* *Okoampa Requires Immediate Psychiatric Examination! *Feature Article |
By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.*****A rejoinder to: "Quashigah Requires
Immediate Psychiatric

**As Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., calls for the immediate psychiatric
examination of the Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic
Congress, Mr. Richard Quashigah in his latest article, I invite the Ghanaian
public to find out if such a call has any merit, and to share my very
profound indignation and revulsion at the casual impertinence of an
unintelligent hypocrite whose notoriety as the most unpatriotic Ghanaian on
the world wide web is more than legendary! On the 29 of July, 2010, the
Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, *Mr. Richard Quashigah told Joy FM the that
“NPP’s harsh hostilities towards the STX project though unfortunate, is
understandable.” He was also quoted as saying '"the intransigent position
of the NPP on the STX deal is consistent with the party's philosophy -
opposing anything that is good for Ghana... The NPP has an attitude and that
attitude is to oppose anything that is good for this country,” he added.'
(See: *NPP Are Enemies Of Progress: NDC Propaganda
Secretary,
*29-Jul-2010, Peacefmonline.com)*Is my grandson now parading in Ghana as a
patriot? Wonders will never end! In the first place, I am very remarkably
surprised to read the latest article by my grandson. Why this surprise is
very remarkable is because it comes at a time I was beginning to naively
believe that my grandson has ran out of any possibilities of pulling
surprises as the most despicable commentator on the web. Having known no
Ghanaian on the world wide web who is as unpatriotic and equally busy
working on a daily basis to bring his own country on its knees at the feet
of his imperialist owners, than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., I was almost
certain he could no longer surprise me! I mean what I am saying. I cross my
heart. I am going to drop a few hints about this before I end this article,
so please, bear with me. I even thought it was very clear that in my bid to
identify, defend, and advance the interests of main-street Africans, I have
clashed enough with Okoampa to enable him to do a soul-searching safari on
his own, repudiate and ran away from his current as a pawn of Wall Street,
and come back to join our very decent society as a changed person!**But no,
Okoampa has not changed one bit! This leaves me with no choice other than to
focus again on some of the areas he needs to urgently work on before he even
qualifies for the attention of peace-loving, patriotic and proud Ghanaians!
He owes the people of Ghana very serious apologies before he can even
comment on sensitive issues such as patriotism in Ghana! I thank my God I
did not get a heart-attack out of the shock, when I saw Okoampa pretend to
be the patriot in any Ghanaian situation. It would have been "the most
unkindest cut of all" I he had succeeded to literally kill me with his lies!
I find the level of nonsensical lies and hypocrisy extremely severe,
dangerous, and suffocating, even by Okoampa's own awful standards! The real
alarm lies in the fact that whenever a traitor puts on the clothes of a
patriot, it is the responsibility of all real patriots to expose such a
fellow immediately and irrespective of the consequences! I wrote in my
comment under this article on Ghanaweb: "*My dear grandson, ...I found your
place in this debate to be rather incongruous. Particularly when the issue
involves patriotism, you and I know very well that you are the last person
whose opinion should matter to the ordinary Ghanaian." This article attempts
to explain what I meant. *Kwame Okoampa, A Ghanaian Patriot? **Fellow
Ghanaians, I write this article to off-load a burden on my conscience and
expose a villain. I cannot simply remain silent over this. It is not
necessarily my primary objective to catalogue the political sins of Okoampa
against the good people of Ghana. I simply cannot stand the ugly histrionics
of Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., going scot-free after presenting himself to
Ghanaians as a fellow patriot in his latest article! That is not acceptable.
Hence this article has been written with the intention to make sure that
Okoampa receives the rebuttal he requires to enable him undertake
appropriate self-censorship without any further external stimulus from
friends and foes alike. Please read on, you will not be disappointed!**My
first significant experience of Okoampa's quisling status was upon reading
an article of Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr., over a tactical retreat manoeuvre
by the US Embassy in Accra concerning the establishment of US Africom
headquarters in Ghana and other military bases including an air force base
at Tamale and a naval base somewhere along the coast. Guess where I got
these gruesome details from? Asare Gabriel Ochere-Darko, the Executive
Director of the Danquah Institute! In* *Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us
And
U.S.?,
*Ochere Darko argues:

* * *"Furthermore, the U.S. is, understandably, bent on establishing a
regional command for Africa, similar to U.S. Forces Korea, with a homeport
situated on the African continent to protect their interests. West Africa is
its natural home, given the need to protect energy interests in the Gulf of
Guinea. Liberia has offered but simply cannot match the kind of convenience
available in Ghana. It can be a win-win situation."*

"Kwesi Pratt was one of the first to raise the alarm about oil and US
military bases in Africa." Crossedcrocodiles writes in Ghanaians Discuss
AFRICOM & Obama’s
Visit.He
continues:

*
*

*"In a 2007 interview he said:*

*Kwesi
Pratt:
I am very alarmed after reading what is called the Cheney Report. When Bush
came to power, he set up a committee chaired by Dick Cheney his Vice
President to assess America’s energy requirements up to the year 2015. The
Cheney Report actually says that by the year 2015, twenty percent of
American oil requirements will be supplied by West Africa and therefore it
is important to maintain a foothold in West Africa in order to ensure that
oil supplies from West Africa to the United States of America will not be
interr**upted*." (See: Ghanaians Discuss AFRICOM & Obama’s
Visit,
by xcroc, June 3, 2009, http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com)


It must be noted that even though Mr Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., was the first to
raise the alarm in Ghana, the US desire to capture the control and use of
the hydrocarbon materials from particularly our sub-region, if need be, by
the means of military action, has been beyond dispute:


'*In May 2001 the Cheney report warned that the U.S. would grow increasingly
dependent upon foreign oil in the years to come and recommended that as a
matter of policy the Bush Administration work to increase production and
export of oil from regions other than theMiddle East, noting that Latin
America and West Africa were likely to be the fastest growing sources of
future U.S. oil imports. ... Three months later, Assistant Secretary of
State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner declared that African oil "has
become a national strategic interest." This statement is particularly
noteworthy in that it uses the language of the Carter Doctrine in the Middle
East, in which President Carter went on to declare that the U.S. would
intervene by any means necessary to protect its national interest in Middle
Eastern oil. In April 2002, Donald Norland, former U.S. Ambassador to Chad
told a Congressional subcommittee: "It's been reliably reported that, for
the first time, the two concepts -- 'Africa' and 'U.S. national security' --
have been used in the same sentence in Pentagon documents.*" ('Understanding
AFRICOM: A Contextual Reading of Empire’s New Combatant
Command,
b real, February 2007, http://www.moonofalabama.org,


Thus, not only were the denials by the US Embassy in Accra very cynical, but
sinister. It would not have bothered me too much if any other person within
the NPP had responded to Quashigah, other than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.!
After all, are we not talking about patriotism now? If so, then what is the
basis of the repugnant histrionics by this famous political sell-out before
he is allowed to further throw dust into our very vigilant eyes? If the NPP
really needs someone to defend it from the unassailable truth of being a
neocolonialism entity, and by definition, an unpatriotic and pro-Imperialist
party established to see to the business interests of their imperialist
owners, Okoampa should be the last person to do so! The very fact that none
other than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., should respond to this issue of
patriotism is not only significant, it is also a sign that he requires an
immediate psychiatric treatment for thinking he can take Ghanaians for
fools! If he does not get a psychiatric examination, he shall continue to
pile trouble after trouble on his favourite candidate, Nana Addo Danquah
Akufo Addo.



Mr. Kwesi Pratt's patriotism in the interview is clear:


*Kwesi
Pratt
*: "*Consequently, the United States is planning to establish military bases
across West Africa including Ghana. And I am very worried that at a time
when we are celebrating our national independence we are going to tolerate
the establishment of foreign military bases, especially American military
bases on our soil. The great Osageyfo Dr. Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture,
and all of them emphasized that Africa ought to be free from foreign
military bases and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot allow that dream
to die. That is why, it is important for us to resist all attempts to
establish foreign military bases on African soil especially forces of the
United States, must be prevented from establishing on African soil. Clearly
because they are not on African soil to protect our interests, they are on
African soil to facilitate the exploitation of our resources for the benefit
of the tiny minority that controls the wealth of the American people and who
are sitting on top of this world exploiting the Chicanos, exploiting the
African Americans and exploiting all of the other independent and healthy
forces in the Un**ited States of America. We have to resist all attempts to
build U.S. military bases in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.*" (See: Ron
Wilkins' Interview With Kwesi Pratt on the 50th Anniversary of Ghana
Independence,Pan-African
News Wire, May 07, 2007,
http://panafricannews.blogspot.com.)


Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., on the contrary, enters into this debate like
the goat recently nominated by Nana Akufo Addo to represent him in the Upper
East Region. Even the planners of US Africom have since acknowledged that
the initial approach was a mistake!Okoampa did not mind whatever the
Americans were willing to ram down our throats! There he goes:


* "**In the lead-up to President George W. Bush's five-nation African
tour-of-duty," Okoampa
laments,
"the Director of Public Affairs at the United States' Embassy in Accra was
prompted to vehemently deny widespread rumors and allegations regarding Mr.
Bush's official visit to Ghana, from February 19-21, climaxing with the
bilateral ratification of an agreement between the American leader and
Ghana's President John Agyekum-Kufuor allowing the establishment of an
American military base in the country.*" (See: U. S. Embassy has Absolutely
Nothing to
Deny!!!,
by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)


It must carefully be noted that even though Okoampa himself accepts and
welcomes "Mr. Bush's official visit to Ghana, from February 19-21", as
"climaxing with the bilateral ratification of an agreement between the
American leader and Ghana's President John Agyekum-Kufuor allowing the
establishment of an American military base in the country," for some very
strange reasons he still manages to refer to the opposition to these bases
as being based upon "vicious rumors and allegations"! "Allegations" that are
more or less his own! In U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to
Deny!!!,
he
writes:


"*Indeed, one does not have to look far to conclude that such political
mischief is the incontrovertible brainchild of the so-called National
Democratic Congress (NDC), the pseudo-political party that militarily
occupied Ghana for nearly twenty years. Then also, this is not the first
time that the bugbear, or specter, of the establishment of a U. S. military
base is being bandied about. It is also significant to observe that the
NDC's ideological twin-sister, the so-called Convention People's Party
(CPP), has been in the thick of such vicious rumors and allegations.*" (See:
U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to
Deny!!!,
by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)


Okoampa concludes that nothing could be dumber than patriotism when the US
wants to be your master! For Okoampa, our country is not even worth anything
to die for! We can only develop in freedom when there are US guns pointed on
our heads! Listen to him:


"*And so pretending to play dumb, in the dubious name of patriotism, is
absolutely no perspicuous demonstration of ideological advancement as these
political nincompoops and outright charlatans would have unsuspecting
compatriots believe. And if these charlatans and cognitively challenged
rumor-mongers cared to know, they would have since long discovered to their
rude awakening, the fact that the hitherto self-proclaimed inveterate enemy
of U. S. “imperialism,” Chairman Rawlings, educated all his three officially
known children right here in the United States, and not Cuba, Libya or
Russia."**...Indeed, it comes as great news to learn of the United States
having emplaced heavy military equipment in the country in apparent, and
auspicious, readiness for any barbaric, or troglodytic, attempt by the
enemies of constitutional democracy to reverse the onward march of Ghana
towards the Danquahist ideal of “Development in Freedom.*” (See: U. S.
Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to
Deny!!!,
by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)


The real problem is that it seems the Danquah Institute has accepted some
money to sell the US Africom project to Ghanaians! Okoampa should have been
dismissed from any self-respecting Institute. On the contrary, we saw the
Executive Director of the Danquah Institute doing his own article to promote
the US Africom project. He even cleverly made it to look as though it was
irreversible because the Kufour Administration had gone very far with it
already. In US MILITARY BASE IN GHANA: From "Baloney!" To "What’s In It For
Us"? Part
One,Saturday,
May 30, 2009,
*I argued that:*


*"I feel greatly incensed by the casual manner Mr. Ochere-Darko breaks this
news as though it is simply a matter of business, and not even making any
attempt to explain the basis of the conspiracy that he confesses in the
article. What does this mean? According to Asare Ochere Darko, even though
the NPP government did not allow Ghanaians to have a say in whether or not
they want a US military base on our soil, it is too late for the Atta-Mills
government to say “No”! In other words, without any national debate, whether
we like it or not the process has already been started and they cannot be
reversed, so we are as good as being already occupied by a foreign power!"*


Ochere Darko's never answered my questions:


*"Is this supposed to mean that the NPP government was simply throwing dust
into our eyes whilst plotting secretly to undermine our national
independence and sell us to the Americans? Fortunately for Ghana and Africa,
the elections did not go their way. From the article under discussion, it
seems to me that with Obama and Atta-Mills in power, the same special
interests behind the establishment of the military base in Ghana, the
military industrial complex of the USA, are acting as ventriloquists, using
their local stooges, to revive their diabolic plot, and rope the two
newcomers into the deal. Who else could fit better in the role of selling
Ghana to the imperialists more than the very right hand man of Nana Addo
Danquah Akufo Addo, the great Asare Ochere-Darko, himself? If you should ask
me what it was that worried me most in the article, I believe I would put my
finger on the following seven words written by Mr. Ochere-Darko: “After all,
the process has already started.” Most of us are still dazed by the
question. What this man is virtually telling Ghanaians is that for months,
the NPP has been secretly plotting with foreign powers to establish military
bases on our lands without letting out a word about it to the Ghanaian
public.* " (See: US MILITARY BASE IN GHANA: From "Baloney!" To "What’s In It
For Us"? Part
One,Saturday,
May 30, 2009, see also on
*Ghanaweb: US Military Base In
Ghana,
*Feature Article of Wednesday, 3 June 2009,* Columnist: *Mensah, Nana
Akyea
)


This publication and others provoked a reaction by Mr. James Victor Gbeho,
ex-diplomat and adviser to President J.E.A. Mills on Foreign Policy. Under
the caption, Gbeho: US can’t force AFRICOM on
Ghana, (Monday,
I June 2009. Myjoyonline.com) which proved to be enough to dispel the silly
effects of the Ochere-Darko's stupid article. Mr. Gbeho "assured the public
that government has its head properly screwed on and will not enter into any
agreement with the United States of America if the people do not approve of
it." "Ambassador Gbeho" was obviously reacting to the implications in the
Mr. Ochere Darko's article, that the "process" of establishing the Africom
headquarters and US military bases in Ghana "*had already started*" secretly
under the Kufour NPP Administration, and was culminating with the planned
visit of US President Barack Obama to Ghana on July 10 and 11, 2009, and
therefore felt the need to clear the air on what the visit portends for the
nation:


"*Sections of Ghanaians have publicly objected to the US government’s
desire to base its continental military force, United States Africa Command
(AFRICOM), in Ghana." Mr. Gbeho was reported to have said on Citi FM’s
breakfast show Monday, that "Ghanaians have some justification to be
apprehensive about the country’s relations with the United States, given the
way the latter has conducted its affairs in Latin America, in Asia and other
parts of the world. …there is a genuine fear; a fear that came to the
forefront just before the visit of President Bush to this country recently;
a fear that was articulated not by government but by the Ghanaian people
through the media and so on; and which forced President Bush to deny a few
things.” Assessing public dissent against the AFRICOM project, he said "far
from being a done deal, the people can rest assured that the government has
its head properly screwed on and would not betray the people’s trust.*"
(See: Gbeho: US can’t force AFRICOM on
Ghana,(Myjoyonline.com,
Monday, I June 2009.)



*Are You Talking About Patriotism And The Judicious Use Of Our Newly Found
Oil Wealth? *
To begin with, why are you so concerned about the judicious use or otherwise
of the newly found wealth, if one could link the use of the sovereign
guarantee behind the contentious Ghana-South Korean STX deal, to nothing
else other than that? The very oil wealth about whose judicious use this
debate is all about has been a subject of your jealousy and extreme chagrin
that Ghana seems stands to boost her economy by the billions of dollars with
this discovery! You have even gone as far as expressing your happiness at
the news that the Ivory Coast was claiming our jubilee oil field in the heat
of the recent boarder dispute between Ghana and La Côte d'Ivoire! How this
makes you a patriot worthy to be listened to by "the diligent but woefully
underpaid Ghanaian worker" needs to be properly explained to me. In any
case, what is your beef here? You are happy at the prospects the Ivory Coast
even claiming by force of arms, an oil discovery well into 60 kilometres
away from the nearest landmass of the Ivorian border, and you want people to
go and examine their minds when they say that you are not patriotic! Listen
to Kwame Okoampa himself:

"*I am glad that, finally, the Ivorians are beginning to assert their right
of access and enjoyment of Ghana's purportedly new-found oil wealth... It
also didn't quite make a lot of sense to me that an oil find that lay so
dangerously close to Ghana's border with Côte d'Ivoire would also have been
so [godlessly] uncharitable as to neatly parcel itself out for the exclusive
benefit and enjoyment of Ghanaians while the war-seasoned Ivorians continued
to languish in penury.... What is also wickedly fascinating is the sudden
fit of alarm that seems to have gripped the hitherto light-headed Ghanaians.
All of an auspicious sudden, it is beginning to home-in to these
soft-headed, happy-go-lucky and good-natured “Niggers” that premature
gloating over a pure gift of nature may yet turn out to be too good to be
true.*" (See: "Who Are These “Parliamentarian
Drivers”?
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article of Tuesday, 16 March
2010.


I have already complained about this before, but I was more concerned with
the lack of courtesy rather than patriotism as Okoampa has long ceased to
surprise me. I have to confess that reading from a Ghanaian openly
supporting La Côte d'Ivoire and even suggesting war was a little bit
surprising, even by Okoampa standards. But even more surprising is the sheer
impudence of such an individual taking upon himself to lecture anyone about
patriotism and the judicious use of our oil wealth! The question I want to
primarily ask Okoampa is why does he pretend to be bothered about the
judicious use of our oil wealth when he himself wanted the Ivorians to take
it away from our hands? What I want to make clear to Okoampa is that without
the oil remaining in the hands of Ghana, the debate about its judicious use
would not even be on the horizon. I raise this issue in order to put it to
you that you are clearly equivocating and engaged in Orwellian double-talk
to facilitate the sale of your extremely nefarious political wares. And
whilst I am at it, I shall find time to expose some of them, particularly as
they bear on sovereignty and patriotism and imperialist designs on our oil
and its security implications for the people of Ghana. Suffice it to say for
the time being that, as I wrote in a previous article: "*Okoampa continues
by making demeaning remarks about his fellow countrymen. To use such
language indicates contempt for Ghanaian men and women. Why would any
Ghanaian who consider his country's vital interests so dispensable, still
present himself as a member of a "Think Tank" and expect respect from his
fellow Ghanaians? What does it mean if this man presents Nana Akufo Addo as
his favourite candidate, and Akufo Addo approves of this association with
him? Is Akufo Addo telling us that the Danquah Institute "think tank" is
fast becoming nothing but a nest of politically virulent and toxic ideas
contempt for the Ghanaian people?*" (See: Is It Not Time For Akufo Addo To
Distance Himself From The Danquah Institute Altogether?).

*The Danquah Institute, The NPP, And The STX Deal*

The first time I heard about the STX contract was on the website of the
Danquah Institute: "Press Release: DI Raises Redflag on $1.5B STX Korean
Credit Plus Oil Deal from Equitorial
Guinea".
It might be necessary to dedicate another piece to do justice on the
substantive issues of the STX deal. My objective here is to simply challenge
Okoampa and the Danquah Institute that they are not the patriots that they
want unsuspecting ghanaians to believe! It is not surprising that
Ochere-Darko has been able to mobilize the entire party structure behind
this campaign. The STX deal is not the only thing the think tank has been
thing about and making their thoughts public. One issue that has bothered me
has been the way people associated with the Danquah Institute has been
promoting the US Africa Command Headquarters project. The easy influence of
a major political party by such vipers is a serious source of concern.

It must be noted that the level of the NPP, this is the third time party is
towing the line of the Danquah Institute within a very short time! Some
worried observers see this as a drill or a rehearsal of the shape of things
to come should Akufo Addo be elected the President of this country.
Considering the type of noises coming from this group, it is very important
to raise the alarm that they are up to no good! Ant that the wheeler and the
dealer at the centre of it all, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo must of
necessitate not up to any good!

The reason why my grandson needs to see a psychiatrist is therefore, also
because it is very important for the Akufo-Addo busy-bodies like him not to
give the game away so soon! If he does not see a psychiatrist, Okoampa would
open the eyes of Ghanaians so wide to what the Akufo Addo camp has been up
to, ever since Bush said "Baloney!" to the US Africom Headquarters rumour in
Accra. Right now, my own real fear in all this, is that considering the
unprecedented leverage that the Danquah Institute now wields within the the
NPP, particularly the current Akufo Addo-led National Executive Committee,
as exemplified with the speed by which the NPP has proved to be effectively
and extremely susceptible to the very negative influence of the Danquah
Institute, the question that every concerned Ghanaian ought to be asking
must be: "Are we safe?" Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr. and Gabriel Asare
Ochere-Darko and co, are just a tip of the iceberg! My real worry is now
about Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, and why he has chosen to be surrounded
by the birds of the same feathers! These are clearly people with doubtful
intentions and abilities. Is it by accident or just a co-incidence that
these two of the Danquah Institute happen to be the only known Ghanaians
campaigning for the establishment of US military bases on our soil? The New
Patriotic Party seems to have a new concept of patriotism which is surely
bizarre!

Give me the old time patriotism any time, anywhere, any day!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!! **(The original version of this article
contains important links to the references made within. For further
information and follow-ups, I invite the interested reader to my blog. I
tweet some of my comments on
facebookand on
twitter . I am interested in the political
grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation. If you agree or
disagree with me, you may follow my thinking and reactions in a more
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comments in one place. You may give me a follow on Twitter if you want to
know "where I am coming from":
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or check out my blogs: 1. Feature Articles: nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com, 2.
Comments: theodikro.blogspot.com) Thanks!*