Comment: Akufo-Addo Will Never Accept Defeat!

The odds are againstNDC in 2012 -KNUST Lecturer

From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia-NDC General Secretary

A LECTURER  at the Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST), Mr. Amakye Boateng has warned that the success or otherwise of next year’s crucial elections would largely depend on the government’s willingness and commitment towards free, fair and transparent polls.

Asserting that the odds would be against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in December 2012, the KNUST Lecturer cautioned that the ruling party would do everything possible to hold on to power, and that this could trigger unlikely circumstances, if care is not taken.

Mr. Amakye observed that unfolding circumstances cast bad shadows on the electoral fortunes of the NDC, and this he said, would make the ruling party adopt certain unorthodox means in order to maintain power. He said, this situation, coupled with the lackadaisical attitude of the Electoral Commission (EC), should give Ghanaians course to worry. Read more

MY COMMENT:

If it comes to a question of who is more desperate than the other, the answer cannot be an exhaustive one if we forget the obvious political expiring date ticking at the back of Akufo-Addo. We know this is his last chance. We also know that he is a sore-loser. He did it to Kufour in 2000. He did it to President Mills in 2009, and his "all die be die!" chants, do little to calm the impression that he is the more desperate one.

Akufo-Addo was not surprised that he lost the 2008 Presidential elections. He had already been warned about it by Professor Larry Gibson in advance! Yet he was able to pretend that he could have won if his "numerous" supporters in the Volta Region had been allowed to vote! I think there is no need to wait for Akufo-Addo to lose to find out whether or not he is going to accept the results. I think he is automatically going to cry foul, even though his chances this time are even slimmer than the last time around!

From their own admissions, the Akufo-Addo campaign is not going well at all. In his latest article, "Negative Campaign In Ghana And Lessons From .....", Feature Article of Saturday, 8 October 2011, Otchere-Darko, Gabby Asare, the author, who is also the Executive Director of the Akufo-Addo PR-team known as "the Danquah Institute" admits that the NDC deserves "some credit for even succeeding in putting the opposition on the defensive much of the time. "

Akufo-Addo's problems with the crucial Ashanti vote which can make or break is far from resolved. Apparently the "Agenda 2016" Team led by Kufour and Allan Cash is even more optimistic and better organized than the "Victory 2012" in the Ashanti Region. It is the group which controls the Ashanti Region that will decide the winner.

So far, it seems the "Agenda 2016" are not prepared to wait to 2020 before they taste the power that they see as inevitably coming their way in 2016! Having had some of them beaten up for simply showing up at Victory 2012 circles, they need a good convincing to play ball. The NPP is clearly a house divided against itself, even though neither side wants to admit that publicly for obvious reasons.

The chances of Akufo-Addo winning are very slim indeed. He is going into this campaign as the under-dog. And he needs to show some statesmanship at the twilight of his retirement, and graciously accept his defeat. Scheming troubles to attract "the international community" to come and bomb us and impose a losing candidate on Ghana is what I dread! This is why it is important that the narrative of Mr. Amakye Boateng must not go unchallenged.

Forward Ever! Backward Never!!!