“I am at a loss to see how what Kennedy Agyapong said was an infringement in the party’s (NPP) Constitution.” – Dr. Arthur Kennedy – Newsfile – 28/06/26
It was billed to be a meeting of minds among the NPP hierarchy. One was praying the top brass NPP members would use the occasion to do a fruitful introspection, to look inwards to examine what went wrong during the 2024 election; after the analysis, they would issue a communiqué which would admit their failures and mistakes, do a mea culpa as well as the way forward for success in the 2028 elections.
As fate would have it, the delegates for the NEC meeting (including Afenyo-Markin (MP for Effutu and Minority Leader)) at Alisa Hotel were confronted by some placard-bearing men. The placards had a simple message; “Ken Must Go.” Ɛdeɛn asɛm na aba? (What has erupted?).
The aggrieved supporters, numbering less than ten (10) and wearing red headbands, were demonstrating their displeasure over Kennedy’s outbursts, particularly the one on the Afari Hospital. Kennedy had said (paraphrased): “We were in power for eight (8) years and we could not complete the Afari Hospital project, another party is in power for 15 months, and you have a problem with them?
When our parliamentary committee on Defence, on which I was the Chairman, wanted to visit the hospital to assess the situation, we were not allowed entry. Our actions were tainted by corruption”. What is wrong with this statement, particularly when he adds that his wife was approached by an NDC person to lure her into a contract, but on the proviso that his wife would pay in advance eleven (11) per cent of the contract…
So, you see the statement Ken made ought to be critically analysed before anybody decides to send him to the Sanhedrin to get roasted. Do people know that “Ken will be Ken” is one of his attributes which implies that Ken can hardly keep a secret; he can hardly be intimidated and he will speak his mind, no matter what other people say about him. Ken will blow hot when the issue is hot, and blow cold when the issue is cold. Marcus Antonius (in Julius Caesar): “He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”
Do we reckon with Ken’s contribution to the NPP? Do we reckon with the personal risks he has taken to “push” the NPP across? Sacrifice, service, devotedness, dedication all jumbled as one. That is what our assessment of Kennedy Agyapong would be where others coiled in their shells and “chopped” their money alone, Ken showed beneficence to party members, particularly foot-soldiers.
Therefore, anybody who says “Ken Must Go” must consider Ken’s contribution when it comes to funding the party: money, vehicles, motor-bikes and the like. Besides, he touches the grassroots of the party—you can say he has a large constituency. The ordinary persons in the party fall for him, and he is an asset when it comes to mobilising the grassroots—and the youth.
Call Ken “a maverick” and you will not be far from right. You know the word “maverick”… is a noun that describes a person as a fiercely independent or unorthodox individual. The etymology of this word traces to the United States of America where a shepherd, Samuel Maverick in Texas in the 1850s would not “brand” his cattle — when all others were branding their cattle. The word now embraces rebellion against conformity as well as innovation and adventurousness.
Time was when NPP could not pay the staff; the burden fell on Kennedy Agyapong to cough up as much as a million cedis to bail NPP out. Most of the NPP hierarchy kept silent… he would support a candidate vying in a Constituency financially whenever and wherever there was the need to…. and Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC) would be the last person to deny that Kennedy supported him financially in his Bono Region NPP Chairmanship bid.
Ken would attack NDC openly, and say: “Mahama, you are a fool,” and decry his own NPP: “NPP is made up of fools… I don’t know why I joined this party…” Yes, Ken benefited from contracts under the glorious Kufuor administration, and even Nana Akufo-Addo’s shambolic administration, but so did other NPP members (we shall not expose them now, but like Kennedy we may do so in July, 2027 or earlier if Ken decides to change wind). We know the lyrics of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”: “If you’re going to play the game, boy, you’ve gotta learn to play it right…”
In the run-up to NPP’s presidential primaries, the Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia camp prepared the “Ten Sins of Kennedy Agyapong” (and other aspirants) and Bawumia won! and we thought there would be “reconciliation” and the NEC “appears” to be planning to do just that … Then the bomb.
Yes, we would agree, Kennedy, at some point, became NPP’s albatross (a giant oceanic seabird known for gliding thousands of miles across the open seas. Metaphorically “albatross” is used as an annoying burden, obligation or obstacle that prevents success.
You would love to read Taylor Coleridge’s famous 1798 poem: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” where a sailor shoots a friendly albatross guiding their ship and the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead bird around his neck as a symbol of his guilt and the ship’s curse… “It is an ancient mariner, And he stoppeth one of three… Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where Nor any drop to drink,” Deduction: All creatures are important to their creator… everything is made by God and should be treated with respect. Any thoughtless bad act could have a lasting repercussion in the future.
So, Ken goes—and would not go alone, but with his supporters and sympathisers. You might say: “Good riddance,” but what would be the reward? Politics (in our generation) thrives on numbers. Every political party which seeks success should entertain different characters, different shades of opinions, different minds.
NPP could not tolerate and contain Alan Kyerematen, and he broke away to form the United Party, Even one vote lost could mean a lot, and sink the NPP down into the bottom-less pit. You think Amoako Baah’s New Patriotic Party means nothing? Fragmentation, polarisation, disjunction – Is that how to build a party? Dr. Amoako Baah cites corruption and incompetence of the NPP and alleges that the Party (NPP) is “beyond redemption owing to the entrenched grip of certain individuals.”
Dr. Richard Amoako-Baah, an astute Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, stated his link-up with his “brother”, Amoako-Tuffour, to finance his private trips to various Ghanaian towns to spread the gospel of NPP, and none of the NPP hierarchy would listen to political advice.
Would you say everything has fallen apart? So, like Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe, who quoted W. B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” in his book Things Fall Apart:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”
Or Yeats again in “Reconciliation”? “Some may have blamed you that you took away the verses that could move them on the day When, the ears being deafened, the sight of the eyes blind, My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone…” Alan Kyerematen, Kennedy Agyapong, Dr. Amoako-Baah… in one camp? Well?
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