The NPP's Decent-Minded Silent Majority Must Change The Antediluvian Mindsets Of The Powerful Closet Tribal-Supremacists Who Dominate Their Party

An irate caller telephoned me yesterday to berate me for the "biased anti-New Patriotic Party (NPP) rubbish" I write. The irony is that he spoke English with a northern Ghanaian accent.

Poor man - too blind to the see the elephant in the room: If only he knew how contemptuos of northerners the real 'owners' of the NPP were, he would probably never support that party, and would campaign vigorously  to stop all northerners from supporting it too. Poor sod.

Did he not hear the tape-recording of Yaw Osafo-Marfo's egregious and tribalistic cat-out-of-the-bag Koforidua-effusions? And if he did, what exactly did he make of it, one wonders?

Do such naive people not realise that in reality the NPP is dominated from the shadows by a few powerful, closet Akan tribal-supremacists of the very worst kind?

That is why it is the considered view of some of us that as presently constituted, if the NPP's leadership do not commit to publicly publishing the sources of their party's election campaign funds, as well as their own assets, and those of their spouses, and commit to doing so again after the end of their tenures - should they win power in the 7th December elections - theirs is not a political party that deserves to govern our country.  Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o!

For the benefit of those who think that one is anti-NPP simply by reading one piece  from one's  copious writing over the years - which is a complete falshood because one is only against tribal-supremacists from all Ghana's ethnic groups: who incidentally exist mostly in Chiefs palaces across the entire country, if truth be told - one will recount some of the reasons behind one's loathing of all tribal-supremacist politicians from across the spectrum.

As it happens, when I was growing up, I had the misfortune  of overhearing some of the dinner-table and radio telephone (the Telefunken brand!) conversations, of a number  of the historical figures of the first two regimes that came to power, after the overthrow of President Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) government in 1966.

Even as a young boy in my early teens, and though of Akan heritage myself, I felt revulsion against some of the things I overheard in the conversations of some of the leading figures in  the National Liberation Council (NLC) military regime, and the Progress Party (PP) government,  which followed it when constitutional rule was restored in 1969.

Naturally, as those historical figures are no longer alive to speak for themselves, one cannot possibly reveal their identities - as that would be unethical and unfair to their memories: and uncharitable to their living blood relatives.

I remember some of the conversations generated by the attempted 17th April, 1967, military coup, by Lieutenants Arthur and Yeboah of the Ghana Armed Forces - the failed coup that resulted in the killing of General E. K. Kotoka. Lieutenants Arthur and Yeboah were later executed after their court martial trial.

The telling ingratitude contained in the Twi remark that (to paraphrase in English) God had stepped in to save us - because the Ewes would have been a stumbling block to our plans - represented, was not lost on my fourteen-year old mind: which felt revolted by the calculation and hypocrisy it revealed. It all sounded so unfair to Ewes I felt.

Any self-respecting Ewe, who now supports the NPP, would likely also feel outraged, if like me they too knew the reaction of some of the progeny of the Busia-Danquah political tradition - who were then in the NLC military government - to the killing of General Kotoka.

I also vividly recall the hubris surrounding the attempt to weaken and destroy the Trades Union Congress (TUC), including seizing its national headquarters building.

Again, even at age 14, or thereabouts, I wondered how it was possible for supposedly avowed believers in democracy to be so capricious and vindictive.

The same sense of outrage was my felt reaction to the arrogant, Akan-triumphalist conversations around the passage of the Chieftaincy Act (1971), during those selfsame years.

As regards the continued existence of that disrespectful law,  it is essential, for the sake of the cohesion of our homeland Ghana, that that abomination is  quickly repealed by Parliament - and replaced with a new law that treats all Paramount Chiefs in Ghana equally and with respect.

Indeed, so deeply etched in the inner recesses of my subconscious was that revulsion against the narrow-minded, tribalistic and arrogant conversations I often overheard,  that it led to a lifelong determination never to allow myself to be boxed-in by the straightjacket of stereotypes that underpin prejudices such as tribalism, in my interactions with my fellow humans.

I have stuck to that commitment, till date, thus far. That is why Kofi Thompson happens to be a totally detribalised Ghanaian. Ditto the reason for one's loathing of NPP politicians of the ilk of the Yaw Osafo-Marfos - and their fellow-travellers in the other political parties in our multi-ethnic country.

It is also the reason why I despise those hypocritical Ghanaian politicians, who in reality are closet tribal-supremacists but like to pretend that they are not tribalistic at all when engaged with others in the public space - whatever their ethnic backgrounds happen to be.

Above all, in my humble view, it is important that all politicians on the continent understand clearly that in 21st century Africa, no  tribe is inferior or superior to another. The NPP's Yaw Osafo Marfos need to come to terms with that reality. Their NPP would be far more attractive if that sea-change occurs.
 
Finally, if they want their party to remain relevant in the long-term, the NPP's decent-minded silent majority, must change the antediluvian mindsets of the few powerful, closet Akan tribal-supremacists who currently dominate their party so completely from the shadows - and end their baleful influence over the affairs of the NPP once and for all. We rest our case.