I personally witnessed, via Youtube, the rather vitriolic and malediction-laden response to the Final State of the Nation Address of the recently outgone or retired President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Nzema Rising Star and recently Mahama 2.0 Government-appointed Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and found it to be stereotypically and propagandistically in keeping with the cynical trademark style of the key operatives of the then-incoming John “European Airbus Payola SE” Dramani Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
For the most part, any reflective and critically thinking Ghanaian citizen was likely to have felt disconsolately mortified and humiliated by the rejoinder, because the tone and the temper in which it was inexcusably and vituperatively delivered by Mr. Buah informed the auditor-listener more about the patent intellectual vacuity and downright moral bankruptcy of both the presenter and the entire vanguard leadership of the steamrolling institutional juggernaut that is the late Chairman Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings-founded National Democratic Congress and before the latter, the even more sanguinary junta that was the Rawlings-led Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC).
Which was why I found the entire exercise to be rather intellectually and morally incongruous, in view of the fact that of all the shortcomings of the clearly collectively authored Armah-Kofi Buah Rejoining Speech could find about the governance of the twice, consecutively elected outgoing President Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party’s Members of Parliament on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee could only single out a few selected minor unflattering aspects of Mr. Buah’s speech for upbraiding and demand an unqualified apology before joining the members of the NDC Majority on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee to approve the nomination of the inveterate Akufo-Addo critic as a Minister-Designate for Lands and National Resources (See “Parliament Approves Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah as Lands Minister-Designate Amidst Controversy” Ghana News Agency (GNA)/ Modernghana.com 1/29/25).
His rejoining speech was embarrassing to the image and the reputation of our beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana, because Mr. Buah rather scandalously and sophomorically ignored the presence of the dozens of the specially invited members of the resident International Community of the Diplomatic Corps – composed of High Commissioners and Ambassadors and Heads of Multinational and Transnational Aid Agencies and the Global Business Community – and rather morally dispiritingly behaved almost as if it was a completely and a hermetically or an exclusively domestic affair.
It also cut a gloomy profile about the incoming Mahama-led leadership of the National Democratic Congress, who curiously seemed to be shockingly oblivious of the fact that many of these invited diplomatic community guests had been living in the country for quite a considerable while and were therefore reasonably well aware of the overwhelming majority of activities on the ground, as many of them were also reasonably well equipped with the knowledge and the expertise of staffs of a diverse background of disciplines, including intelligence gathering in such areas as national development achievements and policies and the general social and the political dynamics and the climate of the country.
Which is why instead of so lamely attempting to extort an unqualified apology from Mr. Buah which, at any rate, was conspicuously unwarranted, the New Patriotic Party Minority Caucus’ Members on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee could have more constructively put up a powerpoint presentation about the massive achievements of the twice, consecutively elected Akufo-Addo government in sharp juxtaposition with the virtual national development train wreck and veritable wasteland that was the previous Mahama regime (2012-2017).
You see, as a political figure and a personality, it is unarguably clear to all Ghanaian citizens that Nana Akufo-Addo is not the most prepossessing character for any level-headed mature adult Ghanaian citizen to suppose that they can go to bat for without expecting to sustain some quite seriously damaging injuries in return. And it is absolutely no one else’s making but squarely the making of the subject himself. So, the best advice that Yours Truly often gives to those who care about themselves and their own images and reputations, is simply that you do what reasonably little it is that you can go and then let the proverbial chips fall wherever they may. Ultimately, the buck must stop with the doer himself and nobody else.
Even so, I perfectly understand what the Afenyo-Markin Gang was attempting to do, which vividly recalls what Mr. Haruna Iddrisu once attempted to force Mr. Boakye Agyarko, the fired former Akufo-Addo-appointed Energy Minister, who was accused of having made some unflattering remarks about the caliber and professional competence and the integrity of the now-President John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama. Inasmuch as I absolutely am in no way in agreement with his brand of politicking, I must still lay it out bare here that I was, nevertheless, enthused by the flat refusal by Mr. Armah-Kofi Buah to render an unqualified apology to Nana Akufo-Addo or have the same crudely and crassly extorted from him, in wrench or tooth-pulling fashion, as I am also very certain that if the metaphorical shoe had been placed on the other foot, absolutely no apology would have been forthcoming.
No man or woman should be forced to violate his/her conscience-dictated stance on any moral or sociopolitical issue in the manner that the New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Minority Caucus’ Members on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee reportedly attempted to do with Mr. Buah who, by the way, did not competently and efficiently manage the theft-prone Ministry of Petroleum Resources. You see, it was under the tenure of the Ellembelle Member of Parliament that several offshore meters for monitoring the volumes of crude oil lifted from Ghana’s Continental Shelf or Territorial Waters went missing for nearly a whole year, during which period the NDC government could also not account for the proceeds of oil extracted by some foreign mining companies. Now, let’s talk about State Capture, Armah-Kofi and the rest of you NDC Abongo Boys and Girls.
A studious and politically alert Parliamentary Minority Caucus’ Membership could easily and readily have brought this most damning and significant matter up. Instead, we had the Afenyo-Markin Gang behaving pathetically like toddlers who could not even remember events of just three days ago. Using his cousin Mr. Gabriel “Gabby” Asare Otchere-Darko to run his government in his instead, and having the latter illegally and criminally fix the salary scales of First and Second ladies as well as former First and Second Ladies, among a host of other statutorily unwarranted official activities, was not exactly the most ideal manner to run a democratically elected government. One could also bet one’s proverbial Bottom-Dollar that US President Donald John Trump likely borrowed his Agenda 2025 Governance Policy Blueprint from the Abomosu and the Kyebi Mafia.
Just compare a democratically unelected Elon Musk to Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko. The mirror-image resemblance could not be more striking. Of course, equally scandalous and even more eerily striking is that of the Bagbin-proclaimed Prime Minister Stanislav Xoese Dogbe. “When the Panda Firmly Gripped My Hand.” Remember that old Aladura song?
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
February 21, 2025
E-mail: [email protected]
