‘Kokonte Boys’ London Trip Hits Rock

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 25 March 2011
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A forum being organised by the UK and Ireland branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to enable some government officials, including newly-appointed Sports Minister Clement Kofi Humado, Deputy Tourism Minister James Agyenim-Boateng Presidential Aides Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Stanislav Xose Dogbe, and a host of others to drum home support for President Mills, has suffered a major setback.

The government officials are expected to travel with party Propaganda Secretary and National Youth Organizer, Richard Quashigah and Ludwig Hlodze respectively to the heart of the United Kingdom this week for the stated reason.

But even before the government delegation sets foot on the Queen’s land, the UK and Ireland branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have declined to participate in the event, saying the organizers want to use them to claim legitimacy.

The NPP says organisers of the event have created the impression as though the programme is a‘collaboration’ between all the major political parties which have branches in the UK including the NPP, CPP and the Ghanaian community there.

According to them, a handbill on the forum, currently in circulation, is “calling all Ghanaian Youths NDC, UK & Ireland Chapter in collaboration with Ghana High Commission, Ghana Union, CPP and NPP invite you to Ghana Youth Forum Theme: Ghana’s Youth: Partners in National Development.”

The hand bill is also said to be carrying the logos of the NPP together with that of the NDC, CPP and the trade mark of companies such as Cadbury Chocolate and Vodafone.

This is what compelled the NPP to distance itself from the event since according to its Assistant Youth Orgnizer, Godwin Adjei-Gyamfi, “we, the NPP UK & Ireland Branch have not given our permission or have ‘collaborated’ with the NDC to hold such an event as described above.”

They also claim to have gathered information which suggested that neither the CPP nor the Ghana High Commission and the Ghana Union in the UK played any role in the organization of the said event, let alone Cadbury and Vodafone.

In a statement, Mr Adjei-Gyamfi admitted to being contacted by the NDC Youth Organizer in the UK on March 14, 2011 just to invite them to attend the upcoming event, indicating that “we informed him it is the policy of our branch and our national party to co-operate and furnish support on issues which touch and concern Ghanaians in general and on issues where we have common ground but we objected to such an event being organised by a political party.”

He claims to have told the NDC Youth Organizer that such a forum would best come in the form of a non-political event which should be organized by either the Ghana Union or the Ghana High Commission, which he obliged.

Mr. Adjei-Gyamfi said he was therefore taken aback when he received an invitation and a hand bill on March 16, 2011, as described above.

The NPP expressed surprise and bewilderment at the action of the UK and Ireland branch of the NDC which has now proven to be the architects behind the scheme in a purely NDC programme.

They further expressed shock at the fact that patented trademarks of established companies such as Cadbury and Vodafone could be used without their consent, noting, “We are very much concerned of the legal implication and should either Cadbury or Vodafone resort to legal action, it will certainly bring our government in disrepute.”

This, they said, was because “this will ultimately affect the pockets of the ordinary tax payer in terms of a heavy legal cost and compensation to the companies”.

“We are therefore writing formally to distance ourselves from this event and state categorically that the event is a political event organised by the Youth Wing of NDC UK and Ireland and that NPP UK and Ireland are not in any way involved, and neither have we collaborated with it in any shape or form,” the statement said.

They suspect the event has been deliberately planned to coincide with the Ghana-England friendly football match, so members of government and, to a large extent, foot-soldiers of the NDC can travel to the UK for pleasure and entertainment in the name of soccer at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer.

It is not clear who is funding these Ministers and party officials to embark on this expensive trip.

They are scheduled to meet with members of the UK and Ireland branch of the party.

A memo informing and updating the UK members of the visit has been dispatched to London.

DAILY GUIDE sources in London have hinted of a planned protest against their visit by some local members of the NDC.

Sack Ministers: Bishop Tells Mills

Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, 24 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church and President of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Asante, wants President John Evans Atta Mills to sack his appointees who have cultivated the bad habit of insulting their political opponents.

Bishop Asante believes such individuals and group of persons do not set good example for the youth to follow as they have little or nothing to offer the country.

Rev. Asante was speaking on Accra-based Oman FM in reaction to recent insults heaped on the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s standard bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and other people by the Deputy Ministers of the Interior and Works and Housing, Kobby Acheampong and Hannah Louisa Bissiw respectively.

The President has been calling on Ghanaians to shun politics of insults, but strangely, insults seem to be part of the daily assignments of his appointees.

The two deputy ministers are on record to have made very disparaging remarks about their political opponents in the NPP when they addressed members of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi.

Kobby, who is notorious for making unsubstantiated allegations, was caught on tape describing Nana Akufo-Addo as a ‘fruit cake,’ and later addressed him (Akufo-Addo) as an untidy person.

Dr. Bissiw, a Cuba-trained veterinarian, on the other hand, described leading NPP activist Ursula Owusu as a ‘disgrace to womanhood’ and Nana Addo as a ‘sexy old fool’.

Both initially denied the comments but when the tape was played to them, they were found wanting.

“People like this should all be sacked because they have nothing to offer us. That’s why I keep saying that people in government, whether members of the ruling NDC or the opposition or whichever individual who describes himself as a politician and would stand on a platform to trade in insults, politics of invectives…we should not think about such people,” he said.

He said it was high time government and especially President Mills stamped his authority and brought such people to order since their utterances did not only augur well for government and the country’s politics in general.

He identified the incidence of insults, threats and lying as the three main issues affecting Ghana’s politics and therefore admonished the country’s politicians to desist from indulging in them.

The Bishop likened governance to a person selling a product, noting that one only had to advertise the product and tell people why they needed to buy it.

“But, if you go and stand somewhere and insult a friend, or excuse me to say, a person who can give birth to you, it doesn’t bring anything, it doesn’t bring development but violence.”

The reverend Minister stressed that it was time Ghanaian politicians stopped these despicable practices since it did not inure to the country’s development, emphasizing, “Anyone who does that does not understand politics.

As pastors, these are the very things we say and people say we are doing politics but there is national politics and party politics.”

“What I want to say is that anybody who wants to use insults to look for power or wants us to vote for him, we will plainly tell our people that they should understand issues and that such people have nothing to offer them.”

NDC Power Struggle:

Kokonte Boys Storm London
Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 22 March 2011
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DAILY GUIDE has picked up information that a couple of the young appointees in the Mills administration who were recently captured eating bowls of Kokonte, including National Youth Organizer of the NDC Ludwig Hlodze, Deputy Tourism Minister James Agyenim-Boateng, are travelling sometime this week to London to whip up support for the beleaguered NDC leader.

DAILY GUIDE sources said the young lads, as well as newly-appointed Sports Minister Kofi Humado, will use the trip to watch the historic Ghana-England football match at the weekend.

The rest include Presidential Aides Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Stanislav Dogbe and Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Richard Quashigah.

Their mission, according to our source, is cut out and simple: ‘to mop up support’ for President John Evans Atta Mills in his second term bid which promises to be a bare-knuckle fight between the Castle and Ridge.

This trip comes on the heels of a recent one to the Eastern region by the young appointees, where they devoured bowls of palatable kokonte.

It is not clear who is funding these ministers and party officials to embark on this trip to meet already disgruntled members, some of whom are said to be planning a protest against the visit.

They are scheduled to meet with members of the party in the UK and Ireland. A memo informing and updating the UK members of the visit has been dispatched to London.

A member of one of the branches in UK told DAILY GUIDE, "Our party is dying. For me, I have nothing to lose. I am very angry with the government so I will verbally attack them."

Even before the government officials set foot on English land, information coming in indicates that an active and long-standing member, Jamal Abdul Rahman, has resigned from the party.

The reasons he was said to have given for his resignation were that he had lost confidence in the government and the fact that the party’s founder, former President Jerry Rawlings was being treated as though he was an outsider.

In one of his most recent comments on the social networking site Facebook, NDC Youth activist Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak aka Ras Mubarak said he "will not support President Mills even if the party founder Jerry Rawlings steps out to campaign for him."

He added, “We cannot put up with four more years of paralysis. It would be worse than the seven years of painful drought in biblical times. They talk about Mills’s humility when he is not listening to his own party founder and they talk about admitting mistakes and yet no one is ever held accountable for those mistakes."

The Mills-Mahama government has gained notoriety for brazenly refusing to tell Ghanaians how government was spending money on party activity.

The most recent case of chicanery is the flying of NDC supporters, popularly referred to as foot-soldiers, to the World Cup tournament in South African where thousands of dollars were spent on them.

The government has failed to give a full disclosure of how much it spent on the exercise, despite calls to give a full account of the trip.