NPP: The truth on Nana Akufo-Addo’s Houston Town Hall Meeting

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Category: Politics

Created on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 20:12

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{sidebar id=12 align=right}It has come to the attention of the Houston chapter of NPP-USA that our extremely well acclaimed town hall meeting which our 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo was kind enough to herald, has come under a dishonestly vicious attack by one B. B Nkrumah, an imposter claiming to be a Houston resident, but whom no one of repute knows.

We wish to state that the attack was filled with several bold faced lies which we shall expose with video evidence. Mr. B. B Nkrumah may have forgotten that the entire event was video recorded. Hence, we offer Mr. Nkrumah the opportunity to retract his vicious litany of lies.

We further wish to state that NPP-USA Houston Chapter is proud of organising what even some known NDC sympathizers have characterized as “an eye opening event.”

Our ancestors were very intelligent people. The adages that they left us bare so much resonance with the realities and occurrences today.

One of my favorites – “efie biara Mensah womu” or every household has a “Mensah” posits in a sense that there is always going to be that one character in a household who would go east when everyone is going west, sees a white cow when everyone is seeing a black sheep, and so on.

And so it is that at a town hall meeting by NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo with the Ghanaian community in Houston that received rave reviews, one “Mensah” called Nkrumah somehow saw and narrated a completely different episode.

Unfortunately, Mr. Nkrumah’s spin on events at that town hall meeting, if not corrected, has the potential of poisoning perceptions about an exceptional individual whom many have come to know and respect – a man who will become president of Ghana come January of 2013.

But to begin, we wish to point to the “mugging” that took place after Nana wowed the audience. For 20 minutes, he could not leave because he insisted that everyone who wanted to shake hands with him and take a picture got the opportunity to do so.

Throughout his weekend in Houston, Nana Akufo-Addo maintained this practice even in cases when he wanted to leave for another engagement but the crowd would not let him.

The preceding event to the town hall meeting was no different, and that caused Nana to be late. However, so impressive was Nana’s performance that he received a standing ovation after he answered the final question.

The town hall meeting began with prayers said by Evangelist Anane Sekyere. Then at the insistence of Nana Akufo-Addo, all persons who have played a leadership role in the Ghanaian community in Houston were recognised.

Thereafter, the Chairman of the Houston chapter of NPP-USA, Gyamfi Nkrumah welcomed the audience in a brief statement. After that, Nana Agyei Yeboah, Chairman of NPP-USA gave a rousing introduction of his presidential candidate who had to wait a few minutes for the ovation to die down before he could speak.

Nana Akufo-Addo began his speech by profusely apologising to the audience for his tardiness. This is on video, and it will prove that Mr. Nkrumah is simply lying when he writes that Nana Akufo-Addo did not apologise for his lateness. Next Nana politely asked the audience to join him in observing a minute’s silence to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the passing of Joseph Boakye Danquah who helped to build our nation.

Following the theme of the town hall meeting “Ghanaian Diasporan Role Beyond Remittances,” Nana called on Ghanaians abroad to look forward to an NPP administration that will be more inclusive of their acquired skills and talents than ever before.

When Nana Akufo-Addo began to speak about the Woyome scandal, Charles Biney stood up and began singing a new song about the scandal and succeeded in exciting the audience to join him. Nana Akufo-Addo paused his speech and allowed Mr. Biney to take the stage for about three minutes.

But considering that the event was already behind schedule, one member of the organising team walked up to him and persuaded him to sit down. We shall release video coverage to the entire world for Ghanaians to decide if Charles Biney was assaulted as Mr. Nkrumah claims.

The NPP Presidential Candidate went on to articulate his vision for Ghana touching on education, health, corruption, and a host of other areas. On education, his plan includes redefining basic education in Ghana to span Kindergarten to completion of Senior Secondary School and provision of free, quality and accessible Senior High School education to all our children.

He also reiterated the teacher first policy, adding the teacher will be empowered financially and equipped adequately to facilitate their work. Finally on education, Nana Akufo-Addo promised to revisit our curriculum to introduce more science subjects in recognition of the new energy economy that Ghana must now plan for.

On health, Nana Akufo-Addo promised to strengthen the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). He recalled a passionate appeal by a young doctor for the government to rescue the NHIS.

The young doctor praised the program for encouraging patients to come forward earlier with their ailments, a practice that is allowing the physicians to do better at diagnosing their problems. But Nana Addo lamented how the current NDC administration appears to have abandoned the program to the point where the neglect is beginning to have a toll on the provision of health care.

But perhaps the most ingenious program that Nana Akufo-Addo unveiled was his plan to fight corruption. Noting that corruption costs our nation significant amounts of our resources, Nana announced his plan to use the young unemployed youth to serve as undercover anti-corruption agents. Under the plan, the one giving a bribe as well as the one accepting could be an undercover agent.

This culture of fear could go a long way to discourage the practice of accepting bribes to perform duties for which civil servants are paid. A simple cost/benefit analysis shows that the program would more than pay for itself.

After the speech, the moderator Jermaine Nkrumah laid down the rules guiding the question and answer session, which included a one-person-one-question provision, a prohibition from inserting too much statement into questions, and a call to make questions as concise as possible to allow for more questioners to have an opportunity.

Our “Mensah” was fortunate to be given the first question. Not only did it take him about three minutes to ask two questions, he inserted a long statement including his drive time to the venue before asking the questions.

Bent on answering as many questions as possible and determined to stick to the rules, Nana Akufo-Addo told the young man that he would abide by the rules and answer one of his questions and that he should select which one he wanted answered.

Again the video coverage will show the world if B. B Nkrumah’s question took 30 seconds or two minutes, and if his name sake the moderator “snatched” the microphone from him.

Apparently, Nana’s stance did not go down well with Mr. Nkrumah. In a scathing article, he twisted virtually all facts and portrayed a failed event heralded by a conceited candidate.

The fact remains that Nana Akufo-Addo was polite by all accounts. In fact, when one community leader Doe Ladzepo asked a question on oil revenue on which Nana did not have enough information to answer, he humbly asked that he be allowed time to study the issue so that he can issue an educated comment on it in the future.

The audience loved his honesty enough to give him a sustained applause for his candid response. Nana Akufo-Addo even recognised Aleric Seshie, a known NDC supporter for his civility in debating issues affecting Ghana, and made it a point to seek him and embrace him after the event.

Also in recognition of his lateness, Nana Akufo-Addo asked that the event be extended past the 6pm. The program actually ended at 6:45pm and he took another 15 minutes to interact with the audience after he left the podium.

These are facts that can be substantiated by video evidence and all who attended the highly successful town hall meeting. It is imperative that self-aggrandizement by certain individuals is not allowed to poison the reputation of our leaders.

Nana Akufo-Addo ended his weekend in Houston with a hugely successful town hall meeting at which he completely addressed all the issues.

It is time we stopped the character assassination of persons who have dedicated virtually their lives to service of our nation.

Signed NPP-USA Houston Chapter

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Kufour vindicated as Victor Smith confesses $5bn allegation lacked basis

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Category: Politics

Created on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 00:00

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Former President John Kufour says he feels vindicated by the latest confession by Eastern Regional Minister-designate, Mr Victor Smith, that he has no evidence to back his allegation that President Kufour owes over $5billion to some Kuwait oil suppliers. Mr Smith had suggested properties belonging to the former president were being seized to defray the debt.

He first made the allegation on Joy FM in 2008 and dared the then sitting president to sue, after refusing to retract.

But Mr. Smith who yesterday appeared before Parliament’s Vetting Committee, admitted he had no evidence when he was pressed by Deputy Minority Leader, Ambrose Dery.

“Your publication in respect of president Kufuor and $5 billion oil deal Kuwait, as you sit here today, can you prove it”? Mr Dery asked. “Mr Chairman as I sit here I cannot prove,” Victor Smith answered.

Spokesperson for President Kufour Frank Agyekum told Joy News Mr. Smith’s confession only goes to confirm their long held belief that his allegations had no ba sis. Mr Agyekum said as Deputy Information Minister, he challenged Mr Smith to substantiate his allegations “and I told him it was a cock and bull story because to think that somebody somewhere will give $5 billion dollars to [Kufuor], I mean for what”?

“We feel vindicated that when we said it was not true, now it has come out that it is not true and he himself has said he has no basis,” the former Deputy Information Minister said.

Source:Joy News

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Kwame Nkrumah’s Miraculous Escapes

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Category: History

Created on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:35

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IT was all lather and biosterous chatter in the school laundry as we washed our clothes on one of the most memorable days in Ghana's political history, with the news coming on the radio: President Kwame Nkrumah had been overthrown in a military coup!

There were a few stupefied expressions all right; otherwise the jubilation was somewhat spontaneous: Many students raced across the campus, jumping over hedges, doing somersaults, and screaming anti-Nkrumah slogans. It did not occur to me at the time that most of us did not understand the full implications of what had just happened and that we were only reacting with understandable naivety to the sudden fall of a man who had been so demonized by his opponents, that many had actually come to believe Nkrumah was really Lucifer in kente and jumper, a Ghanaian traditional attire.

Looking back, it is now obvious that it had to come to that as a matter of course: There had been too many attempts to kill Nkrumah for something not to eventually give. The arbitrariness of English language English language, grammar and expressions is legendary but even the English will be amused by the idea of bombing a man. It would make sense to talk about bombing a city, an installation or a building, but a man!

Yet Nkrumah had the singular distinction of being a fairly regular target of bomb attacks by opposition elements. There were at least seven attempts to assassinate him during his presidency. When he was not being bombed, he was being shot at. He was bombed in the vicinity of his office, at home, and while addressing political rallies. What appears to have been the first bomb attack occurred on 10 November 1958.

President Nkrumah had a severe cold and was resting--no, working--at home. He had his secretary and several aides around. Suddenly a powerful explosion rocked the house--from floor to rafters. It was the work of unidentified political opponents! There were minor injuries; thankfully no-one was killed.

Thereafter, the assassination attempts picked up steam. On New Year's Day, working in collaboration with the political opposition, senior officers of the Police Force in charge of Nkrumah's security at Flagstaff House where the president had his office, placed a policeman called Seth Ametewe on guard duty at the house, and assigned him to kill Nkrumah.

Constable Ametewe took up position near the car park at Flagstaff House and waited for the president. As Nkrumah walked from his office towards the car park at lunchtime, Ametewe fired at him several times with a rifle, missing his target each time as Nkrumah hastened away. Nkrumah himself recounted the incident in chilling detail in some of his books and memoirs:

"It was 1.00 pm in the garden of Flagstaff House. I was leaving the office to go for lunch when four shots were fired at me by one of the policemen on guard duty. He was no marksman, though his fifth shot succeeded in killing Salifu Dagarti, a loyal security officer who had run after the would-be assassin, as soon as he spotted him among the trees.

"The policeman then rushed at me trying to hit me with the rifle butt. I wrestled with him and managed to wrestle him to the ground and hold him there on his back until help came, but not before he had bitten me on the neck."

I (this writer) am a native of Bawku in Ghana's Upper East Region, and by a twist of fate and circumstance, I was not in too distant proximity with the scene of what was the deadliest bomb attack on Nkrumah at Kulugungu near Bawku in August 1962.

I was among a welcome party of flag-waving pupils who had lined up to welcome Nkrumah as he passed through the town on his way to meet with the then president of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Maurice Yameogo, at the border town of Tenkoudougou. Nkrumah, dressed in resplendent jumper and kente, waved at us from the back seat of a saloon car with a white handkerchief, and I recall noting what a handsome man he was.

After meeting with President Yameogo, Nkrumah stopped at Kulugungu on his way back. He had descended from his car to receive a bouquet from a schoolgirl when a bomb was hurled at him. We were still standing around in Gingande (a suburb of Bawku) with our national flags waiting for his return, when the dispatch riders raced back shouting in Twi, that Nkrumah was dead.

I recall the lead rider standing straight up on the pedals of his motorbike and trying to scream the sky down in Twi: "Nkrumah ewn-oo! Nkrumah ewu-oo! Womo ato bomb!" [meaning, "Nkrumah is dead, Nkrumah is dead; they've bombed him!"]. This caused us to flee in a million directions. {PICTURE ILLUSTRATION OMMITTED}.

The casualty tally at Kulugungu was actually two dead and 55 injured, including Nkrumah. The dead included a police-man and the schoolgirl. "I believe it was his injuries from the attack which later killed my father. Some of the shrapnel from the bombing was never removed from Nkrumah's body," Samia Nkrumah, the president's daughter, who is now an MP in Ghana, said in Accra during the centenary celebration of Nkrumah's birthday on 21 September 2009.

Two other bomb explosions occurred on the same day, on 7 July 1961. One wrecked Nkrumah's statue outside Parliament House. A further two bomb attacks in August and September 1961 failed to kill Nkrumah. Yet another bomb exploded in a crowd outside Flagstaff House on 2 September 1962, killing one person and injuring 63 others, as Nkrumah's enemies persisted with the attempts to kill him.

In another attack, one person was killed and many injured when a bomb was set off at Flagstaff House while the Young Pioneers Orchestra Band was entertaining Nkrumah and his guests. There was also a plan to shoot him at Accra airport as he arrived from an official visit to India.

The plan was uncovered and aborted. The attacks on Nkrumah were recorded by the Convention Peoples Party (CPP ), Nkrumah himself, and leading Ghanaian scholars like Kwame Botwe Asamoah and Dr Peter T. Omari. In Kwame Nkrumah: The anatomy of an African dictatorship, Dr Omari recalls that after some of the bombings, "feelings ran high for revenge against former Nkrumah aides, Tawiah Adamafio, Ako Adjei and Cofie Crabbe who, in collusion with the opposition, were believed to be behind some of the attempts on Nkrumah's life."

According to Dr Omari, Krobo Edusei, the minister of agriculture, told a CPP rally that the party was giving Nkrumah one month to use his authority "to bring the arch traitors to Accra's Black Star Square to be shot". Edusei warned that if Nkrumah failed to comply, "the whole of Ghana would march together to the prisons and tear the traitors to pieces". In apparent desperation, Nkrumah used the infamous "Protective Detention Act" (PDA) to arrest and detain elements suspected of trying to kill or overthrow him.

The PDA had been promulgated at the request of the Police Force in response to terrorist acts in Accra by a Ga "nationalist" group, Ga Shinpo Kpee, that wanted to drive out non-Gas from Accra, their so-called "local" area. The police wanted a law that empowered them to hold suspects for more than 48 hours to help them in their investigations. The PDA only went to strengthen opposition charges that Nkrumah was a repressive despot.

That and Nkrumah's declaration of a one-party state increased the resolve of his opponents to overthrow him, an exercise which was eventually executed by America's CIA.

Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Www.sydneyabugri.com {First published in New African Magazine, December, 2009}

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Victor Sings At Vetting Says $5m Allegation Against Kufuor Was A Lie

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Category: Politics

Created on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 00:00

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Like the chirpy sun bird, Victor Smith, former Ambassador to the Czech Republic, penciled in by the President to take charge of the Residency at Koforidua, sang before the Parliamentary Appointments Committee sitting at Parliament House in Accra, yesterday.

He stunned the Committee, when he stated that at the time he made a number of publications against former President John Agyekum Kufuor, that the sitting President had pocketed a cool $5 million from an oil deal with a Kuwaiti magnate, he had no proof of what he was putting in the public domain.

Like Ms. Comfort Ama Benyiwa-Doe, who sat sheepishly before the same committee in 2009 and confessed that all the allegations of drug dealings she made against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had no basis, the various stories Mr. Smith put in various publications about the ex-President and the oil deal were the figment of his own imagination.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}It was all political talk, Ama Chavez said, before being posted to the Central Region as political and administrative head.

At the offices of The Chronicle, Editor Ebo Quansah said Parliament has a duty to disqualify Victor Smith to serve as a deterrent. “We cannot pack people lying through their teeth to lead our regions. It does not speak well of us as a nation that is seriously seeking to re-build”.

He also charged President John Evans Atta Mills to set a good example for once. “The President has always been on a high morale ground, pontificating against insults and lies in the body politic. Yet, around him, people are deliberately concocting stories to run down their political opponents.

“When Ms. Benyiwa-Doe admitted before Parliament that she had no evident when she accused the NPP flagbearer of drug dealings, some of us thought the occupant of the Castle would have dispensed with her services as a Minister.”

Mr. Quansah said he was disappointed when the President missed the opportunity to set an example for all to learn from. “Luckily, the Head of State has been presented with another golden opportunity by his own nominee for the Eastern Region.

“If the President is to be taken seriously, he should withdraw the nomination of Mr. Victor Smith immediately, Victor Smith is a very bad example for building a ‘Better Ghana Agenda’,” Mr. Quansah said.

Before the Appointments Committee, Mr. Smith promised to be decorous in his pronouncements as a Regional Minster. But, Mr. Quansah insisted it was too late in the day to mend his ways.

At the National Democratic Congress (NDC) rally at Mantse Agbona at the weekend, President Mills continued with his appeal to all and sundry to desist from insults and peddling of lies as political tools. At the same rally, speaker after speaker mounted the podium and insulted political opponents and spewed lies.

The President brought no one to book. During the vetting, answering a question by Hackman Owusu Agyeman on whether the visit by some security personnel to former President Rawlings’ residence posed any risk, Mr. Smith said he was worried by the siege on the former President’s house in 2001. He thought it was risky for the life of the ex-President and his household.

He debunked suggestions that he was sacked from his duty as Special Aide to the former President for dishonesty and leis. He said it was true that he was sacked through a text message though.

Source: The Chronicle

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