WHO'S BAD-MOUTHING KUFUOR?

Asare Otchere-Darko

In politics you have to have the kind of sense of confidence that can withstand all manner of abuse and ignore all shades of characters posing as critics. Just last week a former MCE told another NPP member that his camp has enough damaging stuff on Nana Akufo-Addo to make the flagbearership race a no-go area for the 2008 presidential candidate. Phew! Well, the people who gathered Sunday at the Baba Yara Stadium to celebrate the 10th anniversary of arguably the greatest traditional ruler (or King) that Ghana has ever had since Independence, may beg to differ, if decibels of approval rating is anything to go by.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s popularity rating remains very high (just ask President Mills) and those who are preparing to challenge him in his party are better advised concentrating on the ideas that they are bringing on board to move Ghana rapidly and substantially forward.

Some of the stories going around are that Nana Akufo-Addo used £3 million ($5m) of campaign money to buy a property at Sloane Square, on the boundaries of the fashionable London districts of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea. They are indeed referring to the house he rented for the one month holiday he spent in London with his wife and kids. Other stories are that his brother Bumpty has bought a house at Mayfair, Central London and Gabby (yes, me) has also used campaign money to buy myself a neat house at Cantonments.

Nana Akufo-Addo, in his thirties owned a house at the City of Westminster, so owning a house in plush London cannot be a priority for him, at age 64 (in 2008). In 1998 he bought from the private owner, a house (not a piece of land from the NDC government as NDC propagandists are claiming today) at East Legon and inherited his father’s house at Nima and his mother’s in Kyebi. For those who doubt me, ask yourselves how come his name has never once been linked to that of former public officials who acquired state lands.

You may also ask, why would he, so close to the Presidency decide to use money for his own campaign to own a house in a foreign country? Yet, this rumour is being peddled at the very highest circles within the NPP. Nana may be used to the good life (all his life) yet he is not materialistic, greedy or stupid. Bumpty has one of the best houses in Ghana, which took him about ten years of hard work to build. He loves his brother so much to do something that stupid. And, me? Well, my mother lived on that same street years ago so I don’t think moving back there would be such a big moment for me to use my cousin’s campaign money to acquire a property worth about $700,000. If I moved straight from plush Kensington in London to Accra, should it be such a big deal that my staying in a plush area in Accra has to be linked to campaign money?

There are still decent people in this country who go into politics for what they can contribute to pull a lot more of our compatriots from poverty to climb the ladder of prosperity. Hopefully, these are not matters that would determine who wins the race in 2010 or 2012. Ghana is going through extraordinary times which require extraordinary leadership. Pettiness just won’t do.

According to a press release, former President John Agyekum Kufuor left Accra last Monday night for the United States and Germany to attend separate high-level meetings on reform of the World Bank and improvement in land administration in Africa. A statement signed by Frank Agyekum said Mr Kufuor's first stop will be in Washington DC where he will attend the first meeting of a 12-member high-level Commission set up this year for the modernisation of the World Bank.

Ghana has certainly moved forward since the days when our former Presidents would have been best considered as ambassadors for anti-mosquito programmes.

But, I also understand that before Kufuor left for Washington he met a few people where the matter of Mustapha Hamid’s blogspot article where he questioned President Kufuor’s judgment, with specific references, was discussed.

In my view, I think too much of nothing has been made about Mustapha’s piece which he says came out of his memoirs to be published later on this year. Those criticising Nana Akufo-Addo's spokesperson for the 2008 campaign say he should have been mindful and more considerate of the greater effort to improve relations between Messieurs Kufuor and Akufo-Addo. This publication would only deepen the mistrust that already exists between “the two camps.” Some say Mustapha shouldn’t have washed NPP’s dirty linen in public.

What this presupposes is that indeed NPP does have dirty clothes that are pungently calling for the laundry; that, the two men (Kufuor and Nana) who should no better are not behaving like seasoned politicians with shared interests and the destiny of a nation to consider. But, these are all presuppositions.

Frankly, Mustapha did not make any revelation in that piece. He said nothing profound. He did not say anything that Ghanaians didn't already know and have an opinion on. He mentioned the over-flocked ‘Hotel Kufuor’ issue, Richard Anane’s ordainment as the only man fit to tar our roads in the eyes of Kufuor, the order for two presidential jets which Kufuor was not to personally enjoy, the construction of a national landmark presidential palace for his successors, and two recent issues to do with the politically incorrect decision of Kufuor to appoint his special advisor, Chinery Hesse as head of the ex-gratia committee and the non-issue decision of the previous government to allocate and prepare a retirement office for Kufuor in anticipation of his ex-gratia settlement.

In my view, Mustapha could not have been ignorant of the furor his piece would cause and the conspiracy theories involving Nana Addo it was bound to generate. He could not have also forgotten so soon Kufuor’s particular sensitivity to criticism from within. But, he damned the consequences and did it. My view is that it was an unnecessary piece generating needless agitation for the fact that it said nothing new. But politics make a big enough table for such side dishes.

I am told, even when a copy of the ‘offending’ piece was brought to the notice of the former President, the person who did so (one of the people criticised in the said article) added a comment to the effect, “This is the sort of thing that Gabby and Victor Newman are doing.”

There is a young man, who worked with me at The Statesman some years back, who has been writing so freely that I am free to doubt if he is that serious about his ambition to be the next NPP National Youth Organiser. His name is Mahama Haruna from Bole.


His criticisms of Messrs Kufuor and Kyerematen have been recently most consistent, getting people to conclude that he is in the so-called ‘Akufo-Addo Camp’. Yes, he was one-time Castle Correspondent for the Castle, but Kwabena Agyepong’s team disrespected him so much, reducing him to taking taxis from the Castle to follow the President to cover presidential programmes, that I pulled him out from there, for the insulting manner the Castle under the NPP treated a correspondent from The Statesman.

He is also remembered for being one of the original members of FONAA even though he dramatically ‘betrayed’ the side by opting out to join the campaign of Vice President Aliu Mahama for the flagbearership.

This young man has written about 14 articles for the Ghanaweb website since Mills was sworn in as President of the Republic. His first one was on NPP and its apparent lack of youth grooming strategy. His second piece, ‘Does NPP Need a Compromise Candidate?’ posted on 6 March, 2009 (Independence Day) showed his independence of mind when he wrote that the “polarisation of Nana Akufo- Addo and John Agyekum Kufour/Alan kyerementeng camps never helped the NPP's cause,” and asked, “In view of this, would it not be better to go for a neutral person who would hold the party together so as to win the 2012 election?”

He wrote, “Some believe there were serious mistakes that if Nana Akufo-Addo and his campaign team had avoided, he would have been sworn in as President. They contend that granted certain policies of the Kufour government- the construction of the Jubilee House, and the purchase of the two jets as well as giving Atta Mills the highest National Award (which he rejected) were unpopular, did Akufo-Addo help himself?”

Yet, this is the man whose articles against Messrs Kufuor and Kyerematen have suddenly made him a Nana Addo man! He is in my view a fiercely independent but committed party man who could do with some direction. Braimah Salifu's grandson, he was UP even before he was born.

Yet, in the compromised tolerance nature of NPP politics today, it is very dangerous to criticise and be seen as merely a concerned party sympathiser or activist. You either have to be with candidate A or B. Is this what the party has to contend with between now and December 2010 when a new flagbearer will be elected at the National Congress? Then God help us all! Before December 2010, even constructive ideas from individuals are viewed with scepticism: ‘Is he not with that candidate? What is the motive behind this idea?’ An informal request from me, as leader of a think tank, to join the NPP Constitutional & Legal Affairs Committee to contribute towards the constitutional reforms of the party was humorously met with this: "So that you can push Nana's agenda!"

In his latest piece on the web, Mr Mahama Haruna said some of those who questioned his motive for his critical writings on Kufuor and Alan asked: “Is it because I was trained as a Journalist by Gabby Asare Otchere Darko (my mentor) and because Mustapha Hamid is my brother. I just wondered if that person knows Gabby very well because I do not think he is what such characters think of him. He tried to offer constructive criticisms and the ills of NPP through his newspaper but was labelled as a traitor, destroyer, an arrogant man and what have you. If Kufour had listened to him, the NPP would have still been in power.”

Well, I’m not so sure how much of my critical counsel at the time would have ended in votes but let me assure those chiefly doubters of my integrity that I have no intention to embark on the academic exercise of criticising former President Kufuor now. It is fruitless in my view. My concern is how the NPP moves forward from here. I may do so as a chapter if I choose to write a book about his exceptional leadership of the country, focusing more in my view on opportunities which I believe should have been better utilised. I believe it makes more constructive sense when criticisms are offered as the matters that give rise to them are unfolding.

To criticise now about matters of the past is to work against an already difficult exercise of finding a common sense of purpose. Let us leave that to the academics and those who are busily writing their memoirs.

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