Display options Mobile website

Feature Article of Monday, 21 March 2011

Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea

Akufo-Addo: "We Akans Are Not Cowards..."

Akufo-Addo: "We Akans Are Not Cowards, In 2012 All Die Be Die!" - Part One

Feature Article, by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

a rejoinder to "Red Alert For Our Welfare?" by Krapa, Herbert, Ghanaweb

Feature Article of Saturday, 19 March 2011
Introduction: The Elephant is beating about the Bush!

We all knew, even before Dr. Arthur K. Kennedy superfluously confirmed it,
that the elephant had been chased into the bush, the moment President Mills
took the Oath of Office as the President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana two
years ago! What is new is the current phenomenon which indicates that the
elephant has not just been chased into the bush, but it also appears to be
beating about the bush! * *

Akufo-Addo must recognise that Ghanaians shall never accept such
ethnocentric outbursts. And we are going to make sure he comes to his senses
and withdraw the offensive aspects of his speech, otherwise he will not like
what he is going to read each time he fails to do the right thing and begins
to play his monkey tricks to escape responsibility and accountability for
these utterances. He shall see this as the temperature of my pressure rises
with each subsequent publication under the same title to be released in
parts, that the earlier he complies with my humble request to gracefully
withdraw the offensive aspect of his speech, the better it will be for him
for his chances of securing a respectable second place in the forth-coming
presidential race!

There are thousands of NPP members, particularly the non-Akans, but not
necessarily limited to the non-Akans only. Tor example a rabid and
semi-illiterate and formerly ethnocentric like most members of the NPP until
he passed through my hands on Ghanaweb, had this to say, whilst defending
* *
"Let me make it crystal clear here that, I do not agree with the part of
Nana's speech talking about the bravery of Akans and making it seem like NPP
is an Akan party at war with the Ewe dominated NDC Party. Ghanaians are not
going to war war with each other, we have come a long way in our democratic
rebirth we will not resort to the Kenya or Ivory Coast examples but we will
not allow any Party, either NPP or NDC to hijack any election in Ghana, that
NDC should not try to rig the 2012 election. Rawlings peacefully handed over
to Kuffour and he in turn did the same thing to Mills. We expect Mills or
Nana Konadu Agyeman to concede defeat gracefully in 2012 when the tide turns
against NDC. We do not need to use guns, arrows and bows to affirm the will
of the people. Ghanaians are too enlightened and matured to resort to this
kind of primitive [endevour]." See; 'NDC Dunderheads, Atta Mess "Threatened"
Kenya On Ghana', Columnist: Sarpong, Justice, Feature Article of Sunday, 13
February 2011.

And please take note! Justice Sarpong is an Akan member of the NPP! An
Ashanti, to be precise. So such gimmicks are going to prove a hard-sell
even to die-hard NPP members! That is how bad the situation is today. And
the only solution to this is a crystal clear apology, not running away with
silly articles such as the one currently under review.

On "the claim that we Akans are cowards"

Mr. William Kofi Akufo-Addo, flag-bearer of Ghana's right-wing opposition
party, the NPP, did not miscalculate the timing for the need to draw
attention to himself before all the cameras turn of his arch-rival President
John Evans Atta-Mills in the lead up to the delivery of the State of the
Nation Address. President Mills has been gathering positive opinion-polls
after opinion-polls especially after each of his recent public
interventions, such as the recent "two years in office" media encounter
which had the issue of whether or not Ghana should go to war in the Ivory
Coast. He carried the nation, including some traditional NPP supporters with
him in his very wise and astute diplomatic tango to dismantle attempts to
impose a war on us from without.

The state of the nation address was an occasion to look as Presidential as
possible and canvass for political legitimacy. It is thus understandable
that Mr. William Kofi Akufo-Addo, would want to draw attention to himself.
What I find very difficult to understand is what he chose to say and how he
said it. Here is what Akufo-Addo said:

"They have made up their minds that they are going to intimidate us in
2012." Akufo-Addo was caught on the microphone, speaking in Twi, an Akan
language, 'I sometimes explain this as the claim that we Akans are cowards.
They argue that if one is able wound one or two of us, then all the rest of
us remaining take to our heels! Is that so? Well, We shall see! Atiwa for
example, was a little illustration of this. During the by-elections at Atiwa
we did "something small" that showed a little bit of this. And so we have to
understand that this party was formed by brave men. Our elders who formed
this party which is now the biggest political party in Ghana, were not
people who were hiding under beds!

The courage that is needed now to face the 2012 elections is 'All die be
die! All die be die!' Nobody is a man more than his fellow! Nobody more
manly than the other. No matter how tall you are, no matter how small you
are in size, by God's plan, all of us are endowed with exactly the same
thing. You cannot tell us that you have three inside yours. All of us have
how many? Two! Ha! ha! ha! So we are going to pick up courage. Ghanaians
need us to come back to power. Whatever courage we need to stand firmly and
to ensure that we come back to power in 2012, we are going to have to do
it!" (Transcription by the Office of the Odikro, from audio, source:
@joyonlinenews: Listen to key voices on Nana Akufo-Addo's 'all die be die' /

I think that to explain the President's effective response to the silly
threats to the security of our nation is not necessary because it is
self-explanatory from the levels of stupidity and irresponsibility behind
this very mindless call for inter-ethnic conflicts in Ghana, instead of a
national inter-party competition which cut across ethnic lines and prevent
the hardening of organised and systematic civil strife such as the flames of
"tribalism", xenophobia, racism, and sorts of social ills that have the
potential to paralyse a nation.

I think the President gave a measured and responsible response to a
dangerous powder keg of politically explosive and unnecessary, uncalled-for
buffoonery of inciting inter-ethnic strife and conflict at this time of the
day and age! The timing of the Present in dealing with this took the bull by
the horns. It sends the clear and unequivocal message that they need to
know, the the President is awake to his responsibilities and Oath of
"ensuring the safety of Ghanaians"! I don't see what is so funny about this:

"On Thursday, February 17, 2011, the President, Prof. Mills, in his state of
the nation address, supposed to be the general situation and status of the
entire country, remarked to all of us, that, “Madam Speaker, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, and having sworn to protect
the integrity of mother Ghana, I have put security agencies on red alert and
they are under strict instructions to deal decisively within the ambit of
peace and stability of this dear nation of ours. We will not sit idly by and
satisfy their self-centered and inordinate political desires.”

"We members of the NPP are not cowards"

If Akufo-Addo had said: "We members of the NPP are not cowards", and not "We
Akans are not cowards", it would have probably not necessitated the kind of
high profile attention and the sense of urgency the President attached to
this. It is rather frustrating to see that instead of people who are closer
to Akufo-Addo putting everything aside and seriously pointing out to him,
the gravity of of the situation in hi his irresponsible statement has
plunged our nation into. The kind of image he has cut for himself with this,
and do a deep soul-searching, Does the write of this article really think
the "All die be die" nonsense could be brushed under the carpet with a
half-witted article of this nature?

Indeed the President was not alone in this. We were all very much horrified
and instantly amazed the moment those words were uttered. It is as unusual
as it is unprecedented, that a leader of a major political party in Ghana
could mount a public platform and speak in his Twi dialect to a very close
audience of only those destined to understand the Twi, that "We Akans are
not cowards, therefore 2012 All die be die!" What type of lunacy is that? Is
this the effect of alcohol or some other drugs?

Equally important and crucial in the role of Akufo-Addo's PR handlers,
(Herbert Krapa is a press aide to NPP Flag-bearer, Mr. William Kofi Nana
Akufo-Addo) is to give the correct feed-back and make the people feel they
are being listened to. Otherwise this leads to charges ranging from
insensitivity to absolute arrogance. In the place of retraction and apology
this is the best gimmick that the Akufo-Addo Public Relations guru could
come up with! It appears they are gloriously oblivious that the are leaving
their toxic faeces in public places! Just listen to Herbert Krapa:

"Mr. Osu Castle resident President, the Ghanaian people, thanks to the mass
media and information technology, are clear in our minds that there is no
tension in any part of Ghana today: we haven’t heard, we haven’t seen.
Indeed, for many of us, the biggest insecurity of our lives today, is the
growing hardships and sky rocketing cost of living that your obviously
insensitive government continues to subject us to."

Meet Your Violent "Akan" National Party!

Here are some of the fundamental flaws of going the "Akan tribal party"
angle. If you believe that the economy is the most important issue for
Ghanaians, it should not be too difficult for you to imagine that this is a
question that all Ghanaians, irrespective of ethnicity, use the same
currency, go to the same market, and enjoy fairly equitable access to
education, health and employment, more essentially based upon economic class
rather than ethnicity.

Your ideological bankruptcy shows in the manner you opportunistically use
the argument about the economy to divert attention from the fall-outs of
that unfortunate statement. He has tried to hug the President, it did not
work, so this is the next best foot forward. You cannot promote a system
that thrives on elitism and primitive loyalty based upon ethnicity and at
the same time launch a popular appeal about the economy! I suppose he is
talking about "economic development" during a heated "inter-tribal war"! How
can you talk about war, which death and destruction, on one side of the
mouth, and turn around to talk about the economic hardships on the other
side of the mouth?

Are you not ashamed of yourself for asking the following stupid question?
Couldn't you have tried harder? Are you not being paid well for the job you
are doing? Do you want to insult our intelligence? Ha?

"All Die Be Die!"

What is this? Listen to him:

"Akufo-Addo’s “all-die be-die” call is a peaceful one, members of the NPP
understand it, the Ghanaian people have embraced it and it is therefore not
a surprise that ever since he made that statement, not a single incident of
violence has been reported in any part of our country in connection to it.
In any case, why are the NDC being hysterical and paranoid about the
statement? The man says if you throw a stone at us, me and my people will
defend ourselves. My question to the NDC is: why worry about such a harmless
comment if you know you will not throw a stone at them?"

Go and tell Akufo-Addo that no amount of spin is going to wash off this
monumental national determination for peace to prevail in Ghana, and to
punish those responsible for breaching the peace as well as inciting
inter-ethnic violence.

Akufo-Addo must withdraw the offending aspects of his speech and render
unqualified apologies for such unqualified bunkum. This is the only way he
can get out his current predicament. Certainly not mentally-challenged
assumptions and analysis as has just been churned out by his very
unintelligent propaganda team led by Mr. Herbert Krapa, press aide to the
NPP flag-bearer's so-called "Victory 2012 Team"!

I remember, as a young man in the early days of my university life, I was
always amused at the humour behind such bizarre expressions such as "If you
have nothing to say, don't say it here!" I found it so funny! Then, later on
in life, as an adult, I came across the Australian version. The
Australians say, "Tell your story walking!" Of course, the point in this is
that they are very anxious that by the time you would be half-way through
your obviously stupid story, you would be out of ear-shot, and they could
resume their normal activities in peace and have their peace of mind
restored! I think that is apt.

Tell your story walking!

I really believe that should the unexpected misfortune for Ghana happens,
and Akufo-Addo becomes the President of Ghana he would be the worst
President that Ghana ever had. I am often confused between Kufour and
Rawlings, but Akufo-Addo does not leave a doubt! I did not like Kufour, but
at least, he appeared to be listening! When he claimed at the Kasoa rally to
their hungry-looking supporters that there is no one hungry in Ghana, it
backfired. Many Ghanaians did not like what he said.

Kufour, the listening President, would mount another platform at Nwabagyina,
his home-base, and make the necessary amendment to the effect that "I am
very sorry for the mistake I made at Kasoa." His Excellency was full of
wine, He muttered something to this effect: "Admired, there are Ghanaians
who are hungry. It was an error on my part to claim that no Ghanaian is
hungry. Some Ghanaians are hungry, but those are the lazy individuals!" This
is a listening President! It is not someone who is so arrogant that even
when it is obvious that he has committed a blunder he arrogantly and very
stupidly continues to repeat it, then change tactic, go and hug the
President, whilst he sends his lieutenants to fire as much nonsense as
possible to keep him away from imply saying, "I am sorry"!

We have work on our hands to ensure that such a person never gets near to
the seat of power. As Nkrumah rallied the people of the Gold Coast, "all men
danger, to servitude in tranquillity." those who are organising silly
psychological warfare stoking any kind of flames that can help them in the
"manufacture of public consent" seem acceptable to these merchants of death!
"Me nim NPP firi tete"! I know them so well that they even make me laugh.

When they are out of power, they have a different set of register and
vocabulary, such as the talk about "the unfortunate hardships that his
insensitive fuel price hikes have brought to all of us,", but we also know
that whenever you see them in power, you are also seeing the time when the
"poor Ghanaians", "unfortunate hardships" dramatically change, at a time
whilst ironically stealing and looting the economy, the poor and the hungry
Ghanaians suddenly become "lazy individuals"!

I avail myself of this opportunity, my dear Mr. Krampa, to extend to you,
the assurances of our highest consideration.

*Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!*

This article has no comments yet, be the first to comment