Thinking aloud with Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo: NPP must hasten slowly
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) may be going through trying moments. If sobriety does not prevail, the party could be enmeshed in protracted disputes that will not be easy to disentangle before the next general election. Divisions were visible but the fire has been stoked with the avoidable, tragic and untimely murder of the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Party, Adams Mahama.
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It may be difficult for ordinary members of the party to appreciate the harm they may be causing the party with the kind of rancour about the claim that the National Chairman, Mr Paul Afoko, and the General Secretary, Mr Kwabena Agyapong, are responsible for the murder of Mahama.
The circumstances of the bestial act make it easy to accuse the two. But we have to be thoughtful rather than emotional. That is where the leadership of the party has to be strengthened in resolving the matter by assuaging sentiments and mending broken hearts. The rush to pass judgement and to demand resignations or removal must be curbed and nipped in the bud.
It is essential to be reminded of what Dale Carnegie suggests when he submits, “In dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotions.” This is the time for reasoning, not of sentiments and emotions.
To Messrs Afoko and Agyapong, I can only remind them of the Akan saying, that let people accuse you of a crime but never let it be proven true no matter how much you are provoked, “Ma yenfa nto woso na nso mma no nnye ho.” They must keep their calm and pray that there will be divine intervention to establish their innocence or otherwise.
We should not ignore our folklore in some of these developments. Nana Ampadu has one such lesson. It is about a son who openly threatened to kill the father, went to the place with a sharpened machete, but was prevailed upon not to act.
That same night, a nephew of the man stole the machete and killed the uncle. He managed to hide the stained machete in the room of the son. The next morning when the community realised that the man had been killed, they suspected the son and when they went to his room they found the machete with which the crime was committed.
Because the son issued the threat to kill the father and the machete was found in his room, he was charged and convicted of murder. However, because time heals, the murderer, who inherited the uncle’s estate, was finally exposed by a friend he conspired with to steal the machete for the murder. The innocence of the son was established but alas, it was too late. Moments after he was to be released from jail, he died.
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There is also the story of a man suspected of murder because a witness overheard the victim moments, before he died, call out a name. At the trial, counsel argued vehemently about the suspect’s innocence and to demonstrate how the name could be unrelated to the crime, drew menacingly towards the witness with a metal object, whereupon the witness shouted, “agyei,” with the corresponding question as to whether “agyei” was the one holding the object.
That is why we all have to be sober and calm. We must support the police in their investigations and pray that we get to the bottom of the matter. It is a dastardly act that must not be encouraged.
But just as post-mortems are conducted on bodies even when it is obvious what killed the person, and they most times establish other causes rather than what was obvious, we must wait patiently for the police in their search for the murderer of Adams Mahama. His death must not be in vain but his selfless devotions cannot be compensated for if innocent persons are sacrificed to atone for his life.
The Constitution enjoins us as citizens to cooperate with lawful agencies in the discharge of their duties in the maintenance of law and order. Those who profess to have information must help the course and cause of justice by proffering same to the police to facilitate their investigations.
However, we plead with the police to efficiently and effectively unravel the circumstances surrounding the murder so that we will come to justice.
The timely conclusion of the investigations could be critical to stemming any unguarded unilateralism. As the Good Book says in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”