See Comment: LOOK WHO IS TALKING! WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-28 09:11:05
Comment to:
Ignorant & Miseducated Clown
What are you talking about? Was not your J. B. Danquah's highest political ambition from 1928 right up to 1946 the post of a humble servant of Her Majesty's Government as a Colonial Secretary?
Why did they send for Nkrumah in the first place? These busy-body elites realised the agitations that were building up in the country especially from the ex-servicemen, and moved quick to re-organise themselves to strategically position themselves to hijack the struggle for their own selfish and property -owning ends! Because God loves Ghana, they reaslised they could not do the job themselves and opted the easy option of paying a "boy" to do the organisational work for them. The rich men always think they can pay for everything, even including political struggle. That is why they sent for Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah!
As Kwesi rightly points out, the UGCC was not a political party until Nkrumah arrived on the scene. When it was formed at Saltpond on the 4th of August 1947, there were only forty elites of the Gold Coast present, made of of merchants, lawyers, chiefs and the local professionals. They were afraid to involve the ordinary man in the street in the struggle because they feared to lose control of the movement.
Now, so much for your "the fight for independence was in high gear befcre the members of the United Gold Coast Convention sent Francis Kofi Nwia Ngoloma his "lorry fare" to enable him finally come home and to contribute to the struggle"!
Now read this and heal and free your mind, my grandson!
"UGCC Wasn't A Political Party Until Nkrumah Arrived"—Kwesi Pratt
A leading member of the Convention Peoples Party and a member of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Centenary Planning Committee, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has argued that until Osagyefo Nkrumah’s return to the then Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1949, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was not a political party.
Mr. Pratt minced no words when he declared that the UGCC was only a movement that was later significantly transformed into a political party under the able leadership and political ideology of Dr. Nkrumah.
“The UGCC had only six (6) branches when Nkrumah came to Ghana, but he managed to increase it to six hundred (600) branches within a space of three months, transforming the UGCC from a movement to a political party, which he later abandoned to form his own party, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP),” he said.
Contributing in a panel discussion on PEACEFM’s “Kokrokoo”, Mr. Pratt said the call for a Founders’ Day instead of a Founder’s Day, is “a false argument as they (Big Six) have been given proper recognition by the naming of some roundabouts after them and also having their portraits printed on the currency (cedi).”
He strongly asserted that it is an anti- Nkrumaist propaganda calculated to undermine the visionary leader’s prominence, and warned that any attempt to vilify Dr. Nkrumah will result in dire consequences.
“The discussion now is a deliberate, very well calculated and orchestrated one, it’s the same anti-Nkrumaist propaganda…You want to re-write history, but it will never happen in this country, never happen in this country…One of the ways of undermining Nkrumah is this Founder’s Day argument. It has no merit…With the greatness of Nkrumah; you don’t have to be an Nkrumaist to accept his greatness. You don’t even have to be a Ghanaian to accept his greatness. It’s a fact of history. And in fact, kicking against Nkrumah is like using your bare foot to kick against a rock. You can only hurt yourself,” he said.
NOTA BENE:
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Comment WHY I PREFER THE NDC TO THE NPP TODAY
Comment: SARPONG
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-28 08:32:53
Comment to:
AKYEA.
Hi Sarpong!
Thank you very much for your clear support for the CPP if you have to choose between the NDC and the CPP. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing for the NPP.
In the 2000 elections, we all agreed that it was very extremely important for deepening of the strength of democratic forces to unseat the NDC from power. What we feared most was a consolidation of a constitutional despotism under the guise of a democracy. This is what informed our support for the NPP.
Besides, we felt that times have changed and a lot of water had passed under the bridge. The CPP opportunists who followed K.N Arkaah to the NDC camp had also made sure the party could never unite to be a force to be reckoned with. Under the circumstances, it made a lot of sense to throw our weight behind the only viable opposition vehicle we had available. And that happened to be the NPP.
After repeating the same demands for the rule of law, respect for human rights, accountability and probity, we thought they could even be better than the PNDC dictatorship.
Not that our strategy did not receive criticisms from very respectable comrades. One of the was the late Comrade S. S. Barfour-Awuah. He felt it was a self-evident fact the the CPP must NEVER have anything in common with the Busia-Danquah traditon. He told me personally that we were playing a very dangerous game, and that by the time these people begin to show their true colours, it would be too late.
I remember constantly brushing aside his concerns with a favourite proverb: "Nsu a wodze kum gya no, wonhywe no kronkron" which roughly translates as "If your house is under fire, you do not verify if the water you are using to put out the fire is clean or not".
I can even forgive Kufour for his medals. What really shocked me was how people I have been in the trenches personally fighting for the respect for human rights, the rule of law, democracy and for probity and accountability changed so completely when they came to power.
Very slowly they began to compare and justify their own atrocities with that of the military dictatorship we had all agreed was very bad. You talk about the assassination of Ya Naa, and the only sensible thing they can tell is ie a story that once upon a time someoen went to murder three hight court judges. Julor Jato even once asked me "Compare the number of Ghanaians we have killed with the number of Ghanaians the PNDC killed, don't you see a big difference?"
Some of us did not support the NPP to be told that this was only to bring the numbers down but not to abolish it! Human rights abuses cannot be quantified. Organisations like Amesty International are very clear about it. A president who has even the blood of one innocent Ghanaian on his hands is not fit to be a president, according to me.
Telling me that the NPP has only killed one chief and forty elders whilst the PNDC killed almost 250 Ghanaians makes me sick and very sad. You can only be sure that I always hit back upon recovery from such attacks on my sensibilities.
This is where we are today. Okoampa could say the Graphic had been entrusted into the hands of the NPP and so the NPP had every right to monopolise its use against opposition voices. And the strange thing is that you do not see anyone in the NPP who is sensible enough to point out these excesses and shameful reversals of the democratic principles they stood for whilst in opposition.
I am not even talking about the corruption, the cocaine business, and other disgusting scandals which plagued the NPP, such as ministers who put up money to buy up state bungalows we have reserved for our public officers since colonial times! We have people like Jake Obetsebi Lamptey who see nothing wrong with this!
The bold attempts to go to the strong room of the electoral commission to physically change the electoral results for Ashanti Region. The refusal to concede defeat even though your own pollsters had warned you it was coming, which nearly led to a civil war and an unnecessary bloodbath.
The abuse of the judiciary, the the wheeling and dealings behind international contracts and the perception that tyour party always showed more concern for multi-national corporations than the interest of the poor man and woman in the street!
For these reasons and other personal ones too painful and sensitive to raise in public, I decided to throw my weight behind the NDC for the same reasons we feared from the NDC earlier: a creeping constitutional despotism, this time around spiced with typical Busia-Danquah feudalism and neocolonialist arrogance.
For now, just like Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., I prefer the NDC any time any day, to the NPP. The NDC certainly has a lot of problems, but the level of incompetence and indolence and genuine stupidity that we saw under Kufour are fast disappearing.
Above all, if the NPP had won, Nana Addo would simply have doubled the Ghana Police force and then invite the Americans to establish the USAfriCom Headquarters here in Ghana. I suspect that this plan is on stand-by. This is why I can NEVER trust the NPP with power!
No hard feelings. This is honestly how I feel about your party. I am happy to get this out of my chest, especially the fact that the CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-28 08:32:53
Comment to:
AKYEA.
Hi Sarpong!
Thank you very much for your clear support for the CPP if you have to choose between the NDC and the CPP. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing for the NPP.
In the 2000 elections, we all agreed that it was very extremely important for deepening of the strength of democratic forces to unseat the NDC from power. What we feared most was a consolidation of a constitutional despotism under the guise of a democracy. This is what informed our support for the NPP.
Besides, we felt that times have changed and a lot of water had passed under the bridge. The CPP opportunists who followed K.N Arkaah to the NDC camp had also made sure the party could never unite to be a force to be reckoned with. Under the circumstances, it made a lot of sense to throw our weight behind the only viable opposition vehicle we had available. And that happened to be the NPP.
After repeating the same demands for the rule of law, respect for human rights, accountability and probity, we thought they could even be better than the PNDC dictatorship.
Not that our strategy did not receive criticisms from very respectable comrades. One of the was the late Comrade S. S. Barfour-Awuah. He felt it was a self-evident fact the the CPP must NEVER have anything in common with the Busia-Danquah traditon. He told me personally that we were playing a very dangerous game, and that by the time these people begin to show their true colours, it would be too late.
I remember constantly brushing aside his concerns with a favourite proverb: "Nsu a wodze kum gya no, wonhywe no kronkron" which roughly translates as "If your house is under fire, you do not verify if the water you are using to put out the fire is clean or not".
I can even forgive Kufour for his medals. What really shocked me was how people I have been in the trenches personally fighting for the respect for human rights, the rule of law, democracy and for probity and accountability changed so completely when they came to power.
Very slowly they began to compare and justify their own atrocities with that of the military dictatorship we had all agreed was very bad. You talk about the assassination of Ya Naa, and the only sensible thing they can tell is ie a story that once upon a time someoen went to murder three hight court judges. Julor Jato even once asked me "Compare the number of Ghanaians we have killed with the number of Ghanaians the PNDC killed, don't you see a big difference?"
Some of us did not support the NPP to be told that this was only to bring the numbers down but not to abolish it! Human rights abuses cannot be quantified. Organisations like Amesty International are very clear about it. A president who has even the blood of one innocent Ghanaian on his hands is not fit to be a president, according to me.
Telling me that the NPP has only killed one chief and forty elders whilst the PNDC killed almost 250 Ghanaians makes me sick and very sad. You can only be sure that I always hit back upon recovery from such attacks on my sensibilities.
This is where we are today. Okoampa could say the Graphic had been entrusted into the hands of the NPP and so the NPP had every right to monopolise its use against opposition voices. And the strange thing is that you do not see anyone in the NPP who is sensible enough to point out these excesses and shameful reversals of the democratic principles they stood for whilst in opposition.
I am not even talking about the corruption, the cocaine business, and other disgusting scandals which plagued the NPP, such as ministers who put up money to buy up state bungalows we have reserved for our public officers since colonial times! We have people like Jake Obetsebi Lamptey who see nothing wrong with this!
The bold attempts to go to the strong room of the electoral commission to physically change the electoral results for Ashanti Region. The refusal to concede defeat even though your own pollsters had warned you it was coming, which nearly led to a civil war and an unnecessary bloodbath.
The abuse of the judiciary, the the wheeling and dealings behind international contracts and the perception that tyour party always showed more concern for multi-national corporations than the interest of the poor man and woman in the street!
For these reasons and other personal ones too painful and sensitive to raise in public, I decided to throw my weight behind the NDC for the same reasons we feared from the NDC earlier: a creeping constitutional despotism, this time around spiced with typical Busia-Danquah feudalism and neocolonialist arrogance.
For now, just like Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., I prefer the NDC any time any day, to the NPP. The NDC certainly has a lot of problems, but the level of incompetence and indolence and genuine stupidity that we saw under Kufour are fast disappearing.
Above all, if the NPP had won, Nana Addo would simply have doubled the Ghana Police force and then invite the Americans to establish the USAfriCom Headquarters here in Ghana. I suspect that this plan is on stand-by. This is why I can NEVER trust the NPP with power!
No hard feelings. This is honestly how I feel about your party. I am happy to get this out of my chest, especially the fact that the CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Comment: Re: His Father Helped Free Ur Grannies......
READ ARTICLE: Jake is NPP Chairman
GhanaWeb General News of Sunday, 28 February 2010
Comment: Re: His Father Helped Free Ur Grannies......
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-28 07:27:21
Comment to:
His Father Helped Free Ur Grannies......
Grandson,
Go to hell with your "Afropean" nonsense! Obetsebi Lamptey's father did not help in the liberation of the Gold Coast from colonial rule in any material particular!
If you read the article below very well, you'd come across the following paragraph:
"In the meantime, the government accepted the Coussey Committee report and began implementing its recommendations, beginning with municipal elections in Accra on 8 April, 1950, Cape Coast on 12 June, 1950 and Kumasi on 4 November, 1950. CPP won in a landslide, to the shock and chagrin of H. M. G. Although still in prison, Nkrumah recorded an extraordinary plurality of 22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast."
The man who stood against the anti-colonialist prisoner was a local of the Bukom royal, vis-a-vis this Nzema veranda boy who could only campaign from prison, Nkrumah was no match. Added to that was the active support, financial and otherwise that the opposition to Nkrumah received from the colonial government should have been enough to do the trick!
The people of Bukom like all the people of Ghana overwhelmingly rejected the colonialists agents because they knew them very very well! Kwame Nkrumah won from prison
22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast to beat Obetsebi Lamptey's father.
The reason why even his own people rejected the Ga royal and opted to put their destiny in the hands of Kwame Nkrumah was simply because his own people who must know him better than you and I rejected him as a traitor to the people of the Gold Coast!
You these young ones have a way of rewriting history without any sense of shame because you think people are not going to compare your fictions with the facts and compel you to give a proper account of history!
The guy you are calling a liberator was one of those who were busy applying breaks to our march to breakaway from colonial rule. They were certainly not doing this job for free. They were being paid for their services by their colonialist handlers. Is that what you call a liberator?
READ A GOOD ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AND THE COME BACK AND LET'S HAVE A CHAT!
KWAME NKRUMAH: THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE
The fog-filtered African sun on 10 December, 1947, witnessed Kwame Nkrumah's return to the Gold Coast, disembarking at Takoradi after an absence of 12 years. He found a country still very much under British colonial domination, but was soon aware that demand for major political change was fermenting just beneath the surface. Wallace Johnson's communist West African Youth League had infiltrated from Nigeria in 1937 and had stirred the political pot throughout the Gold Coast.
Johnson's star waned when he was convicted of sedition and deported in 1938. However, he left behind the residue of discontent with colonialism and a growing but leaderless demand for self-rule. The colonial government moved quickly and decisively to suppress every contentious political movement. Chiefs who showed any inclination towards independence were quickly destooled. Anti-tax movements were rapidly suppressed. Suspect civil servants were sacked and, in some cases, detained. Any challenge to British rule was abruptly terminated.
It was into this period of suppression that Kwame Nkrumah arrived home. Within days, he returned to his home at Nkroful for a brief family reunion. Word spread quickly that Nkrumah was home and after a fortnight, he began a series of speaking engagements and meetings in order to sense the level of unrest that lay just beneath the surface throughout the country.
A series of meetings with the leadership of the United Gold Coast Convention, (UGCC), founded on 4 August, 1947, and lead by Dr. J. B. Danquah, resulted, on 20 January, 1948, in the appointment of Nkrumah as General Secretary of the Party. From that moment at Saltpond, the die was cast. The Gold Coast had its' leader and was on a fixed and determined course towards independence from Great Britain.
Nkrumah began an intense speaking tour throughout the country, and with his unique, impassioned rhetoric, soon had the entire country seething with Pan-African enthusiasm and demands for self-rule. Boycotts of European goods were initiated, labor strikes became common place and work slowdowns began in all areas of the Gold Coast's commerce and industry.
The 28th of February, 1948, was a landmark day in the nation's history. A large contingent of former servicemen who were tired of unfulfilled promises by the government, drafted a petition seeking redress of grievances for presentation to H.M's Governor, Sir Gerald Creasy. As they marched, unarmed and defenseless, they were set upon by government troops at Christianborg cross-roads. When the smoke cleared, sixty-three former loyal soldiers lay dead or badly wounded on the streets of Accra. Gold Coast would never be the same. Rioting and looting lasted for five days.
On 1 March, 1948, the Riot Act was read and Governor Creasy declared a state of emergency. Strict press censorship was imposed over the entire country. On 12 March, the Governor issued Removal Orders and police were dispatched to pick up and arrest the entire UGCC Central Executive. Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Danquah, E. Akufo Addo, William Ofori Atta, E. Obelsebi Lamptey and E. Ako Adjei were arrested, detained and exiled to the Northern Territories.
On 14 March, 1948, Cape Coast students demonstrated, demanding the release of the Party leadership. Once again, the government responded with great force, leaving the dead and dying in its wake.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Office in London, greatly upset by events in the Gold Coast, appointed a Commission, chaired by Mr. A. K. Watson, Recorder of Bury St. Edmunds, with a mandate to investigate the reasons for the disturbances and to make recommendations for the continued governance of the colony. They began their in-country interviews and deliberations on 1 April, 1948.
With the country in chaos, Governor Creasy finally acceded to demands and on 12 April, 1948, the Party leadership was released from detention. On 19 April, he lifted the 1 ½ month press ban. These actions served to superficially quiet the country, but it did nothing to suppress the now flourishing and rampant demand for self-rule.
On 26 April, 1948, the Watson Commission concluded its deliberations and shortly thereafter, presented its report to H.M.G. The principal recommendation was that a Constitution be drafted as a possible prelude to eventual self-rule. To that end, an all African Constitutional Committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of an esteemed African jurist, Mr. Justice Henley Coussey of the Gold Coast High Court.
In the meantime, Nkrumah toured the country addressing huge crowds of every persuasion, every tribe, every religion and every class of society. "Self Government Now" echoed throughout the land. The strength of the three words grew at each speaking venue until it became the heartbeat of the country. With adult public opinion rapidly falling into line, Nkrumah next moved to mobilize the youth of the Gold Coast. On 26 February, 1949, he announced the formation of the Committee on Youth Organization (CYO) designed to bring young people actively into the political fray.
At the UGCC Easter Convention at Saltpond, Nkrumah rebuked the membership claiming that they were not working hard enough, that they did not fully understand and support his vision of self-rule. In a highly tense and acrimonious exchange, Nkrumah tendered his resignation as General Secretary of the party. On 12 June, 1949, at a CYO rally in Accra, Nkrumah announced the formation of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), calling for political unity and a nationwide unified demand for self-rule. "If the Coussey Committee does not find for self-rule now, we will shut this country down, we will strike, strike, strike!"
On 7 November, 1949, the Coussey Committee Report was published. Contained therein, were a number of mechanisms for inclusion of Africans in government, but it stopped short of advocating or even suggesting self-rule.
While the Coussey report was comprehensive and generally accepted by political moderates, Nkrumah was furious because of its self-rule shortcomings. He announced formation of the Ghana Representative Council (GRC) as the principal body to initiate appeal against the report. Plans were announced for a nationwide Positive Action strike to begin 1 January, 1950. He renewed his nationwide tour, calling on "all men of goodwill, organize, organize, organize. We prefer self-government in danger, to servitude in tranquillity. Forward ever, backward never". The chant "Self-government now" was taken up in every corner of the country.
New Years Day, 1950, dawned with labor shutdowns in every industrial and commercial facility. Government responded immediately with a State of Emergency announced by the Governor. Flying squads of the Gold Coast Constabulary swooped down and arrested more than 200 CPP and CYO leaders, including Nkrumah.
Arrests and detentions did not stop the movement. Enough people stepped into the leadership void to perpetuate the movement. The "Gold Coast Leader" was initiated, first as a sub-rosa broadsheet and within a month, as a widely distributed CPP propaganda newspaper.
In the meantime, the government accepted the Coussey Committee report and began implementing its recommendations, beginning with municipal elections in Accra on 8 April, 1950, Cape Coast on 12 June, 1950 and Kumasi on 4 November, 1950. CPP won in a landslide, to the shock and chagrin of H. M. G. Although still in prison, Nkrumah recorded an extraordinary plurality of 22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast.
On 19 February, 1951, the new Governor, Sir Noble Arden-Clarke, signed the Bill of Release freeing Nkrumah and others from prison after 13 months of detention. An invitation to State House on the day of his release resulted in Nkrumah being asked to form a government and become Leader of Government Business in the first African dominated government of the Gold Coast and the National Assembly. Nkrumah accepted, but he warned the Governor that he considered the Coussey generated Constitution to be "bogus, fraudulent and unacceptable, as it does not fully meet the aspirations of the people of the Gold Coast". He added that he would not rest "until full self-government within the Commonwealth was achieved". With that statement, he announced his first cabinet of 4 Europeans and 7 Africans. The die was now cast. The sun would soon rise on a new nation, Ghana.
For the next year, Nkrumah focused his effort on the development of an equitable constitution and creation of massive nationwide self-help schemes. Work was begun on the enormous Volta River hydroelectric project and others of national importance.
On 5 March, 1952, Nkrumah was made Prime Minister. Work continued on a new Constitution. The country's first Five Year Development Plan was published and through its implementation, 9 Teacher Training Colleges, 18 Secondary Schools and 31 Primary and Middle schools were built. In the Northern Territories, 10 new hospitals were built. Major roads were constructed linking Accra and Cape Coast and Kumasi and from Tamale to Bolgatanga.
Nkrumah stepped up his pressure for negotiations for full Independence. Finally on 18 September, 1956, the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced a firm date for Gold Coast Independence, 6 March, 1957. On 12 November, 1956, a new Constitution was approved along with the nation's renewed name, Ghana, after the ancient traditional Ghana Empire, the oldest known state of West Africa, which flourished from the third to the seventeenth century.
On the appointed day, 6 March, 1957, the new nation was born. At midnight at Accra's Polo Grounds, Prime Minister Nkrumah announced that "the long battle is over and our beloved country Ghana is free forever". Always the Pan-Africanist, mindful of the rest of Africa, he said: "We again re-dedicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa, for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent
Source: GUYANA UNDER SIEGE
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
GhanaWeb General News of Sunday, 28 February 2010
Comment: Re: His Father Helped Free Ur Grannies......
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-28 07:27:21
Comment to:
His Father Helped Free Ur Grannies......
Grandson,
Go to hell with your "Afropean" nonsense! Obetsebi Lamptey's father did not help in the liberation of the Gold Coast from colonial rule in any material particular!
If you read the article below very well, you'd come across the following paragraph:
"In the meantime, the government accepted the Coussey Committee report and began implementing its recommendations, beginning with municipal elections in Accra on 8 April, 1950, Cape Coast on 12 June, 1950 and Kumasi on 4 November, 1950. CPP won in a landslide, to the shock and chagrin of H. M. G. Although still in prison, Nkrumah recorded an extraordinary plurality of 22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast."
The man who stood against the anti-colonialist prisoner was a local of the Bukom royal, vis-a-vis this Nzema veranda boy who could only campaign from prison, Nkrumah was no match. Added to that was the active support, financial and otherwise that the opposition to Nkrumah received from the colonial government should have been enough to do the trick!
The people of Bukom like all the people of Ghana overwhelmingly rejected the colonialists agents because they knew them very very well! Kwame Nkrumah won from prison
22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast to beat Obetsebi Lamptey's father.
The reason why even his own people rejected the Ga royal and opted to put their destiny in the hands of Kwame Nkrumah was simply because his own people who must know him better than you and I rejected him as a traitor to the people of the Gold Coast!
You these young ones have a way of rewriting history without any sense of shame because you think people are not going to compare your fictions with the facts and compel you to give a proper account of history!
The guy you are calling a liberator was one of those who were busy applying breaks to our march to breakaway from colonial rule. They were certainly not doing this job for free. They were being paid for their services by their colonialist handlers. Is that what you call a liberator?
READ A GOOD ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AND THE COME BACK AND LET'S HAVE A CHAT!
KWAME NKRUMAH: THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE
The fog-filtered African sun on 10 December, 1947, witnessed Kwame Nkrumah's return to the Gold Coast, disembarking at Takoradi after an absence of 12 years. He found a country still very much under British colonial domination, but was soon aware that demand for major political change was fermenting just beneath the surface. Wallace Johnson's communist West African Youth League had infiltrated from Nigeria in 1937 and had stirred the political pot throughout the Gold Coast.
Johnson's star waned when he was convicted of sedition and deported in 1938. However, he left behind the residue of discontent with colonialism and a growing but leaderless demand for self-rule. The colonial government moved quickly and decisively to suppress every contentious political movement. Chiefs who showed any inclination towards independence were quickly destooled. Anti-tax movements were rapidly suppressed. Suspect civil servants were sacked and, in some cases, detained. Any challenge to British rule was abruptly terminated.
It was into this period of suppression that Kwame Nkrumah arrived home. Within days, he returned to his home at Nkroful for a brief family reunion. Word spread quickly that Nkrumah was home and after a fortnight, he began a series of speaking engagements and meetings in order to sense the level of unrest that lay just beneath the surface throughout the country.
A series of meetings with the leadership of the United Gold Coast Convention, (UGCC), founded on 4 August, 1947, and lead by Dr. J. B. Danquah, resulted, on 20 January, 1948, in the appointment of Nkrumah as General Secretary of the Party. From that moment at Saltpond, the die was cast. The Gold Coast had its' leader and was on a fixed and determined course towards independence from Great Britain.
Nkrumah began an intense speaking tour throughout the country, and with his unique, impassioned rhetoric, soon had the entire country seething with Pan-African enthusiasm and demands for self-rule. Boycotts of European goods were initiated, labor strikes became common place and work slowdowns began in all areas of the Gold Coast's commerce and industry.
The 28th of February, 1948, was a landmark day in the nation's history. A large contingent of former servicemen who were tired of unfulfilled promises by the government, drafted a petition seeking redress of grievances for presentation to H.M's Governor, Sir Gerald Creasy. As they marched, unarmed and defenseless, they were set upon by government troops at Christianborg cross-roads. When the smoke cleared, sixty-three former loyal soldiers lay dead or badly wounded on the streets of Accra. Gold Coast would never be the same. Rioting and looting lasted for five days.
On 1 March, 1948, the Riot Act was read and Governor Creasy declared a state of emergency. Strict press censorship was imposed over the entire country. On 12 March, the Governor issued Removal Orders and police were dispatched to pick up and arrest the entire UGCC Central Executive. Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Danquah, E. Akufo Addo, William Ofori Atta, E. Obelsebi Lamptey and E. Ako Adjei were arrested, detained and exiled to the Northern Territories.
On 14 March, 1948, Cape Coast students demonstrated, demanding the release of the Party leadership. Once again, the government responded with great force, leaving the dead and dying in its wake.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Office in London, greatly upset by events in the Gold Coast, appointed a Commission, chaired by Mr. A. K. Watson, Recorder of Bury St. Edmunds, with a mandate to investigate the reasons for the disturbances and to make recommendations for the continued governance of the colony. They began their in-country interviews and deliberations on 1 April, 1948.
With the country in chaos, Governor Creasy finally acceded to demands and on 12 April, 1948, the Party leadership was released from detention. On 19 April, he lifted the 1 ½ month press ban. These actions served to superficially quiet the country, but it did nothing to suppress the now flourishing and rampant demand for self-rule.
On 26 April, 1948, the Watson Commission concluded its deliberations and shortly thereafter, presented its report to H.M.G. The principal recommendation was that a Constitution be drafted as a possible prelude to eventual self-rule. To that end, an all African Constitutional Committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of an esteemed African jurist, Mr. Justice Henley Coussey of the Gold Coast High Court.
In the meantime, Nkrumah toured the country addressing huge crowds of every persuasion, every tribe, every religion and every class of society. "Self Government Now" echoed throughout the land. The strength of the three words grew at each speaking venue until it became the heartbeat of the country. With adult public opinion rapidly falling into line, Nkrumah next moved to mobilize the youth of the Gold Coast. On 26 February, 1949, he announced the formation of the Committee on Youth Organization (CYO) designed to bring young people actively into the political fray.
At the UGCC Easter Convention at Saltpond, Nkrumah rebuked the membership claiming that they were not working hard enough, that they did not fully understand and support his vision of self-rule. In a highly tense and acrimonious exchange, Nkrumah tendered his resignation as General Secretary of the party. On 12 June, 1949, at a CYO rally in Accra, Nkrumah announced the formation of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), calling for political unity and a nationwide unified demand for self-rule. "If the Coussey Committee does not find for self-rule now, we will shut this country down, we will strike, strike, strike!"
On 7 November, 1949, the Coussey Committee Report was published. Contained therein, were a number of mechanisms for inclusion of Africans in government, but it stopped short of advocating or even suggesting self-rule.
While the Coussey report was comprehensive and generally accepted by political moderates, Nkrumah was furious because of its self-rule shortcomings. He announced formation of the Ghana Representative Council (GRC) as the principal body to initiate appeal against the report. Plans were announced for a nationwide Positive Action strike to begin 1 January, 1950. He renewed his nationwide tour, calling on "all men of goodwill, organize, organize, organize. We prefer self-government in danger, to servitude in tranquillity. Forward ever, backward never". The chant "Self-government now" was taken up in every corner of the country.
New Years Day, 1950, dawned with labor shutdowns in every industrial and commercial facility. Government responded immediately with a State of Emergency announced by the Governor. Flying squads of the Gold Coast Constabulary swooped down and arrested more than 200 CPP and CYO leaders, including Nkrumah.
Arrests and detentions did not stop the movement. Enough people stepped into the leadership void to perpetuate the movement. The "Gold Coast Leader" was initiated, first as a sub-rosa broadsheet and within a month, as a widely distributed CPP propaganda newspaper.
In the meantime, the government accepted the Coussey Committee report and began implementing its recommendations, beginning with municipal elections in Accra on 8 April, 1950, Cape Coast on 12 June, 1950 and Kumasi on 4 November, 1950. CPP won in a landslide, to the shock and chagrin of H. M. G. Although still in prison, Nkrumah recorded an extraordinary plurality of 22,780 votes out of 23,122 votes cast.
On 19 February, 1951, the new Governor, Sir Noble Arden-Clarke, signed the Bill of Release freeing Nkrumah and others from prison after 13 months of detention. An invitation to State House on the day of his release resulted in Nkrumah being asked to form a government and become Leader of Government Business in the first African dominated government of the Gold Coast and the National Assembly. Nkrumah accepted, but he warned the Governor that he considered the Coussey generated Constitution to be "bogus, fraudulent and unacceptable, as it does not fully meet the aspirations of the people of the Gold Coast". He added that he would not rest "until full self-government within the Commonwealth was achieved". With that statement, he announced his first cabinet of 4 Europeans and 7 Africans. The die was now cast. The sun would soon rise on a new nation, Ghana.
For the next year, Nkrumah focused his effort on the development of an equitable constitution and creation of massive nationwide self-help schemes. Work was begun on the enormous Volta River hydroelectric project and others of national importance.
On 5 March, 1952, Nkrumah was made Prime Minister. Work continued on a new Constitution. The country's first Five Year Development Plan was published and through its implementation, 9 Teacher Training Colleges, 18 Secondary Schools and 31 Primary and Middle schools were built. In the Northern Territories, 10 new hospitals were built. Major roads were constructed linking Accra and Cape Coast and Kumasi and from Tamale to Bolgatanga.
Nkrumah stepped up his pressure for negotiations for full Independence. Finally on 18 September, 1956, the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced a firm date for Gold Coast Independence, 6 March, 1957. On 12 November, 1956, a new Constitution was approved along with the nation's renewed name, Ghana, after the ancient traditional Ghana Empire, the oldest known state of West Africa, which flourished from the third to the seventeenth century.
On the appointed day, 6 March, 1957, the new nation was born. At midnight at Accra's Polo Grounds, Prime Minister Nkrumah announced that "the long battle is over and our beloved country Ghana is free forever". Always the Pan-Africanist, mindful of the rest of Africa, he said: "We again re-dedicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa, for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent
Source: GUYANA UNDER SIEGE
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Akufo Addo Must Come Out Clear On USAfricom NOW!
I was having a little conversation with Mr. Justice Sarpong of Texas on the arrest of Nana Darkwa on Ghanaweb the night of the 15th Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party at Kumasi on Satuarday, 27th February, 2010. As I had not heard the news about the results of the vote, I asked him if he could confirm my suspicions:
"Do you know the results of the vote? I suspect Jake won but just like Nana Darkwa, I have no proof! Hahahaha!"
Sarpong was kind enough to confirm as follows:
"YES, JAKE WON AND YOUR PART-TIME PARTY NDC WOULD BE VOTED OUT IN 2012. HAVE A GOOD WEEK END."
Even though the style of this article is a reply to Justice Sarpong in order to stimulate a debate on this very important issue directly on the Ghanaweb forum, the contents are a matter of urgent concern for all Ghanaians, Africans and all the peoples of the world who support peace and justice on our one and only planet.
My response to Sarpong at the news of the election of Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as the Chairman of the NPP was thus:
"Thanks Mr. Sarpong!
I am going to write an article immediately! Can you guess what it is going to be about?
Guess Number One:
It is about his acquisition of state property as personal property being the central tenet of his personal contribution to the property owning democracy of the NPP!
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Two:
I suppose he is going to drive and have a peep at the coveted house to see if it may require some maintenance services, and how much the renovations would cost, etc., etc., ...
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Three:
There is no doubt he would be hinting his contractor to get ready for the works....
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Four:
It is about the Ga lands, and how Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is going to hide behind the Bible to dupe his own people, "It is written in the Bible", I can almost hear him say: "that, 'Even the little that you have shall be taken away from you!'"..... Hahaha hahahaha! This is also wrong!
I am going to do none of those! I am sure to hell people are going to write better on these subjects than I possibly can! One issue which is of extreme national importance, which the Akufo Addo team must be forced to come out clean with Ghanaians is their position on US Africa Command. For reasons of national security, it is not important whether the US states they want to establish bases in Ghana or not. If they have reasons not to let us know, they will not let us know. What is important is what our own elected leaders' position on the matter. This is an area where some of us want to see more transparency from the NPP, rather than the opaque manner ex-President Kufour was dealing in. There shall be no escape, as we are going to insist upon it until we get the answers. If he fails to respond, we shall accompany him with the issue right up to December 2012. It is therefore in the interest of Nana Akufo Addo must come out very clearly on this, in order not to look funny.
With the election of Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as the Chairman the issue even becomes more than urgent. I met Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. in London during the last Presidential campaigns. As usual, we were very worried about the way President Bush was able to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians with his Baloney!" speech, and how all of a sudden, the talk of Africom became what Asare-Ochere Darko of the Danquah Institute calls "high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff" with the Ghanaian public completely left in the dark!
I asked Kwesi if he had managed to ask Akufo Addo to commit himself, and he told me he had been looking for the opportunity but he had not yet succeeded. The he recounted to me when he had the chance he asked Jake Obetsebi Lamptey. And his response was something to this effect: "Well, you know, America is a very big and powerful country, so if they want to establish a base here we can do virtually nothing about it!"
I have been trying to get the Akufo Addo team to respond to these alarming declarations by one of his closest of allies and propagandist-in-chief, Asare Ochere Darko. He has kept an extraordinary silence on the matter. Mr. Gabby Asare Ochere-Darko tells us: 'in August 2007 Major-General Ward, who was later confirmed as AFRICOM’s first commander, visited Accra. He held discussions with President Kufuor on “ways of strengthening military cooperation.” His high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff triggered huge speculation. Much was made of Maj Gen J B Danquah’s public statement about the visit when he said Maj Gen Ward had ‘done enough to resolve’ Ghana’s concerns about AFRICOM, adding, “I have had the chance to hear [Ward] explain what is the reasoning behind the command, and it’s all about partnership.”'
What was after former US President George W. Bush had declared publicly in Accra on the 20th of February 2007, that "Some people say I am here to kind of looking for bases. That is baloney!" President Kufour was happy that the declaration by the visiting US President "would pay put to the speculation, and enable the US-Ghana relations to flourish." Upon second thoughts, I suspect they did not find it a very brilliant idea to go into elections with such a sell-out hanging on their necks. Thus they cleverly made public pronouncements to fool the population whilst they clandestinely continued what Maj Gen J B Danquah vaguely tells us: "it’s all about partnership.”
Ochere Darko explains the nature of the "partnership". He says exactly the same thing we hear from the US Africa Command:
"At the moment the Americans say they are happy to keep the U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent. But any reasonable assessment must conclude that this can be nothing but a temporary address and arrangement."
What I find even more alarming is this attempt by the Akufo Addo chief propagandist to sell the idea of Africom to Ghanaians:
"Ghana is now the subject of strategic U.S. energy and military interests which, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, has raised the stakes considerably in Ghana–United States relations. As the potential gem in the crown of what Washington terms Africa's ‘New Gulf’, the article highlights how Ghana’s pending oil-rich status will shift the terms of negotiation during the trip. Furthermore, America’s preference for Ghana as the physical location for the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM) headquarters, and its concern not to cede strategic ground to China in this region, mean that in 2009 Ghana has an unprecedented hand of cards to play in this game of international diplomacy. Our task as a nation – and the Government’s task as our representatives - is to make the strategic decisions to ensure that we aren’t simply the honoured recipients of President Obama’s first visit to Africa, but that we come away with more concrete deliverables to help us meet our own strategic goals."
Ochere Darko, the Executive Director of the Akyem Mafia neocolonialist think-tank known as the Danquah Institute now shows us how they hope to move Ghana forward:
"The way forward is a pro-active policy to build a new Gulf of energy security and prosperity in a part of the world that is relatively receptive to American presence. With significant discoveries being made in the Gulf of Guinea oil basin, off the coast of Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Congo and Cote d’Ivoire, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States will be importing in the year 2020 over 770 million barrels of African oil a year. And Ghana with its stability, notable responsiveness to America, deepening multiparty democracy and promising investment climate is seen as the perfect epicentre for the growth and fulfilment of this interest. In the eyes of America, geography, geology and ideology all favour Ghana as the gem in the crown of this new policy."
I am sure it shall not harm our democratic process if Nana Akufo Addo would come out clearly to distance himself with the position of his right hand man or be honest enough to tell us BEFORE he is elected, whether or not he endorses the "brilliant ideas" of the Danquah Institute neocolonialist think-tank.
They seem to know more than the average Ghanaian concerning the goings-on:
"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."
Is Nana Akufo Addo saying that his boys know more than he does? Is he cleverly keeping that up his sleeves only to spring the surprise once elected into office? I think that it is about time that he came out clean and state his policy on Ghana as the headquarters of the US Africa Command NOW! I know not what course my countrymen and women may take, but as for me, I want to hear a clear "NO TO AFRICOM" from him! If he intends to go ahead with the Kufour-Bush plans, he has to make it clear before the elections, for Ghanaians to decide whether or not such a human being is fit to be a president. I have every reason not to trust him one bit!
PLEASE READ ASARE OCHERE-DARKO'S ARTICLE HERE:
Source: See Ghanaweb Archives, Feature Article of Monday, 25 May 2009
"Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us And U.S.?" Columnist: Otchere-Darko, Asara
This article has just nee published on www.modernghana.com/
Comment repeated under: General News of Sunday, 28 February 2010, Source: GNA
Northern Region marks Veterans Day here Comment: Akufo Addo Must Come Out On USAfriCom
"Do you know the results of the vote? I suspect Jake won but just like Nana Darkwa, I have no proof! Hahahaha!"
Sarpong was kind enough to confirm as follows:
"YES, JAKE WON AND YOUR PART-TIME PARTY NDC WOULD BE VOTED OUT IN 2012. HAVE A GOOD WEEK END."
Even though the style of this article is a reply to Justice Sarpong in order to stimulate a debate on this very important issue directly on the Ghanaweb forum, the contents are a matter of urgent concern for all Ghanaians, Africans and all the peoples of the world who support peace and justice on our one and only planet.
My response to Sarpong at the news of the election of Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as the Chairman of the NPP was thus:
"Thanks Mr. Sarpong!
I am going to write an article immediately! Can you guess what it is going to be about?
Guess Number One:
It is about his acquisition of state property as personal property being the central tenet of his personal contribution to the property owning democracy of the NPP!
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Two:
I suppose he is going to drive and have a peep at the coveted house to see if it may require some maintenance services, and how much the renovations would cost, etc., etc., ...
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Three:
There is no doubt he would be hinting his contractor to get ready for the works....
Answer: WRONG!
Guess Number Four:
It is about the Ga lands, and how Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is going to hide behind the Bible to dupe his own people, "It is written in the Bible", I can almost hear him say: "that, 'Even the little that you have shall be taken away from you!'"..... Hahaha hahahaha! This is also wrong!
I am going to do none of those! I am sure to hell people are going to write better on these subjects than I possibly can! One issue which is of extreme national importance, which the Akufo Addo team must be forced to come out clean with Ghanaians is their position on US Africa Command. For reasons of national security, it is not important whether the US states they want to establish bases in Ghana or not. If they have reasons not to let us know, they will not let us know. What is important is what our own elected leaders' position on the matter. This is an area where some of us want to see more transparency from the NPP, rather than the opaque manner ex-President Kufour was dealing in. There shall be no escape, as we are going to insist upon it until we get the answers. If he fails to respond, we shall accompany him with the issue right up to December 2012. It is therefore in the interest of Nana Akufo Addo must come out very clearly on this, in order not to look funny.
With the election of Jake Obetsebi Lamptey as the Chairman the issue even becomes more than urgent. I met Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. in London during the last Presidential campaigns. As usual, we were very worried about the way President Bush was able to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians with his Baloney!" speech, and how all of a sudden, the talk of Africom became what Asare-Ochere Darko of the Danquah Institute calls "high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff" with the Ghanaian public completely left in the dark!
I asked Kwesi if he had managed to ask Akufo Addo to commit himself, and he told me he had been looking for the opportunity but he had not yet succeeded. The he recounted to me when he had the chance he asked Jake Obetsebi Lamptey. And his response was something to this effect: "Well, you know, America is a very big and powerful country, so if they want to establish a base here we can do virtually nothing about it!"
I have been trying to get the Akufo Addo team to respond to these alarming declarations by one of his closest of allies and propagandist-in-chief, Asare Ochere Darko. He has kept an extraordinary silence on the matter. Mr. Gabby Asare Ochere-Darko tells us: 'in August 2007 Major-General Ward, who was later confirmed as AFRICOM’s first commander, visited Accra. He held discussions with President Kufuor on “ways of strengthening military cooperation.” His high-powered secret meetings with the President, Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff triggered huge speculation. Much was made of Maj Gen J B Danquah’s public statement about the visit when he said Maj Gen Ward had ‘done enough to resolve’ Ghana’s concerns about AFRICOM, adding, “I have had the chance to hear [Ward] explain what is the reasoning behind the command, and it’s all about partnership.”'
What was after former US President George W. Bush had declared publicly in Accra on the 20th of February 2007, that "Some people say I am here to kind of looking for bases. That is baloney!" President Kufour was happy that the declaration by the visiting US President "would pay put to the speculation, and enable the US-Ghana relations to flourish." Upon second thoughts, I suspect they did not find it a very brilliant idea to go into elections with such a sell-out hanging on their necks. Thus they cleverly made public pronouncements to fool the population whilst they clandestinely continued what Maj Gen J B Danquah vaguely tells us: "it’s all about partnership.”
Ochere Darko explains the nature of the "partnership". He says exactly the same thing we hear from the US Africa Command:
"At the moment the Americans say they are happy to keep the U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the African continent. But any reasonable assessment must conclude that this can be nothing but a temporary address and arrangement."
What I find even more alarming is this attempt by the Akufo Addo chief propagandist to sell the idea of Africom to Ghanaians:
"Ghana is now the subject of strategic U.S. energy and military interests which, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, has raised the stakes considerably in Ghana–United States relations. As the potential gem in the crown of what Washington terms Africa's ‘New Gulf’, the article highlights how Ghana’s pending oil-rich status will shift the terms of negotiation during the trip. Furthermore, America’s preference for Ghana as the physical location for the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM) headquarters, and its concern not to cede strategic ground to China in this region, mean that in 2009 Ghana has an unprecedented hand of cards to play in this game of international diplomacy. Our task as a nation – and the Government’s task as our representatives - is to make the strategic decisions to ensure that we aren’t simply the honoured recipients of President Obama’s first visit to Africa, but that we come away with more concrete deliverables to help us meet our own strategic goals."
Ochere Darko, the Executive Director of the Akyem Mafia neocolonialist think-tank known as the Danquah Institute now shows us how they hope to move Ghana forward:
"The way forward is a pro-active policy to build a new Gulf of energy security and prosperity in a part of the world that is relatively receptive to American presence. With significant discoveries being made in the Gulf of Guinea oil basin, off the coast of Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Congo and Cote d’Ivoire, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States will be importing in the year 2020 over 770 million barrels of African oil a year. And Ghana with its stability, notable responsiveness to America, deepening multiparty democracy and promising investment climate is seen as the perfect epicentre for the growth and fulfilment of this interest. In the eyes of America, geography, geology and ideology all favour Ghana as the gem in the crown of this new policy."
I am sure it shall not harm our democratic process if Nana Akufo Addo would come out clearly to distance himself with the position of his right hand man or be honest enough to tell us BEFORE he is elected, whether or not he endorses the "brilliant ideas" of the Danquah Institute neocolonialist think-tank.
They seem to know more than the average Ghanaian concerning the goings-on:
"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."
Is Nana Akufo Addo saying that his boys know more than he does? Is he cleverly keeping that up his sleeves only to spring the surprise once elected into office? I think that it is about time that he came out clean and state his policy on Ghana as the headquarters of the US Africa Command NOW! I know not what course my countrymen and women may take, but as for me, I want to hear a clear "NO TO AFRICOM" from him! If he intends to go ahead with the Kufour-Bush plans, he has to make it clear before the elections, for Ghanaians to decide whether or not such a human being is fit to be a president. I have every reason not to trust him one bit!
PLEASE READ ASARE OCHERE-DARKO'S ARTICLE HERE:
Source: See Ghanaweb Archives, Feature Article of Monday, 25 May 2009
"Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us And U.S.?" Columnist: Otchere-Darko, Asara
This article has just nee published on www.modernghana.com/
Comment repeated under: General News of Sunday, 28 February 2010, Source: GNA
Northern Region marks Veterans Day here Comment: Akufo Addo Must Come Out On USAfriCom
Friday, February 26, 2010
Comment: Are you not being hypocritical already?
Comment: Are you not being hypocritical already?
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-26 19:43:54
Comment to:
Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy all over!!!
Hi Yaw,
If you are not a hypocrite yourself, can you explain to me whether your right to swing your arms do not end where my nose begins?
The criminal libel law has been repealed, so it is wrong to prosecute anyone under a non-existent law. That said, if the police is already investigating a case, and you go to the air to make claims that suggest you have vital information, I would not be surprised if you get yourself invited to help them in their investigations. Freedom goes with responsibilities. I shall call this a civic duty of every Ghanaian!
The abuse of the freedom of speech such as the BOOM speeches of Rawlings have always been condemned by Ghanaians. Trouble is sometimes it goes to very deliberately mischevious levels that endanger the security of all of us. Just consider the stupid lie the NPP fabricated when it became clear they were going to lose the elections. They invented a hit-list that was attributed to Rawlings. In this propaganda, the story was that Rawlings was preparing to kill certain very prominent Ghanaians, should the NDC candidate, Professor Atta Mills win the elections. The kind of tension and panic that this threw our dear country into is still very fresh in our minds!
It is very possible that if nothing is done about irresponsible utterances in print and electronic media, we may wake up one day and see our country in flames!
My own conscience tells me this Nana Darkwa did nothing to advance our democracy. His was a stab on the back of free speech. If we want to defend free speech, we must also be mindful of what we are defending. It is highly hypocritical to pretend that in the name of free speech anything goes. As I pointed out with the Rawlings Hit List saga, I do not see how you propose to see the private parties sorting this out in a civil suit, when the very stability of the country was under threat?
The fact that Rawlings himself might have been guilty of this under the NPP Administration is neither here nor there. It was not Rawlings fault if Kufour could not discipline him. Just before his house burnt down, JJ had a good dressing from Kwesi Pratt, Jnr and Alhaji Bature.
Whilst you might want to complain about the manner the police handled this case, let us look forward beyond your nostrils and not bury our heads in sand and pretend that such stupid behaviour is tolerable under our democracy. You run the risk of being a bloody hypocrite yourself by assuming that the only possible course open to the public in curbing such dangerous abuses with impunity is by civil suit. Shame unto you!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
God rescued me - Nana Darkwa
Rawlings Pleads For Forgiveness For Nana Darkwa..."God Should Forgive Him"
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-26 19:43:54
Comment to:
Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy all over!!!
Hi Yaw,
If you are not a hypocrite yourself, can you explain to me whether your right to swing your arms do not end where my nose begins?
The criminal libel law has been repealed, so it is wrong to prosecute anyone under a non-existent law. That said, if the police is already investigating a case, and you go to the air to make claims that suggest you have vital information, I would not be surprised if you get yourself invited to help them in their investigations. Freedom goes with responsibilities. I shall call this a civic duty of every Ghanaian!
The abuse of the freedom of speech such as the BOOM speeches of Rawlings have always been condemned by Ghanaians. Trouble is sometimes it goes to very deliberately mischevious levels that endanger the security of all of us. Just consider the stupid lie the NPP fabricated when it became clear they were going to lose the elections. They invented a hit-list that was attributed to Rawlings. In this propaganda, the story was that Rawlings was preparing to kill certain very prominent Ghanaians, should the NDC candidate, Professor Atta Mills win the elections. The kind of tension and panic that this threw our dear country into is still very fresh in our minds!
It is very possible that if nothing is done about irresponsible utterances in print and electronic media, we may wake up one day and see our country in flames!
My own conscience tells me this Nana Darkwa did nothing to advance our democracy. His was a stab on the back of free speech. If we want to defend free speech, we must also be mindful of what we are defending. It is highly hypocritical to pretend that in the name of free speech anything goes. As I pointed out with the Rawlings Hit List saga, I do not see how you propose to see the private parties sorting this out in a civil suit, when the very stability of the country was under threat?
The fact that Rawlings himself might have been guilty of this under the NPP Administration is neither here nor there. It was not Rawlings fault if Kufour could not discipline him. Just before his house burnt down, JJ had a good dressing from Kwesi Pratt, Jnr and Alhaji Bature.
Whilst you might want to complain about the manner the police handled this case, let us look forward beyond your nostrils and not bury our heads in sand and pretend that such stupid behaviour is tolerable under our democracy. You run the risk of being a bloody hypocrite yourself by assuming that the only possible course open to the public in curbing such dangerous abuses with impunity is by civil suit. Shame unto you!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
God rescued me - Nana Darkwa
Rawlings Pleads For Forgiveness For Nana Darkwa..."God Should Forgive Him"
Comment: "OPERATION COLD CHOP" UNDERWAY...
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-26 18:48:21
Comment to:
Vote for Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey and return t
Hi Daniel,
Good campaign for the Akyem Mafia! The last time Ghanaians heard of Jake during the elections in which the NPP lost, was his attempt to convert a state bungalow into his personal property!
This was very remarkable. Dr. Arthur Kennedy rightly mentions the negative effect this had on the image of the NPP at that crucial time of the campaign. It is so self-evident that to labour the point would amount to insulting the intelligence of my readers. I shall not labour the point.
I am afraid your write-up fails to fly because you do not even make any attempt to explain such a serious lack of judgement on the part of Jake. What does this mean? That he has a poor understanding of the NPP philosophy of property owning democracy?
I have the unfortunate impression that if the act was defensible, you would have touched on this and given a very robust defence for Jake. Apparently, the topic is too hot to handle, so any other blah blah blah would do!
If this is a geniune oversight and not one of selective memory, what do you say to Ghanaian voters who may be more than apprehensive of this man's palpable and inordinate greed which included converting directly the bungalow allocated to him by the state into a personal and private property?
What are the guarantees that this completely shameless attempt to steal state property in broad daylight is not just a tip of the iceberg?
Besides, the guy talks like a fool, walks like a fool, and steals, or at least, attempts to steal like a fool! Over here at Apedwa, if you walk like a goat, look like a goat, bleat like a goat, shit like a goat, then of course, according to our peasant logic, you must be a goat!
It would be difficult to sell this goat as a sheep! I am happy Jake is going to win all the same, because Nana Akufo Addo has even made in-roads in the traditional bases of Alan Cash. Ntim has no chance within the NPP, but Alan Cash has no chance in Ghana.
If he thinks he is coming to recuperate his bungalow, Ghanaians have other priorities that concern them too! I feel a great pity for your party if truly, as you say, Jake is not an angel but he is the best among the lot! I have always known the NPP as very bad, but if Jake is the best among the contestants as you say, then your party is even worse than I thought! Phew! What a party! How do you discover your crooks? It must really be something to see all of them in one room!
Please, give us Jake Obetsebi any day! I can't ask for more! You are going to make our campaign very very easy, right from the beginning!
Over here at Apadwa wa are preparing to baptise this campaign under the Chairmanship of Jake, "Operation Cold Chop"! Yse, you got it right. The same name the CIA-Busia-Danquah neocolonialist tradition used in their conspiracy against the people of Ghana used for the 1966 coup against Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Africa, the Founder of Modern Ghana!
I don't mind if you believe in your own lies, but please don't misbehave when you get disappointed. That is all I ask of you. Ghana needs peace!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
SEE REELATED STORIES:
High Court redirects Jake Obetsebi Lamptey to defend "bungalow" at Supreme Court
By myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com
General News | Fri, 11 Dec 2009
High Court Dismisses Suit By Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
Shameless Squatters Face Rod, Date: 30-Sep-2009
CHANGE HAS COME TO GHANA
By Charles N. Nkansah
Feature Article | Tue, 16 Dec 2008
Bonking caused NPP defeat
General News of Friday, 11 December 2009
Source: The Chronicle
Full bench to decide suit against 3 ex-gov't officials
Sale Of Bungalow To Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey . Full Bench To Decide Suit Against 3 Ex-Govt Officials
'Opportunists with gifts of vehicles and cash' won't win, Jake assures
Jake, Ntim, Ama Busia fight Mac Manu
Jake still leads NPP campaign team
Let's Not Be Cowards, Fellow Ghanaians
Feature Article of Saturday, 20 December 2008, Columnist: BISHOP Dela
Seriously, Why Is NPP Insulting Ghanaians?
Feature Article of Thursday, 11 December 2008
Columnist: BISHOP Dela
Akufo-Addo's 2008 campaign was beset by in-fighting
NPP polls expert predicted Mills victory in Election '08: Arthur Kennedy
It is now revealed that the 2008 Campaign Team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, was beset by a fair level of in-fighting and bickering.
This is one of the revelations in a new book by a leading member of the party, Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy – Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush - The Politics Of Complacency.
Popularly known as Arthur K, he tells in his book that two days after the inauguration of the Campaign Team, he and others attended a meeting called by Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Chairman of the Team. The meeting was to lay the groundwork for better collaboration.
Arthur K continues: “A few days into the campaign, I called Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku (Director of the Campaign Team) about an issue and he indicated that he was not happy that ‘you are running to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey on everything. I am watching that.’ I was stunned. I thought we were a team and that dealing with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey would not be a problem. … Sometimes, people were excluded from meeting without explanation. Once, Boakye-Agyarko was asked not to join a meeting by the Campaign Committee, Seratu, who claimed to be acting upon Dr. Apraku’s instruction. Dr. Apraku was very hard-working but not collegial.”
In the first week of July 2008, Arthur K and others met Prof. Larry Gibson, an African-American law professor in Maryland, who also doubled as a political strategist. Prof. Gibson was reported to have helped elect Mrs. Eileen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Mr. Marc Ravelomana of Madagascar.
By August 2008, Prof. Gibson had reviewed various opinion polls and had told the NPP Campaign Team that Nana Akufo-Addo would not get an outright majority and in the run-off. Prof. Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would win.
This is how Arthur K wrote it: “Later, in conversation, Larry told me he had informed Nana Akufo–Addo in one of their early meetings that he was waiting for the completion of a survey that would measure his favorability and disapproval ratings against that of Professor Mills. According to Larry, he then asked Nana Akufo-Addo who he thought would be more popular. Nana Akufo-Addo, according to Larry felt he would be more popular than Professor Mills. When the results came in, Professor Mills was slightly more popular than Nana Akufo-Addo. However, the NPP was more popular than the NDC.
Reviewing the polls, he indicated that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the first round but would not get an outright majority and that the second round would be too close to call. There were 27% of the voters who claimed to be undecided. Later, Larry started referring to them as ‘Undeclared’ rather than ‘Uncommitted’. However, when pressed further, he said he would give the second round to Prof. Mills by a whisker. On support, he indicated that we were strong in Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo and nearly even in the north but were not doing well at all in Volta, Central and Greater Accra.
He indicated that we should write off the Central and Greater Accra regions. On this, virtually the entire group disagreed with him. We all agreed that conceding those regions would be tantamount to conceding defeat in the elections.”
Source: The Daily Dispatch
Nana Addo: Just bow out
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=154712
Feature Article of Friday, 19 December 2008
Columnist: Nkansah, Charles N.
Voting at NPP conference to close late
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-26 18:48:21
Comment to:
Vote for Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey and return t
Hi Daniel,
Good campaign for the Akyem Mafia! The last time Ghanaians heard of Jake during the elections in which the NPP lost, was his attempt to convert a state bungalow into his personal property!
This was very remarkable. Dr. Arthur Kennedy rightly mentions the negative effect this had on the image of the NPP at that crucial time of the campaign. It is so self-evident that to labour the point would amount to insulting the intelligence of my readers. I shall not labour the point.
I am afraid your write-up fails to fly because you do not even make any attempt to explain such a serious lack of judgement on the part of Jake. What does this mean? That he has a poor understanding of the NPP philosophy of property owning democracy?
I have the unfortunate impression that if the act was defensible, you would have touched on this and given a very robust defence for Jake. Apparently, the topic is too hot to handle, so any other blah blah blah would do!
If this is a geniune oversight and not one of selective memory, what do you say to Ghanaian voters who may be more than apprehensive of this man's palpable and inordinate greed which included converting directly the bungalow allocated to him by the state into a personal and private property?
What are the guarantees that this completely shameless attempt to steal state property in broad daylight is not just a tip of the iceberg?
Besides, the guy talks like a fool, walks like a fool, and steals, or at least, attempts to steal like a fool! Over here at Apedwa, if you walk like a goat, look like a goat, bleat like a goat, shit like a goat, then of course, according to our peasant logic, you must be a goat!
It would be difficult to sell this goat as a sheep! I am happy Jake is going to win all the same, because Nana Akufo Addo has even made in-roads in the traditional bases of Alan Cash. Ntim has no chance within the NPP, but Alan Cash has no chance in Ghana.
If he thinks he is coming to recuperate his bungalow, Ghanaians have other priorities that concern them too! I feel a great pity for your party if truly, as you say, Jake is not an angel but he is the best among the lot! I have always known the NPP as very bad, but if Jake is the best among the contestants as you say, then your party is even worse than I thought! Phew! What a party! How do you discover your crooks? It must really be something to see all of them in one room!
Please, give us Jake Obetsebi any day! I can't ask for more! You are going to make our campaign very very easy, right from the beginning!
Over here at Apadwa wa are preparing to baptise this campaign under the Chairmanship of Jake, "Operation Cold Chop"! Yse, you got it right. The same name the CIA-Busia-Danquah neocolonialist tradition used in their conspiracy against the people of Ghana used for the 1966 coup against Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Africa, the Founder of Modern Ghana!
I don't mind if you believe in your own lies, but please don't misbehave when you get disappointed. That is all I ask of you. Ghana needs peace!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
SEE REELATED STORIES:
High Court redirects Jake Obetsebi Lamptey to defend "bungalow" at Supreme Court
By myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com
General News | Fri, 11 Dec 2009
High Court Dismisses Suit By Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
Shameless Squatters Face Rod, Date: 30-Sep-2009
CHANGE HAS COME TO GHANA
By Charles N. Nkansah
Feature Article | Tue, 16 Dec 2008
Bonking caused NPP defeat
General News of Friday, 11 December 2009
Source: The Chronicle
Full bench to decide suit against 3 ex-gov't officials
Sale Of Bungalow To Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey . Full Bench To Decide Suit Against 3 Ex-Govt Officials
'Opportunists with gifts of vehicles and cash' won't win, Jake assures
Jake, Ntim, Ama Busia fight Mac Manu
Jake still leads NPP campaign team
Let's Not Be Cowards, Fellow Ghanaians
Feature Article of Saturday, 20 December 2008, Columnist: BISHOP Dela
Seriously, Why Is NPP Insulting Ghanaians?
Feature Article of Thursday, 11 December 2008
Columnist: BISHOP Dela
Akufo-Addo's 2008 campaign was beset by in-fighting
NPP polls expert predicted Mills victory in Election '08: Arthur Kennedy
It is now revealed that the 2008 Campaign Team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, was beset by a fair level of in-fighting and bickering.
This is one of the revelations in a new book by a leading member of the party, Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy – Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush - The Politics Of Complacency.
Popularly known as Arthur K, he tells in his book that two days after the inauguration of the Campaign Team, he and others attended a meeting called by Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Chairman of the Team. The meeting was to lay the groundwork for better collaboration.
Arthur K continues: “A few days into the campaign, I called Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku (Director of the Campaign Team) about an issue and he indicated that he was not happy that ‘you are running to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey on everything. I am watching that.’ I was stunned. I thought we were a team and that dealing with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey would not be a problem. … Sometimes, people were excluded from meeting without explanation. Once, Boakye-Agyarko was asked not to join a meeting by the Campaign Committee, Seratu, who claimed to be acting upon Dr. Apraku’s instruction. Dr. Apraku was very hard-working but not collegial.”
In the first week of July 2008, Arthur K and others met Prof. Larry Gibson, an African-American law professor in Maryland, who also doubled as a political strategist. Prof. Gibson was reported to have helped elect Mrs. Eileen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Mr. Marc Ravelomana of Madagascar.
By August 2008, Prof. Gibson had reviewed various opinion polls and had told the NPP Campaign Team that Nana Akufo-Addo would not get an outright majority and in the run-off. Prof. Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would win.
This is how Arthur K wrote it: “Later, in conversation, Larry told me he had informed Nana Akufo–Addo in one of their early meetings that he was waiting for the completion of a survey that would measure his favorability and disapproval ratings against that of Professor Mills. According to Larry, he then asked Nana Akufo-Addo who he thought would be more popular. Nana Akufo-Addo, according to Larry felt he would be more popular than Professor Mills. When the results came in, Professor Mills was slightly more popular than Nana Akufo-Addo. However, the NPP was more popular than the NDC.
Reviewing the polls, he indicated that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the first round but would not get an outright majority and that the second round would be too close to call. There were 27% of the voters who claimed to be undecided. Later, Larry started referring to them as ‘Undeclared’ rather than ‘Uncommitted’. However, when pressed further, he said he would give the second round to Prof. Mills by a whisker. On support, he indicated that we were strong in Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo and nearly even in the north but were not doing well at all in Volta, Central and Greater Accra.
He indicated that we should write off the Central and Greater Accra regions. On this, virtually the entire group disagreed with him. We all agreed that conceding those regions would be tantamount to conceding defeat in the elections.”
Source: The Daily Dispatch
Nana Addo: Just bow out
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=154712
Feature Article of Friday, 19 December 2008
Columnist: Nkansah, Charles N.
Voting at NPP conference to close late
NPP, To Win Or Not To Win?
NPP, To Win Or Not To Win? That Is The Question!
We have known for a long time that the race is clearly one of the Akuffo Addo boys versus Alan Kyeremanteng boys! The rest are simply part of the "passengers" who had come to "see off" the contestants, as Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. puts it.
One amazing thing about this congress is that too much victory by either party may lead to the destruction of the NPP's chances of winning the 2012 elections. As Kwesi puts it, if one side becomes completely alienated, the party risks a very lack-lustre performance in the national campaign for its successful candidate, in much the same way as we saw in the Ashanti Region during the last general elections.
To avoid such a situation, I have already put forward a plan. My plan which was outdoored week has the name of "The Odikro Plan". In my last feature article which bore the title: "The NPP Leadership Quagmire: Is 'The Odikro Plan' A Way Out?" I argued:
"The "Odikro Plan" is that Alan Cash must be smart enough to enter into a pact with Akufo Addo that for the sake of party unity, he would not stand against him in 2012, but if Akufo Addo loses in 2012, he must be honourable enough to pass on the mantle to the younger and taller contender for a change in 2016. If Alan Cash is not prepared to wait for eight years, all he has to do afterwards is to do everything in his power to sabotage the Akufo Addo campaign on the quiet. This is very important because an Atta-Mills victory is in the greater interest of Alan Cash than an Akufo Addo one. Should Akufo Addo win, there is no way Alan Cash can contest and win in 2016 at the party's primaries. That means Akuffo Addo may do a complete eight year tenure until 2020. The risk here is that Ghanaians are, statistically speaking, more likely to vote for the opposition than for continuity after an eight year stint in office. Thus even if Alan Cash is prepared to wait until 2020 to stand on the NPP ticket, his chances are far better in 2016, towards the end of an NDC-led (Atta-Mills) Administration, than in 2020, towards the end of another NPP-led (Afuffo Addo) Administration."
Conversely, Akuffo Addo can also make the first move! He must strive to strike a deal with Alan Cash not to contest this time around for the 2012 presidential race, but wait for the 2016 to do so. In return, Nana would promise Alan Cash his full support for the 2016 and would not contest against Alan if Nana does not make it once more at the 2012!
I have already mentioned that I really do not give a damn which of the two wins! "My number one problem is that they are both willing stooges of imperialism. They both support the Kufour secretive deal revealed by Asare Ochere-Darko, Executive Director of the "strictly Danquah" Institute, to establish USAfriCom Headquarters and military bases in Ghana. Very simple calculations: Alan Cash is a Kufour man to the hilt, so on the question of Africom Akufo Addo seems the outsider until one realises that Gabby Asare Okyere-Darko is more an Akufo Addo spokesman than a Kufour one.
Apart from hearing that Alan Cash is taller, Ashanti, younger and much more handsome, I have not seen, heard, or read a single policy difference between the two. And for me, if they want to convince me that they are not just bundles of meat to be valued according to weight they had better let us know their policies on important national issues, and what differences, if any, exists. This is exactly what matters most. We want to know their policy differences. After all the presidential race is not a beauty contest, and short people also have their place in it! Being short myself, I must know what I am talking about! Both candidates share the same neocolonialist ideology of the NPP and their slave-trader mentality which preceded that, which still makes them think every Ghanaian who is not one of their own must be their slave!
Furthermore, as we know from the Enquirer, and subsequently confirmed by the culprits themselves, both Akufo Addo and Alan Kyeremanteng were party to the secretive and illegal fund-raising luncheon that brought together in one room, a "group" which was "made up of people with substantial investments in Ghana and also of others who have an interest in investing in Ghana" at the Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, Washington DC,, USA. See for yourself, who went to dinner: "In downtown Washington DC, two luxurious black Cadillacs, belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC, pulled up in front of Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, located on 24 M Streets, Nw, Washington, DC 20037 on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. In the first car, three well-dressed men in suit, namely Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghana's Ambassador to the USA and Alan Kyeremanten, an ex-Ghana's Ambassador to the USA, who was also an NPP Flagbearer-aspirant, popped out of the vehicles.
"Moments later, another Embassy car pulled up in-front of Hotel Hyatt. This time NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, Ex-Finance Minister and later Education Youth and Sports Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and Dr. Konadu Apraku arrived in tow. The occasion was a fund-raising luncheon hosted by The Whitaker Group, a company owned by Rosa Whitaker, the new wife of Bishop Duncan Williams of Action Chapel International, who was recently introduced to church members in Accra. Rosa Whitaker, who served as a Deputy Trade Secretary for Africa under both President Bill Clinton and Bush administrations respectively is a registered lobbyist for the Ghana government."
For me personally, what this tells me is that both men are not only guilty of breaking Ghana's electoral laws, but at the same time the US law on corporate financing of foreign political parties! The NPP is likely to give us a Presidential candidate who may very soon be answering criminal charges in the USA. They are viciously eligible to diplomatic blackmail and undue external influences in their stewardship of our country that it would be the height of folly for the NPP to even offer either of them as a serious contender. I am getting myself ready to oppose whichever of the two wins, anyway. For those NPP members who do not want outsiders to comment on what they wrongly see as "an internal party affair", I wish to remind them that every Ghanaian has a right to feel concerned about their strange "democratic practices" of using fisticuffs rather than the ballot box to elect their leaders. Our entire reputation as a nation is at stake."
Building The Party Structures
Apparently, these two protagonists do not even have a choice. The party is not just divided, they are literary beating each other up. How do you lead a group that is at ech others' throats to victory? This is going on in every constituency of the party where there are significant supporters of either candidate. This means in every party stronghold, including Ashanti and the Eastern Region. I am certain that it will take more than two years to heal these wounds, that is if any of them can be healed at all. This means the NPP would be going into campaign with foot 'soldiers' who cannot face each other 'armed'! It is a very clever way of dodging an inevitable defeat at the end, whilst preparing to go for it with a unified front having given yourself six years of a virtual coast-free national campaign! An elephant is a heavy animal and it needs strong feet to stand on four. Alan Cash can deserve his victory if he took a long-term view of the political landscape and positions himself strategically.
Thanks to NPP sympathisers like Justice Sarpong, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., and many others especially on Ghanaweb, the incessant insults of Ewes shall ensure an even greater defeat of the NPP in the Volta Region come 2012, as they seem to redirect all issues in an Ewe-Ashanti dichotomy, spiced with unprintable epithets. It is as though someone has misled them into thinking that the best way to win votes from the Volta Region is to insult Ewes! Alan Cash can take advantage of this truce by working closely with prominent party members from the Volta Region to educate people like Sarpong that votes, even from the Volta Region counts, and begin to make an impact from the weakest chain in the NPP's bid for power from there. If Alan Cash can radically turn the tribal focus of the NPP around, particularly between the Ashantis and the Ewes, he would have the keys to open the doors throughout the country in the pocket!
In any case, from all indications, Nana Akufo Addo is going to win the NPP primaries hands down. If you need indices just take a quick look at whose candidates are winning the elections from constituency to regional levels. Akuffo Addo is a brutal fighter and is not going to give up even if he stands upon a thousand feet in the party in his pursuit for power. Trouble is he is going to count on these same feet to walk the talk. And when the talk is bitterness and complaints then the party gets weaker and weaker. Alan must openly work with Akufo Addo in order to prevent this bitterness and carefully build the party machine in time for the 2016 elections. The problem with this option is that it is highly time-sensitive. If Alan wants to build his party, it is now or never. Waiting until after the NPP Congress would clearly be too late. In the mean time each day that the rivalry continues within the party, some irreparable damage is done to the party's feet on the ground. The earlier this stopped the better. The earlier Alan Cash began his 2016 campaign, the better for both himself personally and also for his party.
Last but by no means the least, if Nana Akufo Addo realizes that he was deliberately sabotaged by Alan Cash, he can simply withdraw his support and plan his own sabotage or two. After all, who knows what else Alan Cash is going to do next if he can get away with such a wicked trick? And he would be perfectly understood by many supporters! Methinks under those circumstances, it would become a moral imperative for Nana Akufo Addo to teach Alan Cash a very good lesson for sabotaging him when it was his turn in 2012 to sabotage Alan Cash in turn come 2016! That would be the second time I would be working very closely with Nana Addo, with whom I joined hands in solidarity at the trial of the editor of the Christian Chronicle, George Naykene at the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra. in 1991 or thereabouts. Even though we could not do much to help George as he was given a jail term at Nsawam, this time around, we shall get Alan, as he cannot win without the support from Akuffo Addo's own constituency in the party!
Conclusion
All this may sound very st***d to the internet-based NPP members, but for those directly receiving the beatings on the ground for these arrogant, greedy, corporate-dominated and systematically socially-exclusive elitist and inward-looking individuals, and for a party which is a loser in advance, "theOdikro Plan" makes a big difference. It can save a limb or two of the party's foot soldiers. This has been the objective right from the beginning: defending the NPP foot soldiers who are receiving these beatings at the hands of their own party members! The extra bonus of an in-built internal dynamics working against each of them on the basis of their greed, assures that none of them wins! Besides, a violence-free internal party democratic process does not harm our hard-won international reputation as a dependable and working democracy. I call on all of you to support this plan and give them the hell that they truly deserve!
They shall fail. We are not for sale! Kwesi Pratt is right! Atta-Mills is better than Kufour! There is victory for us! Forward Ever! Backwards Never! In the struggles of Africa! There is victory!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
We have known for a long time that the race is clearly one of the Akuffo Addo boys versus Alan Kyeremanteng boys! The rest are simply part of the "passengers" who had come to "see off" the contestants, as Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. puts it.
One amazing thing about this congress is that too much victory by either party may lead to the destruction of the NPP's chances of winning the 2012 elections. As Kwesi puts it, if one side becomes completely alienated, the party risks a very lack-lustre performance in the national campaign for its successful candidate, in much the same way as we saw in the Ashanti Region during the last general elections.
To avoid such a situation, I have already put forward a plan. My plan which was outdoored week has the name of "The Odikro Plan". In my last feature article which bore the title: "The NPP Leadership Quagmire: Is 'The Odikro Plan' A Way Out?" I argued:
"The "Odikro Plan" is that Alan Cash must be smart enough to enter into a pact with Akufo Addo that for the sake of party unity, he would not stand against him in 2012, but if Akufo Addo loses in 2012, he must be honourable enough to pass on the mantle to the younger and taller contender for a change in 2016. If Alan Cash is not prepared to wait for eight years, all he has to do afterwards is to do everything in his power to sabotage the Akufo Addo campaign on the quiet. This is very important because an Atta-Mills victory is in the greater interest of Alan Cash than an Akufo Addo one. Should Akufo Addo win, there is no way Alan Cash can contest and win in 2016 at the party's primaries. That means Akuffo Addo may do a complete eight year tenure until 2020. The risk here is that Ghanaians are, statistically speaking, more likely to vote for the opposition than for continuity after an eight year stint in office. Thus even if Alan Cash is prepared to wait until 2020 to stand on the NPP ticket, his chances are far better in 2016, towards the end of an NDC-led (Atta-Mills) Administration, than in 2020, towards the end of another NPP-led (Afuffo Addo) Administration."
Conversely, Akuffo Addo can also make the first move! He must strive to strike a deal with Alan Cash not to contest this time around for the 2012 presidential race, but wait for the 2016 to do so. In return, Nana would promise Alan Cash his full support for the 2016 and would not contest against Alan if Nana does not make it once more at the 2012!
I have already mentioned that I really do not give a damn which of the two wins! "My number one problem is that they are both willing stooges of imperialism. They both support the Kufour secretive deal revealed by Asare Ochere-Darko, Executive Director of the "strictly Danquah" Institute, to establish USAfriCom Headquarters and military bases in Ghana. Very simple calculations: Alan Cash is a Kufour man to the hilt, so on the question of Africom Akufo Addo seems the outsider until one realises that Gabby Asare Okyere-Darko is more an Akufo Addo spokesman than a Kufour one.
Apart from hearing that Alan Cash is taller, Ashanti, younger and much more handsome, I have not seen, heard, or read a single policy difference between the two. And for me, if they want to convince me that they are not just bundles of meat to be valued according to weight they had better let us know their policies on important national issues, and what differences, if any, exists. This is exactly what matters most. We want to know their policy differences. After all the presidential race is not a beauty contest, and short people also have their place in it! Being short myself, I must know what I am talking about! Both candidates share the same neocolonialist ideology of the NPP and their slave-trader mentality which preceded that, which still makes them think every Ghanaian who is not one of their own must be their slave!
Furthermore, as we know from the Enquirer, and subsequently confirmed by the culprits themselves, both Akufo Addo and Alan Kyeremanteng were party to the secretive and illegal fund-raising luncheon that brought together in one room, a "group" which was "made up of people with substantial investments in Ghana and also of others who have an interest in investing in Ghana" at the Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, Washington DC,, USA. See for yourself, who went to dinner: "In downtown Washington DC, two luxurious black Cadillacs, belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC, pulled up in front of Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, located on 24 M Streets, Nw, Washington, DC 20037 on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. In the first car, three well-dressed men in suit, namely Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghana's Ambassador to the USA and Alan Kyeremanten, an ex-Ghana's Ambassador to the USA, who was also an NPP Flagbearer-aspirant, popped out of the vehicles.
"Moments later, another Embassy car pulled up in-front of Hotel Hyatt. This time NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, Ex-Finance Minister and later Education Youth and Sports Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and Dr. Konadu Apraku arrived in tow. The occasion was a fund-raising luncheon hosted by The Whitaker Group, a company owned by Rosa Whitaker, the new wife of Bishop Duncan Williams of Action Chapel International, who was recently introduced to church members in Accra. Rosa Whitaker, who served as a Deputy Trade Secretary for Africa under both President Bill Clinton and Bush administrations respectively is a registered lobbyist for the Ghana government."
For me personally, what this tells me is that both men are not only guilty of breaking Ghana's electoral laws, but at the same time the US law on corporate financing of foreign political parties! The NPP is likely to give us a Presidential candidate who may very soon be answering criminal charges in the USA. They are viciously eligible to diplomatic blackmail and undue external influences in their stewardship of our country that it would be the height of folly for the NPP to even offer either of them as a serious contender. I am getting myself ready to oppose whichever of the two wins, anyway. For those NPP members who do not want outsiders to comment on what they wrongly see as "an internal party affair", I wish to remind them that every Ghanaian has a right to feel concerned about their strange "democratic practices" of using fisticuffs rather than the ballot box to elect their leaders. Our entire reputation as a nation is at stake."
Building The Party Structures
Apparently, these two protagonists do not even have a choice. The party is not just divided, they are literary beating each other up. How do you lead a group that is at ech others' throats to victory? This is going on in every constituency of the party where there are significant supporters of either candidate. This means in every party stronghold, including Ashanti and the Eastern Region. I am certain that it will take more than two years to heal these wounds, that is if any of them can be healed at all. This means the NPP would be going into campaign with foot 'soldiers' who cannot face each other 'armed'! It is a very clever way of dodging an inevitable defeat at the end, whilst preparing to go for it with a unified front having given yourself six years of a virtual coast-free national campaign! An elephant is a heavy animal and it needs strong feet to stand on four. Alan Cash can deserve his victory if he took a long-term view of the political landscape and positions himself strategically.
Thanks to NPP sympathisers like Justice Sarpong, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., and many others especially on Ghanaweb, the incessant insults of Ewes shall ensure an even greater defeat of the NPP in the Volta Region come 2012, as they seem to redirect all issues in an Ewe-Ashanti dichotomy, spiced with unprintable epithets. It is as though someone has misled them into thinking that the best way to win votes from the Volta Region is to insult Ewes! Alan Cash can take advantage of this truce by working closely with prominent party members from the Volta Region to educate people like Sarpong that votes, even from the Volta Region counts, and begin to make an impact from the weakest chain in the NPP's bid for power from there. If Alan Cash can radically turn the tribal focus of the NPP around, particularly between the Ashantis and the Ewes, he would have the keys to open the doors throughout the country in the pocket!
In any case, from all indications, Nana Akufo Addo is going to win the NPP primaries hands down. If you need indices just take a quick look at whose candidates are winning the elections from constituency to regional levels. Akuffo Addo is a brutal fighter and is not going to give up even if he stands upon a thousand feet in the party in his pursuit for power. Trouble is he is going to count on these same feet to walk the talk. And when the talk is bitterness and complaints then the party gets weaker and weaker. Alan must openly work with Akufo Addo in order to prevent this bitterness and carefully build the party machine in time for the 2016 elections. The problem with this option is that it is highly time-sensitive. If Alan wants to build his party, it is now or never. Waiting until after the NPP Congress would clearly be too late. In the mean time each day that the rivalry continues within the party, some irreparable damage is done to the party's feet on the ground. The earlier this stopped the better. The earlier Alan Cash began his 2016 campaign, the better for both himself personally and also for his party.
Last but by no means the least, if Nana Akufo Addo realizes that he was deliberately sabotaged by Alan Cash, he can simply withdraw his support and plan his own sabotage or two. After all, who knows what else Alan Cash is going to do next if he can get away with such a wicked trick? And he would be perfectly understood by many supporters! Methinks under those circumstances, it would become a moral imperative for Nana Akufo Addo to teach Alan Cash a very good lesson for sabotaging him when it was his turn in 2012 to sabotage Alan Cash in turn come 2016! That would be the second time I would be working very closely with Nana Addo, with whom I joined hands in solidarity at the trial of the editor of the Christian Chronicle, George Naykene at the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra. in 1991 or thereabouts. Even though we could not do much to help George as he was given a jail term at Nsawam, this time around, we shall get Alan, as he cannot win without the support from Akuffo Addo's own constituency in the party!
Conclusion
All this may sound very st***d to the internet-based NPP members, but for those directly receiving the beatings on the ground for these arrogant, greedy, corporate-dominated and systematically socially-exclusive elitist and inward-looking individuals, and for a party which is a loser in advance, "theOdikro Plan" makes a big difference. It can save a limb or two of the party's foot soldiers. This has been the objective right from the beginning: defending the NPP foot soldiers who are receiving these beatings at the hands of their own party members! The extra bonus of an in-built internal dynamics working against each of them on the basis of their greed, assures that none of them wins! Besides, a violence-free internal party democratic process does not harm our hard-won international reputation as a dependable and working democracy. I call on all of you to support this plan and give them the hell that they truly deserve!
They shall fail. We are not for sale! Kwesi Pratt is right! Atta-Mills is better than Kufour! There is victory for us! Forward Ever! Backwards Never! In the struggles of Africa! There is victory!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Comment: GHANABA AMPONSAH DADZIE, USE YOUR NAME!
Comment: GHANABA AMPONSAH DADZIE, USE YOUR NAME!
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-26 04:22:10
Comment to: MR GO SLOW BUT SURE
I am very sure this is not Justice Sarpong! This is Kofi Freeman aka Ghanaba Amponsah-Dadzie!
Ghanaba, why are you so confused? You claim to be NPP but you spy for the NPP! I thought with age you would have changed by now, but NO! What a shame!
You got me only once, you cannot fool all the people all the time! Use your own name and stop worrying Sarpong!
You are so stupid, you think you are hiding! In any case, I see you clearly!!!
If you are supporting Nana Addo, be bold and come out and use your own name! Idiot!!! Who said Akuffo Addo has any chance of winning any elections in Ghana? He is going to retire as a serial-loser! When he dies, he shall go and cry in the arms of his father in hell that he could not make it!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
See also:
Comment: Re: I DON'T DO THAT, FAKE SARPONG
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-26 04:22:10
Comment to: MR GO SLOW BUT SURE
I am very sure this is not Justice Sarpong! This is Kofi Freeman aka Ghanaba Amponsah-Dadzie!
Ghanaba, why are you so confused? You claim to be NPP but you spy for the NPP! I thought with age you would have changed by now, but NO! What a shame!
You got me only once, you cannot fool all the people all the time! Use your own name and stop worrying Sarpong!
You are so stupid, you think you are hiding! In any case, I see you clearly!!!
If you are supporting Nana Addo, be bold and come out and use your own name! Idiot!!! Who said Akuffo Addo has any chance of winning any elections in Ghana? He is going to retire as a serial-loser! When he dies, he shall go and cry in the arms of his father in hell that he could not make it!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
See also:
Comment: Re: I DON'T DO THAT, FAKE SARPONG
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Comment: Okoampa should read this!
SEE ALSO
Comment: MY DEAR GRANDSON, READ THIS!
Comment: Okoampa should read this!
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-25 18:49:21
Comment to: Kwesi, I Have A Nuclear Physicist...
Grandson,
I wonder why you are running away from me! So when are you going to expose me, Mr. Okoampa? You said so the last time: Comment: "The Writer Has Faux-Arab And Some Crazy
Author: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.
Date: 2010-02-21 01:16:46
Comment to: Re: “Afropean” Triangle
We know this cowardly writer's identity. He lives in Brussels, Belgium, and used to go by some Arabic first name and a crazy concoction of some mathematics-sounding name. We will expose this son-of-a-whore in due course."
You are an absolute idiot who thinks you can perturb me with such arrant nonsense! I am rather the one who is going to deal with you! After my last exposure, you were chased, sacked, dismissed from the New York branch of the NPP. This time around, you are going to be dismissed from the Danquah Institute, whether they like it or not, because they either have to choose sinking with you or allowing you to sink alone. Your guess is as good as mine on this!
It looked very remote that you would be given a boot by the NPP, but they did! I'd like to give you one week to laugh off the idea before I activate the plans.
You shall regret calling me a "son of a whore"! Shame unto you, if you have any sense of shame!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Comment: MY DEAR GRANDSON, READ THIS!
Comment: Okoampa should read this!
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-25 18:49:21
Comment to: Kwesi, I Have A Nuclear Physicist...
Grandson,
I wonder why you are running away from me! So when are you going to expose me, Mr. Okoampa? You said so the last time: Comment: "The Writer Has Faux-Arab And Some Crazy
Author: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.
Date: 2010-02-21 01:16:46
Comment to: Re: “Afropean” Triangle
We know this cowardly writer's identity. He lives in Brussels, Belgium, and used to go by some Arabic first name and a crazy concoction of some mathematics-sounding name. We will expose this son-of-a-whore in due course."
You are an absolute idiot who thinks you can perturb me with such arrant nonsense! I am rather the one who is going to deal with you! After my last exposure, you were chased, sacked, dismissed from the New York branch of the NPP. This time around, you are going to be dismissed from the Danquah Institute, whether they like it or not, because they either have to choose sinking with you or allowing you to sink alone. Your guess is as good as mine on this!
It looked very remote that you would be given a boot by the NPP, but they did! I'd like to give you one week to laugh off the idea before I activate the plans.
You shall regret calling me a "son of a whore"! Shame unto you, if you have any sense of shame!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Comment: Re: MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRACY
Read Article: Prof Kludze calls for a repeal of the Transitional Provisions, General News of Thursday, 25 February 2010, Source: GNA
Comment: Re: MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRACY
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-25 18:11:20
Comment to:
MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRACY
Hi Law of Karma,
I have been reading some very silly posts attributed to you. They are mainly tribal focused. It is as though the only political issue that matters to you is tribalism.
The transitional provisions of the PNDC came into force after eleven years of the PNDC misrule and not twenty as you claim. Also, the NPP leadership was very complicit in the acceptance of these obnoxious provisions.
You've got your facts wrong! I do not know who drafted the Transitional provisions on behalf of the PNDC. I do know that it was inserted in the constitution BEFORE the referendum. I know this because I was part of a group who opposed it. We tried to recruit Akuffo Addo, Adu Boahene and other leading members of the Busia-Danquah neo-colonialist tradition to support this. I was not at the meeting between Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. and Nana Akuffo Addo. Kwesi told me the same day that Akuffo Addo understood the full implications of accepting the unacceptable, and AGREED with Kwesi to join the campaign to vote NO in the referendum and DEMAND a TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT to oversee the transition and to promulgate the Fourth Republican Constitution.
I have on my desk a little book published in 1993 with the title: "PPDD SPEAKS!" with the sub-title: "Selected statements on the National and International situation issued by the National Co-ordinating Committee (NCC) of the Popular Party for Democracy and Development (PPDD)"
In this book there is a statement that was issued at a Press Conference at the Ringway Hotel in Accra, on Wednesday, October 21, 1992.
The PPDD had earlier on called for a NO vote to the referendum. All the other political parties, led by the NDC and what is to be the NPP, the Kwame Nkrumah Welfare Society, etc called for a YES vote! The result was an overwhelming YES!
I have read over and over Prof Kludze's comments out of respect for his legal brains, to see if he comes with anything new to the table. I still don't see anything new!
"
Prof Kludze described a transitional provision in a given legislation as a temporary arrangement that took care of inconsistencies that might arise when a new law came into effect but stressed that those in the 1992 Constitution were crafted with the intent that they should be enduring as long as the constitution remained in force."
This is not different from my own understanding of the provisions from day one. The ONLY solution was not to accept it. By asking Ghanaians to vote for it, the NPP is as guilty as the NDC which also asked Ghanaians to vote for it!
I remember an old Comrade, the late S. S. Barfour-Awuah, who used to be the Secretary-General of the African Youth Command telling me, when the NPP began boycotting parliament in the first session of the parliament, that they should have listened to us and boycotted the elections.
The PPDD gave all the reasons why the elections ought to be boycotted. These cheap and childish opportunists, once more, did not take any heed!
The statement concludes: "We call on the leadership of all the democratic forces to sink their petty differences and abandon their naked ambitions to enable us present a common front against dictatorship. It is still not too late for democratic forces to come together to work out the details of how to defeat the PNDC dictatorship and to define a programme for genuine transition to democratic rule. The PPDD is convinced that the PNDC has already rigged the elections through the manipulation of the process of transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule and no useful purpose would be served by the pretension that we can beat the PNDC at its own game."
The NPP and the others did not heed this call. They suffered a humiliating defeat. The international observers concurred that the elections reflected a fair expression of the will of the people! Of course, they acknowledged a few instances of malpractices, but said they could not have influenced the overall results.
The NPP, after not listening to us realised their own stupidity and published a book with the title: "STOLEN VERDICT" and proceeded to boycott parliamentary sittings throughout the first session of parliament.
They behave like children, but they are not. So what is wrong? It is their greed and stupidity at work! These are children who are warned not to play with knives. They hide and play with the knives all the same. And when they are cut, they cry as if you are responsible for their wounds! It is not a serious party!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Comment: Re: MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRACY
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-25 18:11:20
Comment to:
MOTHER OF ALL HYPOCRACY
Hi Law of Karma,
I have been reading some very silly posts attributed to you. They are mainly tribal focused. It is as though the only political issue that matters to you is tribalism.
The transitional provisions of the PNDC came into force after eleven years of the PNDC misrule and not twenty as you claim. Also, the NPP leadership was very complicit in the acceptance of these obnoxious provisions.
You've got your facts wrong! I do not know who drafted the Transitional provisions on behalf of the PNDC. I do know that it was inserted in the constitution BEFORE the referendum. I know this because I was part of a group who opposed it. We tried to recruit Akuffo Addo, Adu Boahene and other leading members of the Busia-Danquah neo-colonialist tradition to support this. I was not at the meeting between Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. and Nana Akuffo Addo. Kwesi told me the same day that Akuffo Addo understood the full implications of accepting the unacceptable, and AGREED with Kwesi to join the campaign to vote NO in the referendum and DEMAND a TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT to oversee the transition and to promulgate the Fourth Republican Constitution.
I have on my desk a little book published in 1993 with the title: "PPDD SPEAKS!" with the sub-title: "Selected statements on the National and International situation issued by the National Co-ordinating Committee (NCC) of the Popular Party for Democracy and Development (PPDD)"
In this book there is a statement that was issued at a Press Conference at the Ringway Hotel in Accra, on Wednesday, October 21, 1992.
The PPDD had earlier on called for a NO vote to the referendum. All the other political parties, led by the NDC and what is to be the NPP, the Kwame Nkrumah Welfare Society, etc called for a YES vote! The result was an overwhelming YES!
I have read over and over Prof Kludze's comments out of respect for his legal brains, to see if he comes with anything new to the table. I still don't see anything new!
"
Prof Kludze described a transitional provision in a given legislation as a temporary arrangement that took care of inconsistencies that might arise when a new law came into effect but stressed that those in the 1992 Constitution were crafted with the intent that they should be enduring as long as the constitution remained in force."
This is not different from my own understanding of the provisions from day one. The ONLY solution was not to accept it. By asking Ghanaians to vote for it, the NPP is as guilty as the NDC which also asked Ghanaians to vote for it!
I remember an old Comrade, the late S. S. Barfour-Awuah, who used to be the Secretary-General of the African Youth Command telling me, when the NPP began boycotting parliament in the first session of the parliament, that they should have listened to us and boycotted the elections.
The PPDD gave all the reasons why the elections ought to be boycotted. These cheap and childish opportunists, once more, did not take any heed!
The statement concludes: "We call on the leadership of all the democratic forces to sink their petty differences and abandon their naked ambitions to enable us present a common front against dictatorship. It is still not too late for democratic forces to come together to work out the details of how to defeat the PNDC dictatorship and to define a programme for genuine transition to democratic rule. The PPDD is convinced that the PNDC has already rigged the elections through the manipulation of the process of transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule and no useful purpose would be served by the pretension that we can beat the PNDC at its own game."
The NPP and the others did not heed this call. They suffered a humiliating defeat. The international observers concurred that the elections reflected a fair expression of the will of the people! Of course, they acknowledged a few instances of malpractices, but said they could not have influenced the overall results.
The NPP, after not listening to us realised their own stupidity and published a book with the title: "STOLEN VERDICT" and proceeded to boycott parliamentary sittings throughout the first session of parliament.
They behave like children, but they are not. So what is wrong? It is their greed and stupidity at work! These are children who are warned not to play with knives. They hide and play with the knives all the same. And when they are cut, they cry as if you are responsible for their wounds! It is not a serious party!
The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections!
Forward ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kweku Baako, A.B.A Fuseini clash … Over ¢15bn `bribe` money By Bismark Bebli | Posted: Tuesday, February 23, 2010
EVEN BEFORE the Special Audit Report of the Ministry of Information, which claims ¢15 billion was paid to groups of journalists by the previous government makes its way to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, two senior journalists are on a collision course over the issue.
Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini, a night editor of the Daily Graphic, and Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., yesterday clashed on Radio Gold, an Accra-based radio station, over who took the said monies.
According to the audit report, a former Minister of Information, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, allegedly collected the money for distribution to the said journalists.
The groups, according to report, were referred to as BLOW, PRIM, FIRST RESPONSE, and the EDITOR’S FORUM.
The auditors say such groups were the beneficiaries of the ¢15 billion cedis.
In the heated radio debate Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini was grateful to Allah that the chicken had finally come home to roost.
The night Editor of the Daily Graphic, who doubles as the Board Chairman for Ghana Institute of Journalism, argued that he had always suspected that the ‘Mafia’ was given fat payments at the expense of the poor tax payer.
According to him, he knows “The New Crusading Guide, Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako’s paper, doesn’t even circulate more than 1,000 copies, “yet look at the obscene and opulent lifestyle he flaunts in our faces.”
Alhaji Fuseini revealed that he was aware that Malik Kweku Baako, Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, had a mansion and an expensive four wheel drive, just like most of his colleagues in the Coffee Shop Mafia, and that “in any serious country, the IRS and institutions of state would have questioned Kweku Baako by now.”
Responding to his fellow Muslim, Mr. Baako said he cannot wait to have the said names published, and that he was “irritated that the names have so much delayed, leading to unwarranted suspicion of journalists.”
He indicated that he was ready for any investigation into the source of his wealth, and said information about his house “isn’t new, and that many NDC sympathizers, including some ministers, know my house.”
Mr. Baako further recounted the traveling history of some members of the Mafia with ex-president Kufuor.
He said throughout all the eight years regime of Mr. Kufuor, he travelled only three times with President Kufuor, Mr. Alfred Ogbamey, Managing Editor of the Gye Nyame Concord, and Mr. Kwame Sefa Kayi, a morning show host of Peace FM, traveled two times each, with Mr. Egbert Faibille traveling only once.
The two senior journalists also argued about the originator of what has become a cruel and fabricated allegation some years ago against Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., that the latter had been bribed with $125,000.
Though Kweku Baako insisted that the Mafia didn’t originate it, and that he condemned it at the time, Alhaji Fuseini contended that the Mafia hatched the plot, and got their fellow member, Alhaji Haruna Atta of the then Accra Daily Mail, to break the story in his paper.
Alhaji Fuseini said, “at the time I singlehandedly took on the Coffee Shop Mafia on Good Evening Ghana.”
The two senior journalists, in a heated debate, took turns to accuse each other of stories they had planted in times past, which were not necessarily true, and whose motives might not have been genuine.
The ¢15 billion, according to the audit, was taken from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Debt Recovery Levy.
Ebenezer Ato Sam (a.k.a Baby Ansabah), Editor of the New Punch, whose recent rise to fame was on the back of confessions, also said in an earlier interview on the same programme, that he felt vindicated, when he alleged during his confessions that he had been left out of the huge largesse doled out to journalists in the Kufuor era. Source: Ghanaian Chronicle
Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini, a night editor of the Daily Graphic, and Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., yesterday clashed on Radio Gold, an Accra-based radio station, over who took the said monies.
According to the audit report, a former Minister of Information, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, allegedly collected the money for distribution to the said journalists.
The groups, according to report, were referred to as BLOW, PRIM, FIRST RESPONSE, and the EDITOR’S FORUM.
The auditors say such groups were the beneficiaries of the ¢15 billion cedis.
In the heated radio debate Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini was grateful to Allah that the chicken had finally come home to roost.
The night Editor of the Daily Graphic, who doubles as the Board Chairman for Ghana Institute of Journalism, argued that he had always suspected that the ‘Mafia’ was given fat payments at the expense of the poor tax payer.
According to him, he knows “The New Crusading Guide, Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako’s paper, doesn’t even circulate more than 1,000 copies, “yet look at the obscene and opulent lifestyle he flaunts in our faces.”
Alhaji Fuseini revealed that he was aware that Malik Kweku Baako, Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, had a mansion and an expensive four wheel drive, just like most of his colleagues in the Coffee Shop Mafia, and that “in any serious country, the IRS and institutions of state would have questioned Kweku Baako by now.”
Responding to his fellow Muslim, Mr. Baako said he cannot wait to have the said names published, and that he was “irritated that the names have so much delayed, leading to unwarranted suspicion of journalists.”
He indicated that he was ready for any investigation into the source of his wealth, and said information about his house “isn’t new, and that many NDC sympathizers, including some ministers, know my house.”
Mr. Baako further recounted the traveling history of some members of the Mafia with ex-president Kufuor.
He said throughout all the eight years regime of Mr. Kufuor, he travelled only three times with President Kufuor, Mr. Alfred Ogbamey, Managing Editor of the Gye Nyame Concord, and Mr. Kwame Sefa Kayi, a morning show host of Peace FM, traveled two times each, with Mr. Egbert Faibille traveling only once.
The two senior journalists also argued about the originator of what has become a cruel and fabricated allegation some years ago against Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., that the latter had been bribed with $125,000.
Though Kweku Baako insisted that the Mafia didn’t originate it, and that he condemned it at the time, Alhaji Fuseini contended that the Mafia hatched the plot, and got their fellow member, Alhaji Haruna Atta of the then Accra Daily Mail, to break the story in his paper.
Alhaji Fuseini said, “at the time I singlehandedly took on the Coffee Shop Mafia on Good Evening Ghana.”
The two senior journalists, in a heated debate, took turns to accuse each other of stories they had planted in times past, which were not necessarily true, and whose motives might not have been genuine.
The ¢15 billion, according to the audit, was taken from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Debt Recovery Levy.
Ebenezer Ato Sam (a.k.a Baby Ansabah), Editor of the New Punch, whose recent rise to fame was on the back of confessions, also said in an earlier interview on the same programme, that he felt vindicated, when he alleged during his confessions that he had been left out of the huge largesse doled out to journalists in the Kufuor era. Source: Ghanaian Chronicle
How the Slave Trade stifled Africa’s economy
How the Slave Trade stifled Africa’s economy
Introduction
It is not possible to recount the history of the African continent without talking about the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the continent’s economy.
Indeed, a cursory look at Africa’s current economic situation will reveal traces and imprints of the heinous crime against Africans known as the slave trade.
The slave trade is one of the factors that have contributed to the sorry state of Africa today. It is one of the reasons why Africa is struggling with a heavy debt burden, internal conflicts, abject poverty and the overall despondency one easily encounters on the continent.
The Slave Trade was never in the interest of Africa and her people; it served only the interest of the perpetrators.
There are some though, who might argue that there have been some benefits to Africa from the slave trade because some members of the African elite benefited from the trade. Some of these were directly involved in the trade.
The argument also goes further to suggest that some Africans who survived the inhuman transition to the New World benefited by having access to material wealth and Western education.
Sadly, while the full story of the slave trade may never be known, the reality is that, the slave trade involved plunder, brutality and the gross abuse of the human rights of Africans. More...
NPP, To Win Or Not To Win? That Is The Question!
READ RELATED ARTICLE: Kwesi Pratt ask NPP to forget about 2012 election
NPP, To Win Or Not To Win? That Is The Question!
We have known for a long time that the race is clearly one of the Akuffo Addo boys versus Alan Kyeremanteng boys! The rest are simply part of the "passengers" who had come to "see off" the contestants, as Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. puts it.
One amazing thing about this congress is that too much victory by either party may lead to the destruction of the NPP's chances of winning the 2012 elections. As Kwesi puts it, if one side becomes completely alienated, the party risks a very lack-lustre performance in the national campaign for its successful candidate, in much the same way as we saw in the Ashanti Region during the last general elections.
To avoid such a situation, I have already put forward a plan. My plan which was outdoored week has the name of "The Odikro Plan". In my last feature article which bore the title: "The NPP Leadership Quagmire: Is 'The Odikro Plan' A Way Out?" I argued:
"The "Odikro Plan" is that Alan Cash must be smart enough to enter into a pact with Akufo Addo that for the sake of party unity, he would not stand against him in 2012, but if Akufo Addo loses in 2012, he must be honourable enough to pass on the mantle to the younger and taller contender for a change in 2016. If Alan Cash is not prepared to wait for eight years, all he has to do afterwards is to do everything in his power to sabotage the Akufo Addo campaign on the quiet. This is very important because an Atta-Mills victory is in the greater interest of Alan Cash than an Akufo Addo one. Should Akufo Addo win, there is no way Alan Cash can contest and win in 2016 at the party's primaries. That means Akuffo Addo may do a complete eight year tenure until 2020. The risk here is that Ghanaians are, statistically speaking, more likely to vote for the opposition than for continuity after an eight year stint in office. Thus even if Alan Cash is prepared to wait until 2020 to stand on the NPP ticket, his chances are far better in 2016, towards the end of an NDC-led (Atta-Mills) Administration, than in 2020, towards the end of another NPP-led (Afuffo Addo) Administration."
Conversely, Akuffo Addo can also make the first move! He must strive to strike a deal with Alan Cash not to contest this time around for the 2012 presidential race, but wait for the 2016 to do so. In return, Nana would promise Alan Cash his full support for the 2016 and would not contest against Alan if Nana does not make it once more at the 2012!
I have already mentioned that I really do not give a damn which of the two wins! "My number one problem is that they are both willing stooges of imperialism. They both support the Kufour secretive deal revealed by Asare Ochere-Darko, Executive Director of the "strictly Danquah" Institute, to establish USAfriCom Headquarters and military bases in Ghana. Very simple calculations: Alan Cash is a Kufour man to the hilt, so on the question of Africom Akufo Addo seems the outsider until one realises that Gabby Asare Okyere-Darko is more an Akufo Addo spokesman than a Kufour one.
Apart from hearing that Alan Cash is taller, Ashanti, younger and much more handsome, I have not seen, heard, or read a single policy difference between the two. And for me, if they want to convince me that they are not just bundles of meat to be valued according to weight they had better let us know their policies on important national issues, and what differences, if any, exists. This is exactly what matters most. We want to know their policy differences. After all the presidential race is not a beauty contest, and short people also have their place in it! Being short myself, I must know what I am talking about! Both candidates share the same neocolonialist ideology of the NPP and their slave-trader mentality which preceded that, which still makes them think every Ghanaian who is not one of their own must be their slave!
Furthermore, as we know from the Enquirer, and subsequently confirmed by the culprits themselves, both Akufo Addo and Alan Kyeremanteng were party to the secretive and illegal fund-raising luncheon that brought together in one room, a "group" which was "made up of people with substantial investments in Ghana and also of others who have an interest in investing in Ghana" at the Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, Washington DC,, USA. See for yourself, who went to dinner: "In downtown Washington DC, two luxurious black Cadillacs, belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC, pulled up in front of Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, located on 24 M Streets, Nw, Washington, DC 20037 on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. In the first car, three well-dressed men in suit, namely Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghana’s Ambassador to the USA and Alan Kyeremanten, an ex-Ghana’s Ambassador to the USA, who was also an NPP Flagbearer-aspirant, popped out of the vehicles.
"Moments later, another Embassy car pulled up in-front of Hotel Hyatt. This time NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, Ex-Finance Minister and later Education Youth and Sports Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and Dr. Konadu Apraku arrived in tow. The occasion was a fund-raising luncheon hosted by The Whitaker Group, a company owned by Rosa Whitaker, the new wife of Bishop Duncan Williams of Action Chapel International, who was recently introduced to church members in Accra. Rosa Whitaker, who served as a Deputy Trade Secretary for Africa under both President Bill Clinton and Bush administrations respectively is a registered lobbyist for the Ghana government."
For me personally, what this tells me is that both men are not only guilty of breaking Ghana's electoral laws, but at the same time the US law on corporate financing of foreign political parties! The NPP is likely to give us a Presidential candidate who may very soon be answering criminal charges in the USA. They are viciously eligible to diplomatic blackmail and undue external influences in their stewardship of our country that it would be the height of folly for the NPP to even offer either of them as a serious contender. I am getting myself ready to oppose whichever of the two wins, anyway. For those NPP members who do not want outsiders to comment on what they wrongly see as "an internal party affair", I wish to remind them that every Ghanaian has a right to feel concerned about their strange "democratic practices" of using fisticuffs rather than the ballot box to elect their leaders. Our entire reputation as a nation is at stake."
Building The Party Structures
Apparently, these two protagonists do not even have a choice. The party is not just divided, they are literary beating each other up. How do you lead a group that is at ech others' throats to victory? This is going on in every constituency of the party where there are significant supporters of either candidate. This means in every party stronghold, including Ashanti and the Eastern Region. I am certain that it will take more than two years to heal these wounds, that is if any of them can be healed at all. This means the NPP would be going into campaign with foot 'soldiers' who cannot face each other 'armed'! It is a very clever way of dodging an inevitable defeat at the end, whilst preparing to go for it with a unified front having given yourself six years of a virtual coast-free national campaign! An elephant is a heavy animal and it needs strong feet to stand on four. Alan Cash can deserve his victory if he took a long-term view of the political landscape and positions himself strategically.
Thanks to NPP sympathisers like Justice Sarpong, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., and many others especially on Ghanaweb, the incessant insults of Ewes shall ensure an even greater defeat of the NPP in the Volta Region come 2012, as they seem to redirect all issues in an Ewe-Ashanti dichotomy, spiced with unprintable epithets. It is as though someone has misled them into thinking that the best way to win votes from the Volta Region is to insult Ewes! Alan Cash can take advantage of this truce by working closely with prominent party members from the Volta Region to educate people like Sarpong that votes, even from the Volta Region counts, and begin to make an impact from the weakest chain in the NPP's bid for power from there. If Alan Cash can radically turn the tribal focus of the NPP around, particularly between the Ashantis and the Ewes, he would have the keys to open the doors throughout the country in the pocket!
In any case, from all indications, Nana Akufo Addo is going to win the NPP primaries hands down. If you need indices just take a quick look at whose candidates are winning the elections from constituency to regional levels. Akuffo Addo is a brutal fighter and is not going to give up even if he stands upon a thousand feet in the party in his pursuit for power. Trouble is he is going to count on these same feet to walk the talk. And when the talk is bitterness and complaints then the party gets weaker and weaker. Alan must openly work with Akufo Addo in order to prevent this bitterness and carefully build the party machine in time for the 2016 elections. The problem with this option is that it is highly time-sensitive. If Alan wants to build his party, it is now or never. Waiting until after the NPP Congress would clearly be too late. In the mean time each day that the rivalry continues within the party, some irreparable damage is done to the party's feet on the ground. The earlier this stopped the better. The earlier Alan Cash began his 2016 campaign, the better for both himself personally and also for his party.
Last but by no means the least, if Nana Akufo Addo realizes that he was deliberately sabotaged by Alan Cash, he can simply withdraw his support and plan his own sabotage or two. After all, who knows what else Alan Cash is going to do next if he can get away with such a wicked trick? And he would be perfectly understood by many supporters! Methinks under those circumstances, it would become a moral imperative for Nana Akufo Addo to teach Alan Cash a very good lesson for sabotaging him when it was his turn in 2012 to sabotage Alan Cash in turn come 2016! That would be the second time I would be working very closely with Nana Addo, with whom I joined hands in solidarity at the trial of the editor of the Christian Chronicle, George Naykene at the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra. in 1991 or thereabouts. Even though we could not do much to help George as he was given a jail term at Nsawam, this time around, we shall get Alan, as he cannot win without the support from Akuffo Addo's own constituency in the party!
Conclusion
All this may sound very stupid to the internet-based NPP members, but for those directly receiving the beatings on the ground for these arrogant, greedy, corporate-dominated and systematically socially-exclusive elitist and inward-looking individuals, and for a party which is a loser in advance, "theOdikro Plan" makes a big difference. It can save a limb or two of the party's foot soldiers. This has been the objective right from the beginning: defending the NPP foot soldiers who are receiving these beatings at the hands of their own party members! The extra bonus of an in-built internal dynamics working against each of them on the basis of their greed, assures that none of them wins! Besides, a violence-free internal party democratic process does not harm our hard-won international reputation as a dependable and working democracy. I call on all of you to support this plan and give them the hell that they truly deserve!
They shall fail. We are not for sale! Kwesi Pratt is right! Atta-Mills is better than Kufour! There is victory for us! Forward Ever! Backwards Never! In the struggles of Africa! There is victory!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Give me a follow on Twitter: twitter.com/TheOdikro
NPP, To Win Or Not To Win? That Is The Question!
We have known for a long time that the race is clearly one of the Akuffo Addo boys versus Alan Kyeremanteng boys! The rest are simply part of the "passengers" who had come to "see off" the contestants, as Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. puts it.
One amazing thing about this congress is that too much victory by either party may lead to the destruction of the NPP's chances of winning the 2012 elections. As Kwesi puts it, if one side becomes completely alienated, the party risks a very lack-lustre performance in the national campaign for its successful candidate, in much the same way as we saw in the Ashanti Region during the last general elections.
To avoid such a situation, I have already put forward a plan. My plan which was outdoored week has the name of "The Odikro Plan". In my last feature article which bore the title: "The NPP Leadership Quagmire: Is 'The Odikro Plan' A Way Out?" I argued:
"The "Odikro Plan" is that Alan Cash must be smart enough to enter into a pact with Akufo Addo that for the sake of party unity, he would not stand against him in 2012, but if Akufo Addo loses in 2012, he must be honourable enough to pass on the mantle to the younger and taller contender for a change in 2016. If Alan Cash is not prepared to wait for eight years, all he has to do afterwards is to do everything in his power to sabotage the Akufo Addo campaign on the quiet. This is very important because an Atta-Mills victory is in the greater interest of Alan Cash than an Akufo Addo one. Should Akufo Addo win, there is no way Alan Cash can contest and win in 2016 at the party's primaries. That means Akuffo Addo may do a complete eight year tenure until 2020. The risk here is that Ghanaians are, statistically speaking, more likely to vote for the opposition than for continuity after an eight year stint in office. Thus even if Alan Cash is prepared to wait until 2020 to stand on the NPP ticket, his chances are far better in 2016, towards the end of an NDC-led (Atta-Mills) Administration, than in 2020, towards the end of another NPP-led (Afuffo Addo) Administration."
Conversely, Akuffo Addo can also make the first move! He must strive to strike a deal with Alan Cash not to contest this time around for the 2012 presidential race, but wait for the 2016 to do so. In return, Nana would promise Alan Cash his full support for the 2016 and would not contest against Alan if Nana does not make it once more at the 2012!
I have already mentioned that I really do not give a damn which of the two wins! "My number one problem is that they are both willing stooges of imperialism. They both support the Kufour secretive deal revealed by Asare Ochere-Darko, Executive Director of the "strictly Danquah" Institute, to establish USAfriCom Headquarters and military bases in Ghana. Very simple calculations: Alan Cash is a Kufour man to the hilt, so on the question of Africom Akufo Addo seems the outsider until one realises that Gabby Asare Okyere-Darko is more an Akufo Addo spokesman than a Kufour one.
Apart from hearing that Alan Cash is taller, Ashanti, younger and much more handsome, I have not seen, heard, or read a single policy difference between the two. And for me, if they want to convince me that they are not just bundles of meat to be valued according to weight they had better let us know their policies on important national issues, and what differences, if any, exists. This is exactly what matters most. We want to know their policy differences. After all the presidential race is not a beauty contest, and short people also have their place in it! Being short myself, I must know what I am talking about! Both candidates share the same neocolonialist ideology of the NPP and their slave-trader mentality which preceded that, which still makes them think every Ghanaian who is not one of their own must be their slave!
Furthermore, as we know from the Enquirer, and subsequently confirmed by the culprits themselves, both Akufo Addo and Alan Kyeremanteng were party to the secretive and illegal fund-raising luncheon that brought together in one room, a "group" which was "made up of people with substantial investments in Ghana and also of others who have an interest in investing in Ghana" at the Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, Washington DC,, USA. See for yourself, who went to dinner: "In downtown Washington DC, two luxurious black Cadillacs, belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC, pulled up in front of Hotel Hyatt & Resorts, located on 24 M Streets, Nw, Washington, DC 20037 on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. In the first car, three well-dressed men in suit, namely Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghana’s Ambassador to the USA and Alan Kyeremanten, an ex-Ghana’s Ambassador to the USA, who was also an NPP Flagbearer-aspirant, popped out of the vehicles.
"Moments later, another Embassy car pulled up in-front of Hotel Hyatt. This time NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, Ex-Finance Minister and later Education Youth and Sports Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and Dr. Konadu Apraku arrived in tow. The occasion was a fund-raising luncheon hosted by The Whitaker Group, a company owned by Rosa Whitaker, the new wife of Bishop Duncan Williams of Action Chapel International, who was recently introduced to church members in Accra. Rosa Whitaker, who served as a Deputy Trade Secretary for Africa under both President Bill Clinton and Bush administrations respectively is a registered lobbyist for the Ghana government."
For me personally, what this tells me is that both men are not only guilty of breaking Ghana's electoral laws, but at the same time the US law on corporate financing of foreign political parties! The NPP is likely to give us a Presidential candidate who may very soon be answering criminal charges in the USA. They are viciously eligible to diplomatic blackmail and undue external influences in their stewardship of our country that it would be the height of folly for the NPP to even offer either of them as a serious contender. I am getting myself ready to oppose whichever of the two wins, anyway. For those NPP members who do not want outsiders to comment on what they wrongly see as "an internal party affair", I wish to remind them that every Ghanaian has a right to feel concerned about their strange "democratic practices" of using fisticuffs rather than the ballot box to elect their leaders. Our entire reputation as a nation is at stake."
Building The Party Structures
Apparently, these two protagonists do not even have a choice. The party is not just divided, they are literary beating each other up. How do you lead a group that is at ech others' throats to victory? This is going on in every constituency of the party where there are significant supporters of either candidate. This means in every party stronghold, including Ashanti and the Eastern Region. I am certain that it will take more than two years to heal these wounds, that is if any of them can be healed at all. This means the NPP would be going into campaign with foot 'soldiers' who cannot face each other 'armed'! It is a very clever way of dodging an inevitable defeat at the end, whilst preparing to go for it with a unified front having given yourself six years of a virtual coast-free national campaign! An elephant is a heavy animal and it needs strong feet to stand on four. Alan Cash can deserve his victory if he took a long-term view of the political landscape and positions himself strategically.
Thanks to NPP sympathisers like Justice Sarpong, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., and many others especially on Ghanaweb, the incessant insults of Ewes shall ensure an even greater defeat of the NPP in the Volta Region come 2012, as they seem to redirect all issues in an Ewe-Ashanti dichotomy, spiced with unprintable epithets. It is as though someone has misled them into thinking that the best way to win votes from the Volta Region is to insult Ewes! Alan Cash can take advantage of this truce by working closely with prominent party members from the Volta Region to educate people like Sarpong that votes, even from the Volta Region counts, and begin to make an impact from the weakest chain in the NPP's bid for power from there. If Alan Cash can radically turn the tribal focus of the NPP around, particularly between the Ashantis and the Ewes, he would have the keys to open the doors throughout the country in the pocket!
In any case, from all indications, Nana Akufo Addo is going to win the NPP primaries hands down. If you need indices just take a quick look at whose candidates are winning the elections from constituency to regional levels. Akuffo Addo is a brutal fighter and is not going to give up even if he stands upon a thousand feet in the party in his pursuit for power. Trouble is he is going to count on these same feet to walk the talk. And when the talk is bitterness and complaints then the party gets weaker and weaker. Alan must openly work with Akufo Addo in order to prevent this bitterness and carefully build the party machine in time for the 2016 elections. The problem with this option is that it is highly time-sensitive. If Alan wants to build his party, it is now or never. Waiting until after the NPP Congress would clearly be too late. In the mean time each day that the rivalry continues within the party, some irreparable damage is done to the party's feet on the ground. The earlier this stopped the better. The earlier Alan Cash began his 2016 campaign, the better for both himself personally and also for his party.
Last but by no means the least, if Nana Akufo Addo realizes that he was deliberately sabotaged by Alan Cash, he can simply withdraw his support and plan his own sabotage or two. After all, who knows what else Alan Cash is going to do next if he can get away with such a wicked trick? And he would be perfectly understood by many supporters! Methinks under those circumstances, it would become a moral imperative for Nana Akufo Addo to teach Alan Cash a very good lesson for sabotaging him when it was his turn in 2012 to sabotage Alan Cash in turn come 2016! That would be the second time I would be working very closely with Nana Addo, with whom I joined hands in solidarity at the trial of the editor of the Christian Chronicle, George Naykene at the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra. in 1991 or thereabouts. Even though we could not do much to help George as he was given a jail term at Nsawam, this time around, we shall get Alan, as he cannot win without the support from Akuffo Addo's own constituency in the party!
Conclusion
All this may sound very stupid to the internet-based NPP members, but for those directly receiving the beatings on the ground for these arrogant, greedy, corporate-dominated and systematically socially-exclusive elitist and inward-looking individuals, and for a party which is a loser in advance, "theOdikro Plan" makes a big difference. It can save a limb or two of the party's foot soldiers. This has been the objective right from the beginning: defending the NPP foot soldiers who are receiving these beatings at the hands of their own party members! The extra bonus of an in-built internal dynamics working against each of them on the basis of their greed, assures that none of them wins! Besides, a violence-free internal party democratic process does not harm our hard-won international reputation as a dependable and working democracy. I call on all of you to support this plan and give them the hell that they truly deserve!
They shall fail. We are not for sale! Kwesi Pratt is right! Atta-Mills is better than Kufour! There is victory for us! Forward Ever! Backwards Never! In the struggles of Africa! There is victory!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Give me a follow on Twitter: twitter.com/TheOdikro
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
BARKING FOR THE SAKE OF BARKING?
READ ARTICLE: Feature Article of Friday, 19 February 2010, Columnist: Nkrumah-Boateng, Rodney
Fire in Ogyakrom! Facts, Half-truths and Innuendoes
Comment: BARKING FOR THE SAKE OF BARKING?
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-20 15:07:10
Comment to:
IS YOUR ALSO TRADTIONAL MINDSET?
Akadu,
Why do you repeat the same argument of the writer to accuse him with same? He definitely goes beyond your childish question! Did you read in a hurry or you don't understand simple English? This is a very objective and thoughtful article. It does not even attempt to endanger your very stupid prejudices, so what are you really barking against now? Are you not just barking for the sake of barking?
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Fire in Ogyakrom! Facts, Half-truths and Innuendoes
Comment: BARKING FOR THE SAKE OF BARKING?
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-20 15:07:10
Comment to:
IS YOUR ALSO TRADTIONAL MINDSET?
Akadu,
Why do you repeat the same argument of the writer to accuse him with same? He definitely goes beyond your childish question! Did you read in a hurry or you don't understand simple English? This is a very objective and thoughtful article. It does not even attempt to endanger your very stupid prejudices, so what are you really barking against now? Are you not just barking for the sake of barking?
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
Friday, February 19, 2010
Comment: THE ODIKRO DOES NOT COMMEND SIRLEAF!!!
Read Article:
Sirleaf Johnson Commends Ghana, General News of Friday, 19 February 2010
Comment: THE ODIKRO DOES NOT COMMEND SIRLEAF!!!
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-19 17:55:32
Comment to:
GOOD!
Hi Titles,
Do you know what you are talking about? This is an extremely dangerous woman! She was part of the longest ruled One Party state in the whole world, The True Whig Party of Liberia. At the time of the coup, she was the deputy Finance Minister of that horrible party.
When all African governments expressed the desire not to host the imperialist and occupationist US Africa Command, she was the only idiot on the continent to give George Bush a green light! It is about time Africa begins to snub such characters.
The True Whig Party was a party of Americo-Liberians who treated the indigenous Africans worse than the way Cinderella was treated by her step-mother! Their corruption was legendeary. Their oppression of the people for more than a hundred years was responsible for the civil war! She is also implicated in the Charles Taylor saga. What has this woman done that is so spectacular that you even dare to compare her with our wise, hard working, and very clean President?
She must realign her position on USAfricom with the rest of African leaders or next time, she must be treated as a persona-non-grata on our territory - air, land, and sea!
We would like to avail ourselves with this opportunity to convey to Madam Sirleaf Johnson, the assurances of our greatest indignation!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
See also: Comment: Re: Liberian President Sirleaf arrives for a two-d
Sirleaf Johnson Commends Ghana, General News of Friday, 19 February 2010
Comment: THE ODIKRO DOES NOT COMMEND SIRLEAF!!!
Author:
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date:
2010-02-19 17:55:32
Comment to:
GOOD!
Hi Titles,
Do you know what you are talking about? This is an extremely dangerous woman! She was part of the longest ruled One Party state in the whole world, The True Whig Party of Liberia. At the time of the coup, she was the deputy Finance Minister of that horrible party.
When all African governments expressed the desire not to host the imperialist and occupationist US Africa Command, she was the only idiot on the continent to give George Bush a green light! It is about time Africa begins to snub such characters.
The True Whig Party was a party of Americo-Liberians who treated the indigenous Africans worse than the way Cinderella was treated by her step-mother! Their corruption was legendeary. Their oppression of the people for more than a hundred years was responsible for the civil war! She is also implicated in the Charles Taylor saga. What has this woman done that is so spectacular that you even dare to compare her with our wise, hard working, and very clean President?
She must realign her position on USAfricom with the rest of African leaders or next time, she must be treated as a persona-non-grata on our territory - air, land, and sea!
We would like to avail ourselves with this opportunity to convey to Madam Sirleaf Johnson, the assurances of our greatest indignation!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
See also: Comment: Re: Liberian President Sirleaf arrives for a two-d
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Oil should benefit Ghanaians
Oil should benefit Ghanaians
Posted by Contributor on February 13, 2010 at 11:52 am in Top Story
Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has urged Ghanaians and Ghanaian financial institutions to take the lead in financing the growth of the oil sector. According to him, huge investment opportunities exist for Ghanaians to take a commanding height in the exploitation of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.
Speaking to journalists at a press briefing in Accra this week, Mr. Ahoi said that those who seize the opportunity stand to make huge gains, and contribute to national economic growth as a whole.
The GNPC Board chair said it is in the government’s best interest that profits that accrue from the exploitation of oil remain in Ghana, and used to support economic and social programmes. More...
Queen of England on Ghana's Oil
Ghanaweb General News of Thursday, 18 February 2010, Source: Nana Sifa Twum, London
The Queen of England, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has urged Ghana to benefit from the mistakes of other nations in the management of its oil revenue by putting in place enduring and transparent systems.
She said misunderstandings and riots that have characterised the social fabric of some nations as a result of injudicious and inequitable distribution of oil resources is of much concern to her.
Queen Elizabeth made these observations when she received Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo at the Buckingham Palace in London.
The High Commissioner was the guest of the Monarch when he presented to her his letters of credence.
Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo arrived in London in September 2009 to assume office as Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
For the second time in his life he was serving as an envoy to his country. Prof. Danso-Boafo from the academia took leave from his academic duties to serve as Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana to Cuba with concurrent accreditation to Jamaica, Trinidad and, Nicaragua and Panama. More...
Comment: Re: BNI Arrests Radio Panelists Over Rawling
Read news item: Zita: There is a hidden hand behind recent fire outbreaks
Ghanaweb General News of Wednesday, 17 February 2010, Source: Joy Online,
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-18 08:11:46
Comment to: BNI Arrests Radio Panelists Over Rawling
Hi grandson,
This is good news! It means the BNI is doing a good job! These people who seem more informed about these matters than the average Ghanaian might as well "assist the police in their investigations"!
I personally do not rule out anything, but I shall not be found making any categorical statement without evidence. Ghana is not a lawless country after all! We have freedom of speech, but we also have defamation.
Very interesting development though. Let's see how this plays out.
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
RELATED:
NPP activist in court for maligning Rawlings
GHANAWEB General News of Thursday, 18 February 2010
Source: GNA
Ghanaweb General News of Wednesday, 17 February 2010, Source: Joy Online,
Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Date: 2010-02-18 08:11:46
Comment to: BNI Arrests Radio Panelists Over Rawling
Hi grandson,
This is good news! It means the BNI is doing a good job! These people who seem more informed about these matters than the average Ghanaian might as well "assist the police in their investigations"!
I personally do not rule out anything, but I shall not be found making any categorical statement without evidence. Ghana is not a lawless country after all! We have freedom of speech, but we also have defamation.
Very interesting development though. Let's see how this plays out.
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com
RELATED:
NPP activist in court for maligning Rawlings
GHANAWEB General News of Thursday, 18 February 2010
Source: GNA
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
NPP MUST THANK DR. KENNEDY!!!
Comment to:
Comment: don't be bloody stupid
Author:Timbuktu
Date: 2010-02-17 03:55:35
Comment to: Arthur K is NPP's NO 1 enemy
>Arthur K is NPP's NO 1 enemy? Don't
be bloody stupid. The guy is a hero.
Good day, Timbuktu!
The day that the NPP realizes that Dr. Arthur Kobina Ebo Kennedy is not stupid, that is the day they MAY prosper!
A party that hates transparency can only implode as it is doing now. This is a party whose bloated airs trapped inside its body-politic is receiving the requisite surgical and timely punctures from a qualified medical practitioner!
They should thank, not only their stars, but Dr. Kennedy too!
NPP CANDIDATES, WHO IS WHO?
Read: Ntim Is Alan What Jake Is To Akufo-Addo -Arthur K
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah
follow me on Twitter; http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
e-mail: nanakyeamensah@gmail.com Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
RELATED ARTICLES:
Akyem and Asante politics in NPP: It’s a myth
Comment: don't be bloody stupid
Author:Timbuktu
Date: 2010-02-17 03:55:35
Comment to: Arthur K is NPP's NO 1 enemy
>Arthur K is NPP's NO 1 enemy? Don't
be bloody stupid. The guy is a hero.
Good day, Timbuktu!
The day that the NPP realizes that Dr. Arthur Kobina Ebo Kennedy is not stupid, that is the day they MAY prosper!
A party that hates transparency can only implode as it is doing now. This is a party whose bloated airs trapped inside its body-politic is receiving the requisite surgical and timely punctures from a qualified medical practitioner!
They should thank, not only their stars, but Dr. Kennedy too!
NPP CANDIDATES, WHO IS WHO?
Read: Ntim Is Alan What Jake Is To Akufo-Addo -Arthur K
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah
follow me on Twitter; http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
e-mail: nanakyeamensah@gmail.com Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
RELATED ARTICLES:
Akyem and Asante politics in NPP: It’s a myth
Monday, February 15, 2010
RE: “Afropean” Triangle
A REJOINDER TO: “Afropean” Triangle
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Feature Article | 3 hours ago
This is one heck of an example that Kwame Okoamapa-Ahoofe serious needs help. This latest attempt to link Rawlings on the basis of what he calls "Afropean names" is the most stupid piece of journalism I have read in the last decade or two. Through this false linkage, he tries to ressurrect the discredited and debunked lies concocted against Kwesi Pratt, Jnr, and which have since been proven beyond all reasonable doubts to be complete fabrication.
In the first place the list of its authors read like a"Who Is Who" in the most notorious opportunists in our recent past: Freddie Blay, Kofi Coomson, Kweku Baako, and Kwesi Agbley. The weakness in their story was the use of Warrant Officer Agyei Boadi. This is a murderer who had been publicly exposed time and again by Kwesi Pratt, Jnr over the cold-blooded murder of Kwame Adjimah in a military guard room. As a human rights activist in those days, I knew personally from an answer I once received at the British Council by one of these famous NPP human rights champions, that issues of extra-judicial killings and political disappearances were off the table.
For a very long time, the only consistent campaigner against political assassination and extra-judicial killings in Ghana has been Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. And he paid for it. He himself nearly lost his life in prison. He was severely beaten several times including the same kicks that broke the ribs of some and broke Kwesi's teeth. In countries that respect their heroes, those who bear the scars of struggle are normally treated with respect. It is only people like Okoampa who still accept the lies of a murderer over and above the word of seventeen times "Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience", Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.
One of the important people I happen to know personally is called B. J. Da Rocha. Is Okoampa saying that just because he sports a European name the credibility of Da Rocha as the Chairman of the NPP ought to have been questioned? Okoampa might please himself that he is just having fun at the expense of Mr. Pratt. But at the end of the day, what we get is a good idea of those who hate Kwesi making once more, their best efforts to malign him and end up falling on their own swords, for what this tells me is that Okoampa has nothing up his sleeves that will stick on Kwesi! He simply cannot stand the guy and believes he can fool his readers his nefarious enterprise.
Okoampa has no sense of moderation. He writes: "First of all, the fact that such serious allegation – most of the Ghanaian media actually dubbed it “a revelation” – is coming at least two years later and then just on the heels of Mr. Pratt's having been dispatched by the Mills government [to head a delegation] to the World Cup drawing in South Africa". The trouble is that in so doing he gives the game away: this is really about nothing!
I once wrote on the same subject: "One thing I like about contemporary history is that there are living witnesses to the stories WE TELL. Secondly, the monopolization of the truth by faction is virtually impossible. Neither can the obvious be mystified by political vultures like the author of the silly article in question, particularly, in this case involving no less a person than Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. Every honest historian knows that history is always a point of view. That is why the real historians begin their accounts with "a history" of say, the Gold Coast, or the slave trade or the pyramids etc. The non historians are noticeable with their tittles "The History of ..."
Other non-historians are subtle. They give no historical accounts at all. The just do neocolonialist propaganda by desperately trying to look objective, whilst all the time aiming to do maximum damage to the target without ever suggesting any material fact that would put him in trouble with a court of law, because in order to substantiate the allegations he may have to manufacture lies that he himself can not defend in a court of law."
"Once again, I remember what was going on. It was at a time Freddie Blay still had some semblance of dignity and respectability. No one knew he was prepared to sell his own mother for power yet. He had not said that then. Of course, it was the time he was the Speaker of Parliament. It was at the crucial time that the NPP desperately wanted the CPP in the pocket as a banker against an effective NDC challenge. Kweku Baako was in the plot. Freddie Blay was in it. Paa Kwesi Ndoum too was part of it, together with Kofi Coomson, Kwasi Agbley.
"To carry this through with the approval of Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., as the Publicity Officer of the CPP is just like expecting Mrs. Konadu Agyemang Rawlings to vote for Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, especially after the Akyem dwarf intensified his teasing of her husband with the "Yor ke Gari" "problem". No way! Over his or her dead body, as the case may be, for I am sure neither would cede!
Every one knows who killed Kwame Adjimah. It was Warrant Officer Class One, Joseph Kwabena Adjei Boadi, former Member of the erstwhile Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. published these events as long as 1992. Around the same time, I was shocked that Adjei Boadi who would sue for defamation involving 250.000 cedis would did nothing to defend himself all those years! On the contrary I saw him once greeting Kwesi politely at a funeral. The man who never stopped accusing him of murder!
"When it suited them, it was evidently clear that Adjei Boadi would have an axe or two to grind with Kwesi for pestering his life with the murder of Kwame Adjimah. Like a Hollywood movie, Adjei Boadi, a notorious murderer accuses an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, ace human rights activist of international repute, of an involvement in his nefarious activities and you want to take a known and culpable murderer's word against Kwesi? This only bears testimony to the nature of some of the politicians we have in Ghana today. The disgraceful manner people who were vying for public office decided to base their campaign strangely on lies and how to bring down the man they all saw as their OBSTACLE NUMBER ONE.
"In the early days of 2001, just after the NPP victory, Kofi Coomson, who was the secretly plotting to be an NPP parliamentary candidate, attacked Kwesi Pratt in "a ferocious debate" on radio over Dr Kwesi Nduom. Reports said "The debate later turned nasty off air when Coomson challenged Kwesi, calling him a traitor and revealed that he knew that he grassed on Kweku Baako, Kwasi Agbley and Freddie Blay, all three very close personal friends of both Kofi Coomson and Pratt."
The Chronicle, which Kofi Coomson founded featured an article which stated "Since the stunning revelation by the former PNDC hatchet man, WOI Adjei Boadi, at the ongoing NRC sittings, that Kwesi Pratt operated as a double agent who caused the arrest of his friend, Kweku Baako, and but for his timely intervention, Kweku Baako would have summarily been executed, the question of the credibility of the named parties involved has agitated the minds of many observers of the unfolding drama."
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since these allegations. Ndoum failed to become President, Kofi Coomson could not even go past the NPP primaries. and Kweku Baako is now well known for being an absolute opportunist. All those who tried to discredit Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. have been discredited. This attempt to hint at discredited facts without stating them clearly is no attempt to enlighten the public but to throw dust into their vigilant eyes!
"... Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. must be credited as one of the most important architects of the democratic dispensation that we are all enjoying today under the Fourth Republic of Ghana. It was Akoto Ampaw and Kwesi Pratt, Jnr who following the mandates of the KNRG, NDM and URF went to see Professor Adu Boahene to discuss the formation of the Movement for Freedom and Justice in order to form a Kwame Nkrumah-Busia-Danquah coalition across the political spectrum, against the dictatorship of the PNDC!
But even if History is a matter of point of view, no matter where you are standing, no one individual from the people now attacking Kwesi as if there is no tomorrow can claim half of what people like Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. have personally done to bring us all where we are today. Nana Akufo Addo publicly acknowledged this role and mentioned Kwesi by name,at the press conference announcing his candiature for the presidency. Rawlings has already acknowledged this fact. President Kufour did. And so has President Atta-Mills!
I must be able to properly honour and show respect to those in the NPP who gave the call from Nkrumahists like Kwesi, a positive response, particularly Mr. Ray Kakraba Quarshie, and the late Mr. Kwesi Lamptey. I also know what happened when people like B. J. da Rocha were approached, and why apart from Adu Boahene none of the NPP presidential aspirants wanted to work directly with the MFJ and preferred not to sit in a meeting to save Ghana from the military dictatorship because it was chaired by an internal political rival!
Professor Adu Boahene was the second Busia-Danquah person to join the MFJ but he did not join without conditions. His only condition was that he would never join it if he was not made the chairman of the new movement! Kwesi's reaction was very funny. "Take it, we give it to you!" He thought he had just made a breakthrough! Being the Chairman was the thought farthest from his mind. His was complete dedication, not hunting for posts like some people from the party with a thousand and one presidential aspirants.
Any one who says that the overthrow of the PNDC was the work of just one individual must belong to bedlam. In the final analysis it is the collective efforts of all Ghanaians occasioned by increasing international pressure to stop bullying the population and allow government by universal suffrage that did the trick.
Yet history would not be complete if we forget the self-sacrifices and courage of men like Kwesi Pratt in those crucial moments. People would not even dare compare Rawlings with Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. He has no blood on his hands to begin with, whilst Jerry Rawlings needs to account for the whereabouts of 246 Ghanaians who disappeared or were extra-judicially murdered under his military junta.
I have always known that truth never hides. After the 1966 CIA-inspired coup d'etat, we were all here when the use of the name, photo and image was banned and possession of them was made a criminal offence by those who claim to be following a tradition that promotes democracy and freedom of speech. Desîte the bombs, the coups, the bannings today, we have the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and next week on the 21st of September, 2009, Ghana and the rest of Africa shall be observing a special national holiday in his honour of the cetenary anniversary of his BIRTHDAY.
To the chagrin of his traducers Nkrumah is being taught to a new generation of Ghanaians in eloquent and practical ways. One such self-sacrificing apostle of the Osagyefo is the fearless Comrade Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. The one thing some people can not stand about Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., is the kind of things he says about Kwame Nkrumah:
"Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was not just the first President of Ghana but a very extraordinary man whose life and works contributed significantly to changing the world." He recently wrote, "He grew from a little village boy in Nkroful in the Western Region of Ghana to a world leader fully devoted to the struggle to free all black people from all forms of racism.
He was also against everything which kept people irrespective of their colour in conditions of slavery. He opposed oppression and exploitation in all its forms. Many historians including Basil Davidson and F. K. Buah credit Nkrumah with the leadership of the struggle which led to granting independence to many African countries under various forms of colonialism. Indeed Nkrumah is placed in the same category as Einstein, Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, Toussant L'Ouverture and Mahatma Gandhi whose ideas and actions helped to make the world a better place."
Certainly not the kind of language that those Busia-Danquah elements that the CIA referred to as "pathetically pro-Western" would take kindly to! For the economy of time, and without affecting simplicity at the cost of accuracy, I want to launch an open challenge to the senseless attempts to undermine the integrity of one of easily the cream of the cream of Ghanaians who toiled day, and deep into the night, woke up with insufficient sleep in the eyes to go to demonstrations, tired before it begins because he was constantly a centre of action!
If today, Ghanaians are enjoying the praises being heaped on us by the international community and expecting to reap the fruits of peace, political stability, and God-willing economic prosperity with our soon to be out-doored credentials as an "Oil exporting country", in dignity and in peace, it is squarely thanks to the yeoman and gargantuan efforts by people like Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.
The recruitment of the NPP leadership into the MFJ must not be under-estimated, because like the open letter of Dr. Hilla Liman that broke the culture of silence, the formation of the MFJ is what marked the begining of the end of the PNDC dictatorship. It was an initiative between the NDM and the KNRG. The URF and the AYC joined later. The AYC pulled out as they refused the admission of Adu Boahene on the basis of chairman. They would have preferred one of the original brains to head. Translated into everyday language, it means Nkrumahist because all the founding groups were Nkrumahist groups.
The attempts to smear Kwesi, ridding on the waves of the current uproar shall not work. And no one can deny the noble role he has played and continues to play in our nation's history. Certainly Kwesi alone did not make everything happen, but Kwesi was certainly a medium when he was sent by his colleagues to see Adu Boahene about the MFJ. Because Kwesi readily agreed with him to chair the movement the MFJ was able to put to sleep the Nkrumahist tag and assumed a truely national character. Because Johnny Hansen was the Vice Chairman, Kwesi Pratt, Jnr as Secretary, it was also not a purely Busia-Danquah affair. The fact that Prof. Adu Boahene himself testified several times that this unity was thanks to a great extend the personal chemistry (I'm sorry, Kwesi, but for the lack of a better word!) was fundamental in creating the united front. The trials of Kwesi and Adu Boahene was also another way of looking at the sights and sounds of the heroes of the 4th republic.
--
Nana Akyea Mensah
follow me on Twitter; http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
e-mail: nanakyeamensah@gmail.com Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
SEE ALSO:
Plot To Defame Rawlings On Course
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Feature Article | 3 hours ago
This is one heck of an example that Kwame Okoamapa-Ahoofe serious needs help. This latest attempt to link Rawlings on the basis of what he calls "Afropean names" is the most stupid piece of journalism I have read in the last decade or two. Through this false linkage, he tries to ressurrect the discredited and debunked lies concocted against Kwesi Pratt, Jnr, and which have since been proven beyond all reasonable doubts to be complete fabrication.
In the first place the list of its authors read like a"Who Is Who" in the most notorious opportunists in our recent past: Freddie Blay, Kofi Coomson, Kweku Baako, and Kwesi Agbley. The weakness in their story was the use of Warrant Officer Agyei Boadi. This is a murderer who had been publicly exposed time and again by Kwesi Pratt, Jnr over the cold-blooded murder of Kwame Adjimah in a military guard room. As a human rights activist in those days, I knew personally from an answer I once received at the British Council by one of these famous NPP human rights champions, that issues of extra-judicial killings and political disappearances were off the table.
For a very long time, the only consistent campaigner against political assassination and extra-judicial killings in Ghana has been Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. And he paid for it. He himself nearly lost his life in prison. He was severely beaten several times including the same kicks that broke the ribs of some and broke Kwesi's teeth. In countries that respect their heroes, those who bear the scars of struggle are normally treated with respect. It is only people like Okoampa who still accept the lies of a murderer over and above the word of seventeen times "Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience", Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.
One of the important people I happen to know personally is called B. J. Da Rocha. Is Okoampa saying that just because he sports a European name the credibility of Da Rocha as the Chairman of the NPP ought to have been questioned? Okoampa might please himself that he is just having fun at the expense of Mr. Pratt. But at the end of the day, what we get is a good idea of those who hate Kwesi making once more, their best efforts to malign him and end up falling on their own swords, for what this tells me is that Okoampa has nothing up his sleeves that will stick on Kwesi! He simply cannot stand the guy and believes he can fool his readers his nefarious enterprise.
Okoampa has no sense of moderation. He writes: "First of all, the fact that such serious allegation – most of the Ghanaian media actually dubbed it “a revelation” – is coming at least two years later and then just on the heels of Mr. Pratt's having been dispatched by the Mills government [to head a delegation] to the World Cup drawing in South Africa". The trouble is that in so doing he gives the game away: this is really about nothing!
I once wrote on the same subject: "One thing I like about contemporary history is that there are living witnesses to the stories WE TELL. Secondly, the monopolization of the truth by faction is virtually impossible. Neither can the obvious be mystified by political vultures like the author of the silly article in question, particularly, in this case involving no less a person than Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. Every honest historian knows that history is always a point of view. That is why the real historians begin their accounts with "a history" of say, the Gold Coast, or the slave trade or the pyramids etc. The non historians are noticeable with their tittles "The History of ..."
Other non-historians are subtle. They give no historical accounts at all. The just do neocolonialist propaganda by desperately trying to look objective, whilst all the time aiming to do maximum damage to the target without ever suggesting any material fact that would put him in trouble with a court of law, because in order to substantiate the allegations he may have to manufacture lies that he himself can not defend in a court of law."
"Once again, I remember what was going on. It was at a time Freddie Blay still had some semblance of dignity and respectability. No one knew he was prepared to sell his own mother for power yet. He had not said that then. Of course, it was the time he was the Speaker of Parliament. It was at the crucial time that the NPP desperately wanted the CPP in the pocket as a banker against an effective NDC challenge. Kweku Baako was in the plot. Freddie Blay was in it. Paa Kwesi Ndoum too was part of it, together with Kofi Coomson, Kwasi Agbley.
"To carry this through with the approval of Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., as the Publicity Officer of the CPP is just like expecting Mrs. Konadu Agyemang Rawlings to vote for Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, especially after the Akyem dwarf intensified his teasing of her husband with the "Yor ke Gari" "problem". No way! Over his or her dead body, as the case may be, for I am sure neither would cede!
Every one knows who killed Kwame Adjimah. It was Warrant Officer Class One, Joseph Kwabena Adjei Boadi, former Member of the erstwhile Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. published these events as long as 1992. Around the same time, I was shocked that Adjei Boadi who would sue for defamation involving 250.000 cedis would did nothing to defend himself all those years! On the contrary I saw him once greeting Kwesi politely at a funeral. The man who never stopped accusing him of murder!
"When it suited them, it was evidently clear that Adjei Boadi would have an axe or two to grind with Kwesi for pestering his life with the murder of Kwame Adjimah. Like a Hollywood movie, Adjei Boadi, a notorious murderer accuses an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, ace human rights activist of international repute, of an involvement in his nefarious activities and you want to take a known and culpable murderer's word against Kwesi? This only bears testimony to the nature of some of the politicians we have in Ghana today. The disgraceful manner people who were vying for public office decided to base their campaign strangely on lies and how to bring down the man they all saw as their OBSTACLE NUMBER ONE.
"In the early days of 2001, just after the NPP victory, Kofi Coomson, who was the secretly plotting to be an NPP parliamentary candidate, attacked Kwesi Pratt in "a ferocious debate" on radio over Dr Kwesi Nduom. Reports said "The debate later turned nasty off air when Coomson challenged Kwesi, calling him a traitor and revealed that he knew that he grassed on Kweku Baako, Kwasi Agbley and Freddie Blay, all three very close personal friends of both Kofi Coomson and Pratt."
The Chronicle, which Kofi Coomson founded featured an article which stated "Since the stunning revelation by the former PNDC hatchet man, WOI Adjei Boadi, at the ongoing NRC sittings, that Kwesi Pratt operated as a double agent who caused the arrest of his friend, Kweku Baako, and but for his timely intervention, Kweku Baako would have summarily been executed, the question of the credibility of the named parties involved has agitated the minds of many observers of the unfolding drama."
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since these allegations. Ndoum failed to become President, Kofi Coomson could not even go past the NPP primaries. and Kweku Baako is now well known for being an absolute opportunist. All those who tried to discredit Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. have been discredited. This attempt to hint at discredited facts without stating them clearly is no attempt to enlighten the public but to throw dust into their vigilant eyes!
"... Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. must be credited as one of the most important architects of the democratic dispensation that we are all enjoying today under the Fourth Republic of Ghana. It was Akoto Ampaw and Kwesi Pratt, Jnr who following the mandates of the KNRG, NDM and URF went to see Professor Adu Boahene to discuss the formation of the Movement for Freedom and Justice in order to form a Kwame Nkrumah-Busia-Danquah coalition across the political spectrum, against the dictatorship of the PNDC!
But even if History is a matter of point of view, no matter where you are standing, no one individual from the people now attacking Kwesi as if there is no tomorrow can claim half of what people like Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. have personally done to bring us all where we are today. Nana Akufo Addo publicly acknowledged this role and mentioned Kwesi by name,at the press conference announcing his candiature for the presidency. Rawlings has already acknowledged this fact. President Kufour did. And so has President Atta-Mills!
I must be able to properly honour and show respect to those in the NPP who gave the call from Nkrumahists like Kwesi, a positive response, particularly Mr. Ray Kakraba Quarshie, and the late Mr. Kwesi Lamptey. I also know what happened when people like B. J. da Rocha were approached, and why apart from Adu Boahene none of the NPP presidential aspirants wanted to work directly with the MFJ and preferred not to sit in a meeting to save Ghana from the military dictatorship because it was chaired by an internal political rival!
Professor Adu Boahene was the second Busia-Danquah person to join the MFJ but he did not join without conditions. His only condition was that he would never join it if he was not made the chairman of the new movement! Kwesi's reaction was very funny. "Take it, we give it to you!" He thought he had just made a breakthrough! Being the Chairman was the thought farthest from his mind. His was complete dedication, not hunting for posts like some people from the party with a thousand and one presidential aspirants.
Any one who says that the overthrow of the PNDC was the work of just one individual must belong to bedlam. In the final analysis it is the collective efforts of all Ghanaians occasioned by increasing international pressure to stop bullying the population and allow government by universal suffrage that did the trick.
Yet history would not be complete if we forget the self-sacrifices and courage of men like Kwesi Pratt in those crucial moments. People would not even dare compare Rawlings with Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. He has no blood on his hands to begin with, whilst Jerry Rawlings needs to account for the whereabouts of 246 Ghanaians who disappeared or were extra-judicially murdered under his military junta.
I have always known that truth never hides. After the 1966 CIA-inspired coup d'etat, we were all here when the use of the name, photo and image was banned and possession of them was made a criminal offence by those who claim to be following a tradition that promotes democracy and freedom of speech. Desîte the bombs, the coups, the bannings today, we have the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and next week on the 21st of September, 2009, Ghana and the rest of Africa shall be observing a special national holiday in his honour of the cetenary anniversary of his BIRTHDAY.
To the chagrin of his traducers Nkrumah is being taught to a new generation of Ghanaians in eloquent and practical ways. One such self-sacrificing apostle of the Osagyefo is the fearless Comrade Kwesi Pratt, Jnr. The one thing some people can not stand about Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., is the kind of things he says about Kwame Nkrumah:
"Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was not just the first President of Ghana but a very extraordinary man whose life and works contributed significantly to changing the world." He recently wrote, "He grew from a little village boy in Nkroful in the Western Region of Ghana to a world leader fully devoted to the struggle to free all black people from all forms of racism.
He was also against everything which kept people irrespective of their colour in conditions of slavery. He opposed oppression and exploitation in all its forms. Many historians including Basil Davidson and F. K. Buah credit Nkrumah with the leadership of the struggle which led to granting independence to many African countries under various forms of colonialism. Indeed Nkrumah is placed in the same category as Einstein, Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, Toussant L'Ouverture and Mahatma Gandhi whose ideas and actions helped to make the world a better place."
Certainly not the kind of language that those Busia-Danquah elements that the CIA referred to as "pathetically pro-Western" would take kindly to! For the economy of time, and without affecting simplicity at the cost of accuracy, I want to launch an open challenge to the senseless attempts to undermine the integrity of one of easily the cream of the cream of Ghanaians who toiled day, and deep into the night, woke up with insufficient sleep in the eyes to go to demonstrations, tired before it begins because he was constantly a centre of action!
If today, Ghanaians are enjoying the praises being heaped on us by the international community and expecting to reap the fruits of peace, political stability, and God-willing economic prosperity with our soon to be out-doored credentials as an "Oil exporting country", in dignity and in peace, it is squarely thanks to the yeoman and gargantuan efforts by people like Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.
The recruitment of the NPP leadership into the MFJ must not be under-estimated, because like the open letter of Dr. Hilla Liman that broke the culture of silence, the formation of the MFJ is what marked the begining of the end of the PNDC dictatorship. It was an initiative between the NDM and the KNRG. The URF and the AYC joined later. The AYC pulled out as they refused the admission of Adu Boahene on the basis of chairman. They would have preferred one of the original brains to head. Translated into everyday language, it means Nkrumahist because all the founding groups were Nkrumahist groups.
The attempts to smear Kwesi, ridding on the waves of the current uproar shall not work. And no one can deny the noble role he has played and continues to play in our nation's history. Certainly Kwesi alone did not make everything happen, but Kwesi was certainly a medium when he was sent by his colleagues to see Adu Boahene about the MFJ. Because Kwesi readily agreed with him to chair the movement the MFJ was able to put to sleep the Nkrumahist tag and assumed a truely national character. Because Johnny Hansen was the Vice Chairman, Kwesi Pratt, Jnr as Secretary, it was also not a purely Busia-Danquah affair. The fact that Prof. Adu Boahene himself testified several times that this unity was thanks to a great extend the personal chemistry (I'm sorry, Kwesi, but for the lack of a better word!) was fundamental in creating the united front. The trials of Kwesi and Adu Boahene was also another way of looking at the sights and sounds of the heroes of the 4th republic.
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Nana Akyea Mensah
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e-mail: nanakyeamensah@gmail.com Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
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