; the Pea-brained Political Neophyte is Exposed!

The past week has seen the Ghanaian media terrain dominated by the pidgin phrase, “All die be die”. The phrase was used by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo in his address to NPP party executives in the Eastern Region to be courageous to resist any attempts by the NDC to intimidate them in the upcoming general elections in 2012. Admittedly, my initial reaction on hearing it was that, Nana Addo has gone overboard. In order to get first hand information as to why Nana used that expression, I spoke to few (5) different people who attended that meeting before making my comment. All the 5 people I spoke to gave similar interpretation as to why Nana Addo said that. They all agreed that Nana was encouraging them to stand firm and be willing to defend themselves in the face of an unprovoked attack as the security apparatus will not come to their aid. The 5 were equally united in saying that, Nana Addo reminded the gathering about the plight of NPP supporters in Agbogbloshie who ran to the Police for protection after the 2008 elections but got murdered right in front of the police station with no arrest made to date, to buttress his point. Nana Addo sounding exasperated by the seeming disinterest of the police in prosecuting these cases also mentioned the atrocities committed by the NDC supporters during the bye-elections in Chereponi, Akwatia and Atiwa and the fact that no one has been apprehended nor charged to emphasise the need for NPP supporters to defend themselves when attacked by their political opponents.

They also said that, Nana Addo again showed his frustration by the apparent docility of the security apparatus especially the police to defend NPP supporters when they are attacked let alone to follow up on the numerous reports lodged at various police stations in the country. According to my informants, Nana then charged them to meet any NDC member who will attempt to intimidate them boot for boot. In conclusion, Nana said that if the NPP supporters run for the sake of peace like others did in Agbogbloshie and get killed, the police will not act. Hence he admonished them to at least defend themselves should they come under any form of attack during the 2012 elections, after all; “all die be die.” I have gone to this far to put across the snippets of what I got from those I spoke to for readers to make up their mind. The NPP is a political party and therefore has no police or army of its own. The party can only report matters affecting its supporters to the police for action but if the police refuse to act, should Osonites meekly fold their arms and get killed on the altar of peace?

The above is a synopsis of Nana Addo’s comments which have caused so much consternation in the media and dominated the airwaves in the past week. Unsurprisingly, the usual suspects; Okudjeto Ablakwa, Richard Quashigah, Allotey Jacobs and Elvis Afriyie have jumped into the fray with invectives and blatant insults. Others have even dared to put a tribal spin of Nana Addo’s comment by referring to his use of “Akan” in his address in an area which has members of other tribes living in that community. They forget that they haven’t patent right to insults and platitudes. But I will restrict my response to Elvis Afriyie, the “greedy bastard” and pea-brained political neophyte who referred to Nana Akuffo Addo’s comments as “buffoonery”. This nincompoop of a Deputy Minister, a mediocre horse-thrush and a rabble-rousing hoodlum has the effrontery to chastise Nana Addo for encouraging his supporters to stand up and defend themselves if attacked by their political opponents! Would Elvis Ankrah advice his wife or any member of his family members to fold their arms in the face of unprovoked attacks just because of their party affiliations? Like hooligans, none of the sophomoric NDC ministers (including Elvis Afriyie) came out to assure the electorates of protection in the 2012 elections, rather they all chose to attack Nana Akuffo Addo for his choice of words just to score cheap political points. A clear case of the pot calling the kettle black! For once, I would wish the likes of Elvis Ankrah to be honest in their lives. Nana Addo never told the NPP executives to attack, fight or kill their opponents! Rather, he admonished them to defend themselves if attacked and I see nothing with that. If I ever had the choice to defend myself before I die, I will do so with my last breath just like anybody else would do. It’s called survival instinct, period!! If a riff-raff, gaping sycophant and an a**s licking vegetable like Elvis Ankrah thinks heaping invectives of Nana Addo will win them votes then they better think again. By coming out like ravenous dogs as they are wont to do, they have only confirmed the intimidation Nana Addo was encouraging the NPP supporters to gird their loins for in 2012 general elections. The NDC should rather state their preparedness to defend Ghana’s democracy and peace rather than thinking that they have sole prerogative to dish out violence to their opponents. Their pathetic jingoism would help no one!!!

In case, has the moronic Elvis Afriyie and for that any NDC leader (including President Mills) got the moral right to rain insults on Nana Addo for admonishing his supporters to defend themselves even to the point of death because “all die be die” as the security apparatus would turn a blind eye when they are attacked? Recently, was the NDC national chairman not heard threatening Supreme Court Judges with his stupid “….many ways to kill the cat….) threat? Not a single member of the NDC condemned him! Not even the president! The likes of Elvis Afriyie will be brought down to earth if they are going to wade into issues without any matured responses. In any case, was it not the same Elvis Afriyie and his ilk who went about preaching hellfire and brimstone on Ghana prior to the 2008 general elections? Were they not the ones going round every nook and cranny of the country telling our rural folks that “Ghana will be like Kenya” if the NDC were to lose the elections? Then candidate Mills, the so called “asomdwee hene” joined in singing this infamous chorus! Were Kenyans having a party then for Ghana to be compared to them? If not then what was happening in Kenya at the time? Elvis, the hypocrite was comfortable preaching this unholy sermon to Ghanaians! Here are some more of the popular phrases Elvis and his cohorts became fond of prior to the 2008 elections: “Ghana will burn”, “Ghana will be like Liberia”, Ghana will burn like Sierra Leone” etc. Obviously, the myopic mindsets of people like Elvis Ankrah would feel very comfortable to spew out such toxic garbage into our body politic. Again where was he or any NDC leader when Baba Jamal declared a “holy jihad” in parliamentary elections in just 6 wards in Akwatia? Perhaps he nodded his approval like a sun-baked agama lizard. A hypocrite like Elvis Afriyie certainly can’t judge the lingua of any politician in Ghana; whether from the NPP, CPP or PNC.

As for those who are inferring that Nana Addo was spreading tribal sentiments for using “Akans”, they should go back to the year 2007/2008 to replay some of the NDC’s campaign messages to help them put events in the past week in its proper perspective. Whilst at it, it will help to also find answers to the following questions: Who was the first person to tag the NPP as an “Asantefo Party”? Was that demagogue not sending out signals for the other tribes to gang up on Ashantis? Typically, because that person is of the stock of the NDC, that again was right in the eyes of Elvis Ankrah. Then again, did President Mills not campaign on “adze wo fie a oye” sentiments of our cousins in the Central Region in 2008? Was the President not being tribally divisive then? Did candidate Mills not also say, “Kuffuor couldn’t help fishermen because he comes from a region which does not border the sea”? Was that not an act of sowing seeds of ethnocentrism and divisiveness? What could be more insulting to Kuffour and his tribe than that? What of the NDC executive who preached “yeretow aba no Fantse Fantse”? It did not surprise me though that Elvis and other NDC apparatchiks saw nothing wrong with the above as statements.

I just can’t stand the hypocrisy and tomfoolery of this pea-brained political neophyte called Elvis Afriyie! Let him and the entire NDC get this straight; Nana Addo was right when he said that “all die be die.” If Ghanaians die from the NDCs bad “ecomini” policies, it’s still “all die be die”; but let no one make the mistake to think that we will fold our arms when attacked like it happened at Chereponi, Akwatia and Atiwa. This time, we will fight back in self defence after all, “all die be die”. Nana Akuffo Addo was right and those who have got the jitters can go and drink the Korle Lagoon dry (after all, all die be die).

Kofi Kyei-Mensah-Osei