Comment: Who Are These War Mongers?

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Who Are These “Parliamentarian Drivers”?

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Comment: Who Are These War Mongers?

Grandson,

I have told you several times, a simple dictum: "if you drink, don't write, if you write, don't drink!"

It appears you don't listen to good advice. What are you really trying to say in this article of yours? That it is aright for the Ivory Coast to claim the Jubilee Fields which is a clear 60 nautical miles away from anything nearer the Ivory Coast? On whose side are you?

Are you trying to "fob off our disgrace with a tale"? How dare you trivialise such a matter as Ivory Coast's claim to the territorial integrity of a neighbouring country? Is this fun? Why did the NPP not resolve such a matter before leaving office?

The very fact that the NPP could not sell its EO cut of the action as a result of the legitimate bloc of the Kosmos-Exxon-Mobil deal, must not in itself necessitate the New Patriotic Party to support Ivory Coast against the interests of Ghana! I thought this deal with the Ivory Coast was only a matter of interest to the Kufour faction of the NPP. By this publication, I see the plot is even wider. If this is what the Danquah Institute think-tank is also thinking, then you people must go back and think twice or more!

Kufour was invited by the Organisation of Professional Journalists of Cote d’Ivoire in February. He returned from this trip on the 12th of February. Samuel Yirenkyi reports in President Kufour back home from Abidjan, Tunis, Friday, 12 February 2010: 

"In Cote d’Ivoire former President Kufuor held two meetings with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who also hosted him to dinner.
Former President Kufuor held high-level talks with leaders and executives of the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI), Parti Democratique de la Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) and Rassemblement des Republicaines (RDR) who are among the front runners in elections scheduled for next month."

My own suspicion is that Kufour, having a very tough time with the NDC government over areas in the oil deals he has cut for himself and his friends to guarantee that they keep their beaks permanently wet, with Kosmos unable to twist the arms of the government in favour of the Exxon-Mobil deal, giving the NDC oil sector more problems to deal with could be a part of the strategy. Besides, if Ivory Coast really succeeds, which means that country would require a good "wink of the eye" from very powerful and interested parties, they could pull it off as their last option. The timing of the statement comes at a time when the internal conflict between the ruling NDC and the ex-president with Kosmos, on the other hand, is at its peak.


There is an organic relationship between the Ivorian right wing political elites and the NPP which dates back to Houghiet Boihene and Dr. Kofi Abrefa days. . Most of the campaign funds used by the Progress Party came from Apartheid South Africa through Houghet Boihehe's Ivory Coast. Whilst he received elephants as symbolic gifts of friendship between Ivory Coast and Apartheid South Africa, Dr. Busia's government started to preach a policy of dialogue with Apartheid South Africa.

Many of them possibly transited and frequented their natural brothers while in exile during the PNDC dictatorship. Most of these people are today in the leadership of the NPP. A handful of them even became ministers under Kufour.
Some of them have good personal relationships with the movers and shakers in the Ivory Coast as they used that country as their base in exile for anti-PNDC activities. Besides, the Ivory Coast is an important a faithful member-observer of the Democratic Union of Africa, of which the NPP, Ghana is the Chairperson, and they are organically sealed politically.

They are extremely laconic about giving information about their activities. They work like a secret society. Here is all the world can know about their last meeting:

"DUA Party Leaders Meeting - 13 - 14 March 2010 Tanzania
The Democrat Union of Africa will hold DUA Party Leaders Meeting hosted by CHADEMA from 13th to 14th March 2010 at Kilimanjaro Hotel Kempinski in Dar es salaam-Tanzania.

    The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Enhancing Strategic Partnerships and developing a framework for free and fair elections in Africa’

The conference will build on the successful DUA Party Leaders events held in the past year and continue to develop the network of leading center and center right politicians in Africa."

As usual, the basic lines are not for discussion, the central issue that brings most of them together is access to international funders. The union naturally has some experienced partners in Europe and the United States Republican Party, through the International Democrats Union, to teach these people a trick or two about ways and means of raising funds by playing cat and mouse with the law. They literally have the same umbillical chord of imperialism.

"Hence the timing and the logic behind the Ivoirians claim prompts one that it is not a decision that was taken overnight but one that has been hatched and nursed for a long time, probably since the day we amateurishly made known to the world our oil discovery in the jubilee field." (See Ghanaweb Archives, Feature Article of Friday, 12 March 2010, The Ivoirians’ Claim: A Classic Case Of Intelligence Failure., Columnist: Guure, Brown)

They are one step ahead of Ghana. I do not think that on their own and without a green light from Kufour, the Cote D'Ivoire would make such outrageous claims. I don't take such a mischief past Kufour, if he was in the Ivory Coast to wine and dine with his long time friends dating back to, at the very least, the late 1960's, did they or they did not raise the issue?

 
If they did, what did Kufour say? Yes, go ahead? No, it's a bad idea? I need some convincing that the Ivory Coast would make such a significant move against Ghana during the reign of an NDC Administration without consulting their friends, or at least, out of courstey, informing them before they also learn about it in the news! But worse than that I believe in my own worse fears: the whole idea must have come from Kufour. He is manoevrering because Kosmos has no legal remedies against the position of the current Ghanaian administration. He looks more like the most concerned member in the room over the Jubilee Field at the dinner!

Meanwhile, Reuters has just reported: Ghana, I.Coast to draw border of oil-rich sea zone, Ghanaweb, General News of Saturday, 13 March 2010. Source: Reuters. People have started asking what the Kufour Administration did with the Ivory Cost in all these years they were in power! 

"The Dzata Well is over 200 kilometres away from Ghana’s maritime boundary with cote-d’Ivoire. A boundary though not clearly demarcated but nonetheless has been respected by both Ghana and Ivory Coast for years. In a sense therefore the Ivoirians do not have their eyes on the Dzata well but on the Jubilee field itself since it is about 60 kilometres away from Ivory Coast." (See Ghanaweb Archives,

Feature Article of Friday, 12 March 2010, The Ivoirians’ Claim: A Classic Case Of Intelligence Failure., Columnist: Guure, Brown)

These are my personal hypothesis. It helps me to fit the pieces into the jig-saw of news that come out on this issue. I am gathering the pieces and forming an evidential picture, and I am inviting people who have little clues to contact me. "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the labourers are few"! I suspect the rest of the story is a matter of investigations. I pray that you may find the time to sniff along this tract and find out if you also smell something else? As I said this is a hypothesis only! The circumstantial evidence is there, nevertheless, so is the motive for the crime!


"Food for thought, and for the vultures" - Joseph Conrad
Thanks for the knowledge. We now know very clearly that it is not only Ghana versus the Ivory Coast but the Danquah Institute, The Kufour faction, and all the bunch of you together are lining up behind the Ivory Coast! This shall also fail, just as all your machinations are failing!

By the way, whether you like it or not, the days of the NPP are over! NDC is going to retain power, come 2012! The CPP is going to take over from the NPP as the largest opposition in parliament in the 2012 elections! And if you like, we shall make our first real dash at it in 2016.

I can assure you however that from the level of growing political awareness in the country, it is very safe to assume that we shall be back in power by 2020! God willing! In the meanwhile, considering the balance of forces, and how evil the NPP has proved to be, we shall make sure that we do not rock the boat too much to let it slip again into their thieving hands!

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Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
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