Opinions of Tuesday, 3 February 2015

Columnist: Newton-Offei, Justice Abeeku

Nana Addo Was Chosen But Not Imposed On NPP

In a recent interview on BBC, the interviewees sought to put premium on Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's age and wondered why he has put himself up as the flag-bearer of NPP for the third time, instead of grooming a younger person to take over from him, and i have heard NDC insipid propagandists foolishly milking such a sloppy job by those lazy journalists whose sense of reasoning had clearly been seared by the characteristic lazy African-brain.
First of all, nobody in NPP has the authority to groom an individual to succeed him/her as the party's leader since members of NPP pride ourselves as the doyens of Ghana’s democratic governance and therefore leadership positions are always subjected to strict democratic procedures and competent people elected.
Again, those two interviewees happened to be of African origin and therefore deeply immersed in the backward thinking of a leadership role being taken over by relatively 'youthful' people just because leadership in these so-called developed nations have been swinging in the direction of the 'youth' in recent times.
But what those interviewees deliberately closed their eyes to, was the fact that the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, who is the Head of the British Government and at whose pleasure the Prime Minister acts, is actually over 90 and all pressure on her to abdicate to allow her eldest son Prince Charles, who is the next in-line to the throne, take over from her, has fallen on deaf ears.
Again, those two African-born interviewees sadly were oblivious of the fact that the British democratic system of governance has no limit to the number of terms a candidate can contest for the position of a Prime Minister which therefore makes it possible for a Prime Minister to govern for eternity as along as his/her party obtains a parliamentary majority or forms a coalition with other political parties.
And last but certainly not the least, if those interviewees had done a proper pre-interview research into how Nana Addo became the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party for the third consecutive electoral cycle, they certainly would have known that there were other relatively 'younger' contestants in the race but were still resoundingly beaten.
In conclusion, those two BBC journalists, though are domiciled in Britain, still have their way of thinking, unfortunately, tightly wrapped-up in the usual backward African way of analyzing critical matters through an outmoded uncleaned lenses.

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com