By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

I thought about a couple more captions for this column before settling on the one above. One such caption was as follows: "What Are The NDC Operatives Afraid Of?" And the other: "NDC Running Scared, Huh?" I think the above caption is the best among the three, at least for the purpose at hand. What is amusing in a very annoying way about these National Democratic Congress Cabinet appointees is that rather than wisely tap into the gray matter underneath their skulls, to seek constructive, and progressive, ways of repairing the massive failure that is the Mahama-led government, they seem to prefer playing Peeping-Toms on their most formidable political opponents.

In the wake of the apocalyptic June 3 and 4 flooding and torching of Accra-Central that cost the lives of some 200 citizens and caused massive property damage estimated to run into several millions of cedis, the Deputy Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, Mr. Sampson Ahi, seemed to prefer spying on and tracking some prominent Christian religious leaders deemed to be critical of the Mahama government and facilely boxing them into the ideological camp of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). I also don't know that Ghana's 1992 Republican Constitution prevents any religious leaders from deciding where to engage their skills and expertise in the resolution of problems confronting the nation at large (See "'Pastors At Kufuor's Meeting Are In Bed With NPP' - MP" Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/24/15).

Does it, for instance, mean that since Archbishop Duncan-Williams was allegedly not invited to President John Agyekum-Kufuor's meeting, it logically follows that Pastor Duncan-Williams is in bed with operatives of the National Democratic Congress? For Mr. Ahi's information, if he already is not aware of it, none of the following distinguished Christian religious leaders - Rev.-Prof. Emmanuel Martey, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana; Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of the Accra Diocese; and Pastor Mensa Otabil - has made any secret of the fact that they are extremely displeased with the way and manner in which President Mahama and his so-called National Democratic Congress are running the affairs of the country.

And so why should any of these progressive men of God hesitate in helping to heal the unsavory divisions among the leaders of the party that is most capable of returning the country to good governance and prosperity, come Election 2016? Indeed, the recent rash of leaked tapes and documents belonging to the New Patriotic Party by card-carrying NPP moles of the National Democratic Congress, is what all progressive-minded Ghanaians ought to be most worried about. For such dirty propaganda tricks are aimed at perennially weakening the political opposition, thereby ensuring that the Mahama-led government will continue to visit acute economic hardships and rank corruption and gross leadership incompetence on our people.

Ghanaians deserve much better and are capable of putting a more progressive, less corrupt and more foresighted political party in the seat of governance. The Flagstaff House ought not to become the dingy den of cold-calculating thieves and parasites that it has become under the stewardship of President John Dramani Mahama. And it would be far more helpful for Mr. Sampson Ahi, the Deputy Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, to concentrate on creditably acquitting himself in the cardinal cabinet portfolio in which he has been performing so badly. That is what Ghanaians and the people he represents pay him so handsomely to do, and not to spy on the home of former President Agyekum-Kufuor and hop from one talk-radio station to another gossiping about which religious leader was either seen entering Mr. Kufuor's private home or exiting the same.

______________________________________________________________