I don’t know about others, but I am one of those Ghanaians who think the NDC’s ‘Thank You’ tours are getting one too many.
The party Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia’s ‘thank you tour at Tamale, clashing with that of President Mahama, who was in Sawla within the same constituency, same week, for the same purpose, is a case in point. Mahama did the 16 regions last year.
I listened to the defence put up by Majority Chief Whip, Rockson Dafeamekpor, explaining the rationale for the Chairman’s tour.
The explanation makes sense. But as someone asked, what conversation does ‘Thank You’ have with the January 2023 reshuffle of Haruna Iddrisu as Minority Leader and Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka as Minority Chief Whip?
How the NDC chooses to spend its money is none of my business, but as a newspaper columnist to whom everybody’s matter matters to me, the clash suggests a lack of co-ordination by the centre. Was Jubilee House unaware of the Chairman’s itinerary, and vice versa?
Haruna’s reference to “curtain-raiser” or “fake thank you” suggests to me that he was aware of the Chairman’s presence in the constituency for that function.
If indeed he was, then the President was aware. If my reasoning is correct, then I am surprised the President followed Haruna to Sawla.
Advantage
Back to the Chairman’s speech, the people are asking what advantage he thought the revelation would inure to the political future of the NDC, going into 2028?
As Chairman, did he care about the tribal, religious and, therefore, political implications of antagonising Haruna at the latter’s backyard at this time?
One does not need political savviness to discern the undercurrent at play here.
First of all, it is evident that Haruna and Mosquito are at daggers drawn.
Haruna, obviously still feeling wounded, has not forgiven the Chairman for the 2023 reshuffle.
Secondly, Ghanaians took note that the President was at the Sawla rally and heard Haruna so describe the Chairman’s tour.
That places the President and Haruna in one camp.
Using Aristotelian syllogism, “If A is equal to B and B is equal to C, then C is equal to A”. There is something in the soup.
It is not for nothing that Asiedu Nketia is named General Mosquito. His political teeth are sharp and when he bites, they sink so deep that his opponents seldom recover quickly, if at all.
Remember the fatal blow he dealt to Ofosu-Ampofo, his opponent in the NDC chairmanship race in December 2022.
He “accidentally” happened to be at Peace FM on December 14.
Invited for an interview, he commented on a leaked tape whose contents suggested that the party’s defeat in 2020 was a direct result of failure of leadership at national level.
Those he was addressing, and all NDC supporters in Ghana, immediately knew whom “leadership at the national level” was referring to: Ofosu Ampofo.
On the leaked tape, Asiedu Nketia also acquitted himself of blame in his performance at the Election Petition which NDC lost.
On the tape, he was heard “confessing” that “in the night of the 2020 election, at the most crucial time when the NDC was to do its collation, the system that the (NDC) Director of IT brought and touted as robust, crashed after collation of results of five regions.”
This, Asiedu Nketia claims, “is why when we went to court and they asked me about my results, I said I did not bring any result”.
Remember that for years, NDC had officially boycotted Peace FM’s Kokrokoo morning show. How did Asiedu Nketia, “accidentally” drop in on the station’s morning show just in time to be asked if the contents of the tape was true, to which question he “reluctantly” answered in the affirmative?
Motivation
In the instant case of the Tamale Thank you tour, the question is, what was the General’s motivation for “revealing” the reasons for the Haruna/Muntaka 2023 reshuffle in Parliament ― after three years?
For Asiedu Nketia to refer to Haruna as “my boy”, in Haruna’s own ‘18’ in Tamale, was a low blow. Asiedu Nketia is not a naïve politician.
He picks his battles, and in nearly all instances, he wins them.
That is why people are wondering what wild card the Master Strategist has up his sleeve, what with his use of “I” throughout his Tamale speech.
In that speech, he revealed that John Mahama was against the Haruna-Muntaka reshuffle, but “I countered by reminding him (Mahama) that I am the coach, and he (Mahama) backed down”.
He says that in January 2025, it was “I” who prevailed upon Mahama to give Haruna and Muntaka prominent appointments.
You don’t joke with this man! Even Presidents obey him!!
But, in the run-up to 2028, the fears the NPP will harbor if Asiedu Nketia becomes flagbearer are: Will the North’s vote reflect their solidarity with and sympathy for Haruna?
Will the Zongo communities of Ashanti desert Muntaka and vote for a presidential candidate who is a sworn foe of their darling Ashanti politician?
The writer is the Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: