions.



Analysts have said that, the anger of the NPP against the other tribes in Ghana as a payback for their defeat is totally misplaced, because statistics shows that there are large numbers of other tribes in those two regions.

Apparently, the comment by Nana Akuffo Addo was made almost simultaneously with a similar comment by the Vice Presidential hopeful of the NPP, Mr. Ambrose Dery who said Volta Region and Brong Ahafo do not need universities.



These alienate all rooms for doubt that the NPP is a tribal based party.

If that is the thinking, then the Ewes, the Bono’s, the Dagomba’s, the Sasala’s, the Dagaate’s, the GA’s and all the other tribes in NPP should advice themselves.



The Nyaho Tamakloes, the Pery Okudzeto’s, Mukhtar Bamba and the others should wake up to the sub conscious believe of Nana Addo and the hidden philosophy of the Dunkwa/Busia tradition.



How can a whole Flagbearer of a major opposition party be that ruthless to declare all the non-Akan tribes in Ghana as violent and “war” lovers?

He actually meant that apart from Akans, all other tribes as violent. Wow!!

Secondly, he added that, “at least during the Atiwa bye-election, we showed a little of our colors”.



The NPP has been exposed by Akufo-Addo’s comment especially on what happened during the by-election at Atiwa.



Reeling back into time, it is a matter of fact that the NPP was involved in several acts of violence at Atiwa, including the blocking of access roads, beating up of polling agents and the intimidation of voters to prevent them from exercising their franchise for NDC.



It was after this election that the National Chairman and the General Secretary of the NPP, said on radio that three (3) people had been killed by the NDC Women Organizer’s car.



It turned out that the information was a concocted to paint a false picture about the NDC.



In actual fact, they stage-managed all the occurrences to create the impression that the NDC is violent. My God!!!!



Are these the people seeking political power to rule this country? God forbid!

Well, one cannot be too surprised. You know why? This is because, the UP tradition which was led by the Paa Willie’s, the Obetsebi Lamptey’s and their likes, threw bombs during Dr. Nkrumah’s era, killed a lot of people to make Nkrumah’s government unpopular, opposed every development program including the building of the Akosombo Dam & Tema Motorway, and finally overthrew him through a shameless coup d’état.

Do you remember the serial killing of women in 1999-2000?

That was an election year oo, hmmm!!



I hope these memories are still fresh on our minds?

In the recent past, Nana called on the “Militants” in the party to rise and fight for what belongs to them.



Soon after that, a founding member of the NPP, Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe also added that 2012 election will be a “GUERILLA WAR” to compound the several similar comments made by leading members of the NPP.



Some few weeks ago, the National Youth Organizer of the NPP, Mr. Anthony Kabo also reiterated the same position that, “they are fully prepared to use character assassination, intimidation and violence to meet the NDC squarely just like we did in Atiwa during the by-election”.



The statement which was made on 28th November, 2010 is very consistent with that of their Flagbearer in terms of the Atiwa ‘Al-Qaida’ styled violence.

Akuffo Addo also emphasized in his almost ‘secret’ interaction that, “Our leaders who formed this party that has now become the biggest political movement in Ghana were not cowards. So in 2012 we need to be courageous because all die be die, all die be die” he repeated.

This gruesome comments from the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party on Tuesday 8th of February does not only leak the indulgence of the NPP in political violence anytime they are in opposition, but also confirms the widely held “WAR MONGER” accolade for Akuffo Addo.

Some few days ago, Nana was calling on President Mills to take troops to war in Cote D’Ivoire to oust out the incumbent President as a result of the disputed elections held last November.

Indeed, this position taken by the NPP and their Flagbearer, was in the wake of positions taken by international bodies like African Ambassadors Group to United Nation that the ‘military option was no option’, which had corroborated the long standing position of President Mills that military intervention will not bring a lasting and durable peace to Cote D’Iviore.

According to Akufo-Addo, who now has penchant for being vulgar in public, “all men have two balls nobody has three balls, so we need to be bold and courageous for 2012, because we must come back to power”.

Above the ‘war mongering’ and the tribalism, there is also a growing penchant for nudity in the public statements of Nana Addo, which has become a matter of concern to sociologist, moralist and many Ghanaians.

Exactly two weeks ago, he publicly glorified nudity in his tribute to the late Theresa Tagoe by recounting how their secrets evolved into ‘buttoms’ and further sited how ‘healthy men’ of his caliber were perambulating the all females hall in Legon and swimming in the Volta Lake.



Indeed, observers have also said that anytime he went to the Zongo’s, he talks about his first girlfriend he cannot forget.



This is a very worrying trend, to people like us who are concerned and are doing much towards developing our values as a society.

I don’t think as a people we have been able to successfully resolve the myth and puzzle surrounding Nana’s use of drugs.



So please and please again, NPP we cannot grapple with this new puzzle.

Anyway, I will like to send a piece of advice to our non-Akan brothers in the NPP, anytime there is political confrontation they should make sure Nana Addo is carrying a weapon himself before they strike.



Peter Boamah Otokunor

peter-boamah@hotmail.com