This is patently false propaganda in the classical sense of the term. I mean, this scandalous and insufferably preposterous idea that should Mr. Koku Anyidoho, the current Deputy General-Secretary of Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), roundly defeat his immediate boss and the party’s substantive General-Secretary, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the chances of the Akufo-Addo-led ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) retaining power in the 2020 Presidential Election – actually General Election – would be decidedly a tossup or up in the clouds (See “Anyidoho as General Secretary Will Affect Our Chances in 2020; Let’s Stop Him – NPP Leaked Letter” Rainbowradioonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/12/18).

Well, as far as I have been able to critically observe, this purportedly leaked letter that is alleged to have been written by the Asante Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party is tantamount to sheer scaremongering. For all we care to know, it may very well have been written by a member or members of the Anyidoho-for-General-Secretary Campaign, or even the wily protagonist himself, in his quite possible but highly unlikely bid to unseat Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, the incumbent General-Secretary of the NDC, come November 17, 2018. You see, Mr. Anyidoho, a pathological Trokosi Nationalist, clearly lacks the crossover or national appeal of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, his loud noises, insufferable rudeness and his system-bucking talkativeness notwithstanding. I personally don’t see Mr. Anyidoho winning any massive support even within his own party outside of the Volta Region or Anloland. He is simply not emotionally mature and politically diplomatic enough.

Which, of course, is not to say that the allegedly “intercepted” memo by operatives of the passionately pro-NPP Rainbowradioonline.com could not have been written by Chairman Wontumi, who is also officially known as Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako.

The fact of the matter is that there are incurably hardnosed political schemers in both major parties who have been working around the clock to undermine their respective internal foes and political opponents since the inception of the country’s Fourth-Republican dispensation and have also been known to infiltrate either party, with the ungodly objective of “Russianly” influencing the outcomes of local or internal elections in either political party. We know of the collusive collaboration between the Afoko Faction of the NPP and the Asiedu-Nketia Faction of the NDC to scuttle then-Candidate Akufo-Addo’s chances of becoming the Chief Resident of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House.

We must put on record, beforehand, that Chairman Wontumi is a passionate Akufo-Addo partisan of uncontestable credentials. We must also point out the fact that there have been vicious internal detractors in both major political parties who have been perennially scheming in favor of one faction or another. For instance, no serious political observer disputes the fact that the 8-year “incarceration” of then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the decidedly sterile and gray margins of our national political culture was incontrovertibly engineered by the Kufuor-Mpiani Faction of the New Patriotic Party. And I fervidly hope that Nana Akufo-Addo is religiously mindful of the fact that the aforesaid faction of his own party has a far greater influence on his chances of retaining power come 2020 than any “coupist” strategy that could possibly be engineered or executed by the rambunctious and rabble-rousing likes of Mr. Anyidoho.

As far as I have been able to critically observe, neither Mr. Anyidoho nor Mr. Asiedu-Nketia poses any serious or politically mortal threats to the chances of both Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party, in general, retaining power in 2020 or 2021. For one, Mr. Anyidoho has made it crystal clear that there is absolutely no love lost between himself and former President John Dramani Mahama, who has been vigorously scheming and megalomaniacally campaigning to be afforded a highly unlikely third shot at the Presidency, which he massively lost to the current incumbent in December 2016. Indeed, the most salient Achilles’ heel of the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party, and I have said this before, times without number, is the party’s inexcusably wobbly communications apparatus.

What the preceding, of course, means is that if Messrs. Arhin and Newton-Offei can quickly put their proverbial act together, I absolutely see no reason why Nana Akufo-Addo has anything to worry about come December 2020.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net