PERISCOPE DEPTH, Monday, January 22, 2024
Several years ago, the wife of a Vice President of Ghana developed an unexpected affliction of diarrhea, that is, diarrhea of the mouth. In a completely unexpected attack, she charged on the teachers of Ghana for begging for everything. On hindsight, the teachers were probably deserving of the attack; Ghanaians have a very unhealthy habit of depending on the central government and political class for everything, which is probably why we are so bereft. But I digress.
Following her attack on teachers, I happened to have granted the lady prominent front page space over her slip (call it putting her foot in her mouth), which front page space attracted the attention of some people in this lady’s political party, who called me on the side, to express how offended they were by what the lady has done. You see, she was causing them votes.
You see, it is a political fact that sometimes, people closest to us are completely unarmoured by our actions, but are completely powerless to say what they really feel and think.
This incident has come back to my mind in the light of recent events. These events are what can be described as the increasingly (seemingly) carelessness of President Akufo-Addo in some of his pronouncements in recent times.
The first incident reportedly happened when the President visited victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage where he is reported to have said, ““I shouldn’t be here because you don’t vote for me.”
The second incident of what can only be described as another example of ‘careless presidential talk’, is when the President met the chiefs of Ekumfi recently and is reported to have said that he ignored sending development to the Ekumfi area because they voted against the person he had nominated to become their member of Parliament.
These are the two recent incidents that come to mind as I write this piece. They are coming at a time when some people in the President’s political party are gearing up for elections, and they must not be too thrilled at the President’s increasingly garrulous tongue.
Indeed, as a politician myself, there are things that I feel, and say within the privacy of my own home, and within the confines of my head, but which I would never allow to slip past my tongue, even to my closest associates.
To those in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are preparing for elections in the Central and Volta regions of Ghana, the President’s sudden diarrhea of the mouth must be leading to a certain degree of stomach pain. What does this man think he is doing?
Enough has been said about this incident, but one can say that the President’s words, what he dares to say in public, must indicative of what he thinks.
To begin with, has the President been selecting and directing who and who should be able to contest on the ticket of the NPP in various constituencies?
If the President has been doing that, and dedicating resources in that direction, then he most certainly is sending the NPP into parliamentary minority.
You see, the fact of the matter, is that the best fortunes of the NPP would only come forth, if the party is able to select the most suitable candidates in the various constituencies, and not the most moneyed, or in this case, who is the disciple of a man with a waning political star, which, with all respect, is President Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo would have done much better for his party, if he had left well alone.
And he would do well enough for his party, if he would learn to guard and guide his tongue as others work to restore the increasingly fragile image of the NPP.
