Wincing through political surgery

Last week, Adwoa Safo, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome Kwabenya, went to town with a bazooka and a sharp knife, breathing fire through her nostrils whilst billowing smoke through her ears, generating an avalanche of varying reactions in the process. 

Friendship disclaimer

Let me declare a personal interest before I proceed further.

I have met the former MP only once, back in February 2017 when I visited Parliament for a meeting with Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, ahead of taking up a position at the Ministry of Education. We were briefly introduced.

On the other hand, Mr Mike Oquaye Jnr (affectionately known as ‘Gabo’), who among others was in the sights of Safo’s guns, is a good friend.

We go all the way back to 1999, when we worked together at the Legal Services Commission in the UK.

I was excited for him when he was appointed High Commissioner to India, and I entertained hopes of visiting him and his family in New Delhi at a point. 

Alas, this never quite came to fruition for a variety of reasons, much to our disappointment.

A ride beside him at the back of his ambassadorial vehicle with the national flag fluttering in the breeze would have been quite a treat, as would have been a visit to the iconic Taj Mahal, among others. 

We have remained in regular touch since his return home and his subsequent assumption of the leadership of the Free Zones Authority under the Akufo-Addo government, and I have keenly followed his political journey with great interest.

I was of course excited when he finally won the parliamentary primaries in his constituency ahead of the 2024 elections, and deeply pained when he lost the election to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate.

I had been robbed of the opportunity to stroll into parliament to demand to see my Honourable friend. 

Wincing moments

Family quarrels and grievances are quite commonplace and normal, but nobody likes to see the issues in their family played out in the open for gossipy neighbours to feast on, with extra flavourings and spices thrown in to make them more aromatic and juicier.

For many NPP faithful, the explosive issues Safo spat out made for quite some considerable wincing. Both on her issues with my dear friend and his father, the former Speaker, Prof. Oquaye, who taught me Political Science at university and kindly wrote the foreword for my first book, as well as wider party issues, I winced and shifted in my seat uncomfortably several times and then shifted some more as I watched the interviews.

I recall going through the same motions when some time ago, following the elections, Eugene Boakye Antwi, former Subin MP and a primary and secondary school mate, who also lost his parliamentary primaries ahead of the elections, stormed the airwaves and breathed fire with various claims within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during its eight-year tenure in government.  

Question of form

Beyond the specific claims Safo made, the wider discussion seems to be whether or not it was proper for her to address her issues in the way she did ‒ effectively taking family quarrels out there in the streets in the full glare of our giggling umbrella neighbours. Opinions seem divided within the party.

I must admit readily that I am unable to speak to any of the specific issues Safo’s raised in her interviews as I am not familiar with them, and I will not attempt to do same.

I have seen Gabo take to his Facebook page to respond to some of the serious allegations against him and vigorously denying same, as he is of course entitled to do, since his reputation is at stake.

I believe all others who have been accused of one thing or the other by her are around and are able to refute same. 

But the late Mrs Quarshigah, former head of the school feeding programme, is no longer alive and cannot therefore defend herself, which makes the former MP’s allegations against her patently and grossly unfair, in my view. 

Party reaction

The further issue is whether or not, in the wake of her media tour, it was proper for the NPP leadership to issue a statement directing party members to ‘cease discussions on matters that create disaffection within the party in the media…’ and to subsequently trigger disciplinary action against her for failing to abide by the earlier directive.

Despite my deep discomfort with Safo’s media blitz, I struggle with the NPP directive and subsequent referral to its disciplinary committee for action.

In these post-election, sensitive times when emotions are still raw, especially when others have spoken out ahead of her without disciplinary action being triggered, perhaps the decision betrays a failure to appreciate the real risk of a perception of a selective regime desperate to crush dissent and censor opinion, even if that is not the intent.

Perhaps more backroom engagement would have been appropriate. 

I would rather she had not stepped out. But let us make no mistake here. The scale of the NPP’s electoral loss was humiliating.

There are deep divisions and many grievances, with lots of healing to be done to get the party back on an even keel.

As Boakye Antwi rightly said some time ago, the party needs open heart surgery. 

Sometimes, allowing others to vent, when they feel strongly about an issue or issues is ultimately cathartic, even if it causes you to squirm and wince during the process, as many in the NPP did last week.

After all, ‘after a storm comes a calm’, as Matthew Henry, a 17th-century English nonconformist preacher and biblical commentator, once put it.  

Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com