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Commentary
We invite commentaries from writers all over. The subject is about
Ghana and the world. We reserve the right to accept or reject
submissions, but we are not necessarily responsible for the opinions
expressed in articles we publish......MORE
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Why will the
Rawlingses embrace Akufo-Addo and not ex-President
Kufuor? (Part I)
By Dr.
Michael J.K. Bokor
Monday, May 16, 2016
Folks, the frosty relationship between Ghana’s living
two former Presidents (Rawlings and Kufuor) has
thickened over the years, creating the nasty impression
that they are either at each other’s throat for whatever
reasons best known to them or that they are just a very
bad example of old men who cannot live and let live.
Their wives may have their own kind of mutual antipathy,
but I admire the 80-year-old Mrs. Theresa Kufuor for all
that she has portrayed about herself in and out of the
limelight as a former First Lady. Nana Konadu is a
classic example of a she who must not be feared but
regarded as a pesky bug to be squashed!!
The
frostiness doesn’t end with Rawlings and Kufuor. Another
old man to be easily roped into this love-to-hate
triangle is Akufo-Addo who, until he completely flipped
over to worm his way into the Rawlings’ favour in a
desperate search for political capital for Elections
2012 and 2016, had come across as a dreadful stink-bug
to the Rawlingses. Why didn’t he snuggle to the
Rawlingses for Election 2008? Because, then, the signs
of what pitted him against the Rawlingses were too
scary.
As the relationship between the Rawlingses and
Akufo thaws, it raises eyebrows and intriguing questions
for comment: Having put Kufuor and Akufo-Addo in the
same boat to rock, why is it now possible for the
Rawlings and Akufo-Addo to mend fences while not doing
so with Kufuor? What is it about Akufo-Addo that has
earned the Rawlingses’ respect, favour, and blessing but
not for Kufuor? Why will the Rawlingses forgive
Akufo-Addo for whatever “harm” caused them but not do so
Kufuor? And what do the Rawlings hope to gain from an
Akufo-Addo as President of Ghana (which God has already
forbidden, anyway) that they couldn’t get under Kufuor,
granted that Akufo-Addo has been fingered as one of the
main architects of the woes suffered by the Rawlingses
when Kufuor was in power?
We intend to explore these
questions and many unasked ones with the view to
establishing that there is much to learn from happenings
to shape our national discourse on how Ghanaian
politicians do things to complicate problems and, by so
doing, undermine their own integrity as they turn
politics into a gold mine to exploit.
We begin with
the nastiness characterizing the bad-blood relationship
between Rawlings and Kufuor. We will only highlight
significant moments to shed light on issues. The
foundation for the nastiness seemed to have been laid in
1982 when Kufuor served under Rawlings in the Local
Government Ministry and jumped ship following the
abduction and murder of the three High Court judges and
retired Army Major Sam Acquah. No need to explain this
part because it was one of the major political tools
used by Kufuor to seek power, undermining Rawlings as
such. You think Rawlings will forgive him for it?
When Kufuor won power, his refusal to accommodate
Rawlings’ interests solidified Rawlings’ chagrin. We
know how Rawlings sought to impose on Kufuor, managing
to get a meeting convened for both by a prominent
Ghanaian, at which Rawlings sought to dictate to Kufuor
on how to manage the affairs of state. So i9ncensed was
Kufuor that when Rawlings caused a second meeting to be
held for similar purposes, he shunned it. He stood his
grounds and moved on, leaving Rawlings slackjawed in the
lurch. He couldn’t bring himself to accept the spurning.
Many others. Kufuor’s claim that Rawlings had desecrated
the Osu Castle and the manouevres by his friends in the
clergy to exorcise those evil forces before he could
reside there worsened matters. (Over all, we can’t
accept that refusal of Kufuor to reside at the Castle
for the reasons given. It was just an adroit means he
used to have his private residence in the Accra Airport
Area rehabilitated by the state. Stealing by false
pretences!!).
Kufuor’s wild claim at Offinso that
Rawlings was plotting a coup against him really angered
Rawlings, clearly because it was just one of the
mudslinging moments to give him a bad name and prepare
him for hanging. Constructing Rawlings as “Sasabonsam”,
Kufuor hit hard at Rawlings, writing him off as
“patapaa” and moving ahead to divest him of the protocol
services due him. As a former head of state, Rawlings
had to carry his own luggage, join the queue of ordinary
travelers by air and be searched as such. We can recall
some moments when Rawlings went through such procedures
at the Heathrow Airport and was roundly taunted in
public discourse by his political opponents in the NPP.
That ignominy suffered by him irked him beyond measure.
Talk about Kufuor’s establishment of the National
Reconciliation Commission and the perception that it was
targeted at Rawlings and you can see why Rawlings won’t
ever be willing to forgive Kufuor. In effect, he sees
Kufuor as an ox to be gored. How to do so is his worry.
The prosecution of Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings and the
fact that Rawlings would always be in court during
proceedings really topped up the Rawlingses disdain for
Kufuor. Not even Kufuor’s ill-considered intervention to
free Nana Konadu from the claws of justice could change
the situation.
There are many other instances, but to
cut everything short, we want to say that what triggered
the frosty relationship is so thick as to make it
difficult for both Kufuor and Rawlings to bury the
hatchet. Not even the intervention of the Asantehene or
other prominent personalities could solve the problem.
In the next part, we will examine how Rawlings reacted
to what came from Kufuor’s stable to suggest that the
frostiness is well steeped in a complex network of
invidious and insidious politics).
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the
conversation.
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Yellow fever: World on brink of global emergency
over deadly outbreak, academics warn
IndependentUK, May 10, Ghanadot -
Urgent action is needed to combat a yellow fever
epidemic in Africa amid signs it is turning into
a global health emergency and a severe shortage
of the vaccine, academics have warned
...More
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Diversion Of US $250m..Ato Ahwoi To Sue Top NPP
Lawyer For Defamation
PeaceFM, May 14, Ghanadot - The issue
regarding government’s decision to divert 250
million dollars of the total proceeds from the
$1 billion Eurobond issued in 2015 to the UBA is
sure not to die anytime soon.
......More
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Only mad
60-year olds fault Kwame Nkrumah for Ghana's
development quagmire
Commentary, May
16, Ghanadot
- (T)hat... Kwame Nkrumah is responsible
for Ghana's development quagmire, are bunkum
theses. They are theses without facts and data
They are the concoctions of lazy minds whose
only beneficial attribute, if we can find one,
is their love affair with Cold War-era newspaper
headlines.....More
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David Cameron
calls Nigeria and Afghanistan 'fantastically corrupt'
BBC, May 11, Ghanadot
- David Cameron has described Nigeria and
Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" in a
conversation with the Queen....The PM was
talking about this week's anti-corruption summit
in London.....We got some leaders of some
fantastically corrupt countries coming to
Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the
two most corrupt countries in the world," Mr
Cameron said....
.More
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