Obiri Boahene
“If you save a life, the person whose life you saved is indebted to you for life”
Chinese saying (attributed to Confucius)
OBIRI BOAHENE is my personal friend, so also are Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyapong, Freddie Blay and John Boadu. So are all the other persons who identify themselves as Danquah – Busia – Domboists. One could be completely dazed about the mess this gentle, unassuming but very vocal friend, Obiri Boahene, has put himself. Of course, as Euripides says: “Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness”.
For tactical reasons, I had refrained from commenting on the suspension of Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyapong and Sammy Crabbe from the NPP, but had kept praying that sober minds would remember Confucius’s saying: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” They would, I had surmised, also remember “Silence is a true friend who never betrays”.
To say that Obiri Boahene has ‘met his Waterloo’ is to take him back to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat in the Battle of Waterloo (Belgium) by the British and Prussians in June, 1815 led by the Duke of Wellington. This marked the end of Napoleon’s military career and he left the battle ground in tears. In Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in 1905: “We have not yet met our Waterloo, Watson, but this is our Marengo” where in the Battle of Marengo, Napoleon’s forces came close to defeat.
In a leaked audio conversation which went viral last week, Obiri Boahene was heard saying the Presidency supported the NPP National Annual Delegates Conference held at Cape Coast with GH¢ 50 billion! You see, those of us born before independence often confuse the thousands, the millions, the billions, the trillions, the quadrillions, the zillions. So what did Obiri seek in telling NDC’s Kwaku Skirt these ‘baseless’ and ‘palpable’ falsehoods?
What is the whole of Ghana’s budget? And what is the budget for the Presidency? GH¢ 1.8 billion? The question by Kwaku Skirt was in respect of the tango between Obiri’s nephew, Abronnye and the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister. GH¢ 3000 pocket money plus GH¢2000 fuel money could appear paltry to a member of the Resolution Committee. What about those of us who fueled our own vehicles, lodged at hotels at our own expenses and did not even get entry into the University of Cape Coast conference hall because we did not have ‘accreditation’; we were not ‘delegates’. We went incognito. Never received any salary? Not awarded any contract? What about…No, don’t let me reveal something…Yes, methinks Obiri is bigger than this!
Obiri Boahene, until this cataclysm, had never shown that something was wrong. He could stay in the Party Office and go about his normal duties as if nothing was wrong. He would often use his personal vehicle and never complained.
But Dr Kwesi Amakye Boateng, a Political Science lecturer at KNUST sees Obiri Boahene as a ‘mole’ in NPP:”… a National Officer (who should) keep secret information is now leaking (it) to a journalist …. Serious… he cannot be trusted any (longer) … He must be out of the game … the party should expel him. (for giving) arsenal to the opposition NDC … in terms of who is fighting corruption better… the government will struggle to do damage control and he must be punished for that”.
A mole in NPP? Please, heap all kinds of obloquy or diatribe on Obiri Boahene but one should equally reserve deification and glorification on him for his contribution to the success of NPP through his secretary-ship of the Great Alliance to the organisation of the party (NPP) in Brong – Ahafo.
If ever there was anyone who would defend NPP or an NPP person in court, you could not leave Obiri Boahene out. Check out the cases he has defended in court: the Techimantia case, the Nkrabea Effah Dartey case; the J.H. Mensah case; the Wamfie, Kwame Danso, Nkrankwanta, Kintampo and Bechem cases; the Ablekuma case; the Tamale case involving Yahousa; the Abudu – Andani case; Ningo – Prampram, Ayawaso Tema cases; Bolgatanga; the Accra J.B Danquah murder case. Want to hear more?
Obiri’s voice – croaky or soothing would never get on one who is linguistically inclined. He raised the Brong dialect to a level that whetted the appetite of some us to learn it beyond: ‘Benkoto, bensore’.
He had borne his pain with equanimity until the day he spurted his pent – up feeling. Why wouldn’t this happen? There is a trait in NPP which needs to be exorcised! And that is, the abandonment of people who have propelled the party to greater heights when the going is good. What are the spoils and where do they go? Those who have made it, now, have no time for those below. Some party adherents pity the President – he has to think about those who were at the coal face in 2008, those who were in the trenches in 2012 and those who bankrolled the party in 2016. It is a tough assignment and those around the President ought to help him. Those who have made it should answer calls – have they forgotten so soon when they were knocking at people’s doors late into the night? Complacency; repeat, complacency.
Arthur Kennedy may have committed a ‘hara – kiri’ (suicide) when in the 2008 presidential primaries, he polled a single vote. He appeared to have committed a sacrilege by publishing: “Chasing the Elephant into The Bush – The Politics of Complacency” ‘Agbenaa’ could have been a delusion– inspired catch – phrase. You have finished what? Was that not complacency? But we were all knocked hard, we shunned the author and refused even to read the book even if someone bought a copy for us.
Is someone trying to stoke the fire? No, don’t reveal some of the intriguing observations. For those who care, please, read the book. Arthur K became a pariah and the party trudged on to achieve victory in 2016. The tit bits of “The stolen Verdict” of 1992 showed clearly in the success of the NPP in December, 2016.
Haruna Esseku was not spared when he loosely – talked about ‘perks’ going to the Presidency. That was when President Kufour had launched his Party’s “zero tolerance for corruption”. And he, as Chairman of the party could be believed in certain circles to have spoken the truth. He was suspended for the loose talk—‘sika no ko waa waa’. His victory speech had pinpointed to the audience: “After rising up to the challenge of adversity and life in opposition, we should be careful not to fall into complacency of victory and life in government”.
The Party may treat Obiri Boahene’s case as a peculiar one – unlike the others before him. He has done what was needful –apologising to the President and Party members and even to the NDC. Who knows the ‘kpokpo–gbirigbiri’ that were on him that day? Whatever the verdict from the Disciplinary Committee, he ought to abide by it: he should not fight the case in court; and he should not see the personalities on the committee as ‘enemies’. Nana Obiri Boahene may not “…end his political career with such loose talk”, as some people who do not think of the party think.
AFRICANUS OWUSU ANSAH
africanusoa@gmail.com