It Takes Two To Tango

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Sept. 8, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

You cannot but feel some genuine sympathy and concern for the General-Secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), when Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong catalogs a series of instances in which he has been deliberately ignored from inclusion and active participation in the itinerary of the 2016 Presidential Candidate of the party (See “Kwabena Agyepong Unaware of Nana Addo’s Tour” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 9/7/15). For instance, the NPP’s chief scribe claims to have been totally left out of the loop about the month-long campaign tour of all the country’s ten regions currently embarked upon by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, themed “Arise And Build,” and that he only learned about the tour from media reportage.

Then also, he claims to have arranged with Nana Akufo-Addo’s entourage to be picked up at Aburi to accompany the party’s flag bearer to express their condolences at Akuapem-Akropong in the wake of the passing of the Okuapemanhene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo-Dankwa II, but that Akufo-Addo’s entourage shot right past him and Mr. Agyepong had to find his own means of transport to catch up with the group at Akropong. Now, what I clearly sense here is a palpable lack of trust between Messrs. Paul Afoko, the party’s National Chairman, and Agyepong, on the one hand, and Nana Akufo-Addo and his team and close associates, on the other. Mr. Agyepong also claims that he has been forced to go public with his grievances because there are some party operatives who are hell-bent on tarnishing his image and reputation.

Nana Akufo-Addo has publicly come out to bitterly complain about the strategically regressive attitude of those party operatives and faithful who have resorted to the rampant airing of the party’s proverbial linen in public. One would also have expected Mr. Agyepong to have remarked on the nihilistic agenda of Mr. Baah-Acheamfuor, a rabidly anti-Akufo-Addo partisan, who claims to be the leader or spokesman of a group called “Save NPP Now!” who has been routinely leaking to the media party matters of which only Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong have been privy to. There is the recent case, for example, in which a memorandum addressed to Mr. Agyepong by Mr. John Boadu, the party’s National Organizer, allegedly seeking funding to boost the courage of the organizers of the Yvonne Nelson-led Dumsor Must Stop campaign vigil, was deliberately put into the public domain by the Acheamfuor Group, which is widely known to be either directly associated with Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong or at least passionately sympathetic to the cause of these two men, whatever the nature of such cause may be.

As of this writing, one of the most respected and prominent members of the party’s elders was reported to have advised any member who feels too big in his breeches to take orders from the party’s legitimately elected leader to vacate their membership. This is a timely advice in the right direction. We shall make time to examine and comment on Mr. Akenten Appiah-Menkah’s admonishment. For now, what we earnestly advise is that Nana Akufo-Addo take prompt measures to stem this rancorous tide of apparently ill-calculated internecine battle rocking the party. Mr. Agyepong has clearly articulated his concerns; it is rather unfortunate that the party General-Secretary chose to do so publicly. But it may be quite understandable, gauging from what Mr. Agyepong claims to have motivated him to breach party protocol.

Now, it is up to Nana Akufo-Addo to demonstrate that he means it, when he says that it is time for all factions at party headquarters to rally for a resounding victory come Election 2016.