By Margaret Jackson

The NPP folks love to bash and jab the NDC whenever they want to score despicable political points. In fact, the NPP people hardly waste any time to throw their arsenals every time they see a cheap loophole looming. That has been their game plan and in fact their overall campaign strategy because they have no credible record to run on during the up-coming December 7 elections.

I informed readers about three weeks ago that Kennedy Agyapong will be the single most damaging munitions store to deny Akufo-Addo the presidency. I explained that Akufo-Addo’s failure in condemning or at least distancing himself from the hate comments spewed by Kennedy Agyapong would be seen by Ghanaians especially Ewes and Gas as an act of support for the loose cannon Agyapong.

It is a month ago that Kennedy Agyapong who has the fondness to talk slack without any alternative to logic, openly called on Asantes to massacre Ewes and Gas. Kennedy Agyapong, on that day assumed the powers of President Mills and unconstitutionally declared war, by urging Asantes to exterminate all Ewes living in the Ashanti region by attacking them with machetes and cutlasses. Kennedy Agyapong further warned that any security personnel who would try to keep the peace in the Ashanti Region will be lynched.

That was the most hateful, ill-intentioned speech that Ghanaians may ever hear in a long time to come. But Akufo-Addo who is running for president and badly needs the votes of Ewes and Gas after hearing this hateful comment just disappeared into thin air. In fact Akufo-Addo who claims to be a man of steel and have an incomparable store of ideas suddenly turned an AWOL (Absent Without Leave). Akufo-Addo, who seems to be running for the highest office of the land yet does not know how to bring people together, was nowhere to be found when right thinking and peace loving Ghanaians who saw the looming danger in that hate comment by Agyapong came out to condemn him. What even became more alarming was that when some institutions and individuals were calling Agyapong to order, the NPP folks were busily powdering and carrying Agyapong on their shoulders as a show of support.

Akufo-Addo, in fact, continued with his deafening silence until a golden opportunity presented itself for him to redeem his sunken image cum campaign when a Joy FM reporter, asked him to comment on the hate comment by Kennedy Agyapong. Ladies and gentlemen, Akufo-Addo who perhaps does not know why he is running for president or what it takes to win the presidency dodged that break when he boldly told the reporter that he is not commenting on the issue because it is in court. Just that?

This would have passed as a fair deal if Akufo-Addo has never before commented on an issue pending in court. But readers would recall that when the Woyome issue broke out and landed in court, the NPP spearheaded by Akufo-Addo made that issue their daily porridge and bread and commented on it at the least opportunity. In fact, Akufo-Addo even postponed naming his running mate to ensure that the Woyome running story stays on the frontlines and do a collateral damage to the NDC.

And here is this same man Akufo-Addo, a presidential candidate who claims to be a man of so-called impeccable character suddenly turning into the best known coward of our time. The simple truth is Kennedy Agyapong said what was on the mind of Akufo-Addo. This man Akufo-Addo, shown his disdain for Ewes when he went to the Volta Region and questioned the Voltarians on why they have been voting one way. And it is this same Akufo-Addo who also went to Woyome’s constituency, at the time that Woyome’s case was in court, and bolding told his supporters that he has heard Woyome comes from that constituency yet, he did not share his loot with the constituents.

Yet this coward who goes by the name Nana Akufo-Addo cannot simply say that he detests hate speeches in any shape or form as a face saving act for keeping mute on the Agyapong’s hate speech when he was asked by a reporter to comment on it. It has been the usual mantra of the NPP folks to spew out a lot things when it pleases them and think that Ghanaians will never hold them accountable or would never recollect them, which is why they are still trying to use archaic political strategy to win the December 7 elections “at all cost”.

What Akufo-Addo is telling Ghanaians is that if an NDC member has a case pending in court it is fair game or okay for him to comment on it, but when an NPP member has a pending case he cannot comment about it. It is simply a no-go area. Akufo-Addo who seems to be a buddle of nerves is running and chasing his own shadow. It seems Akufo-Addo never learnt any lessons from his humiliating defeat in the 2008 elections. Many people are shaking their heads and wondering what kind of group is managing Akufo-Addo’s campaign because he has simply lost it. He is still detached from the realities on the ground.

When Akufo-Addo emerged from his self-imposed exile, he told Ghanaians that the pending election is about competition of ideas. But I have another take on the election. It is simply a competition of competence. Ghana will never settle on a president who is happy to spew loaded ideas without backing them with how things can be done. Just go to any JHS and ask the students what they think can be done to improve Ghana and hear the kind of ideas that would flow. Therefore, Akufo-Addo should not think simply floating ideas would make Ghanaians settle for him as the next president. He may be dreaming dreams if he dreams on that plate.

I don’t think Ghanaians can ever trust Akufo-Addo to hold the country together. If Akufo-Addo cannot see anything wrong with what Agyapong said, I don’t think he would ever point a finger if he becomes president and something dreadful happens to any ethnic tribe. Do you remember the aloofness and ‘I don’t care attitude’ portrayed by Akufo-Addo, then Ghana’s foreign minister under the Kufuor’s government when 44 full-blooded Ghanaians were heinously murdered in far away the Gambia?

Many Ghanaians are beginning to think that the only thing Akufo-Addo cares or matter most to him is to become president of the land. He does not care about anything else, which is why when it comes to commenting on sensitive and most important issues that affects the ordinary people in the country, Akufo-Addo had always found a way to weasel around them, thinking that by keeping quiet those issues, they will go away for him to continue to throw dust into the dust of Ghanaians with his unattainable and loaded promises.

My simple advice to Akufo-Addo: Be a man and stop running because a rolling stone gathers no moss. And if he Akufo-Addo cannot finish a fight he should not start one meaning if he cannot take a punch he should never throw one.

http://majjacks80.blogspot.com magjackson80@yahoo.com