Riddle, Riddle… Riddle! When does politics and business come together? When they need each other, you may say. Politicians need the business world to help grow the economy and provide jobs to make the administration look good. The business mogul, on the other hand, looks at the balance sheet and how much comes in at the end of the day.
I am neither a businessman nor politician, though. I rejoice in the proper direction of politics paving way for businesses to thrive to ease the economic strain on the average Ghanaian.
With politics taking over our lives as we prepare for another date with the Electoral Commission and its staff on December 7, 2024, all sorts of permutations are underway in the world of business. Just before I settled down to compose this piece yesterday, I visited the pharmacy nearby to replenish the stock of old age medication.
Growing old is not the best feeling in life. I tell you from experience. With the old bones and body going past the biblical 70, every day without the tombstone is a milestone, which is why the visit to the doctor and the drug dispensing outlet is now a monthly routine.
The pharmacist, an old jovial folk with several years of experience in his chosen field, was happy to see me. We soon engaged in long discussions, from football and how the local league does not excite anymore, to the world of politics, where Mr. John Dramani Mahama and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are lacing their boots for their match of destiny on December 7, next year.
“I know what I am about to say will shock you, but take it from me. Owners of pharmacies and most pharmacists in Ghana are hoping that Mahama wins the vote. Our interest is neither NDC nor NPP. We know that when John takes the baton, Cash and Carry will be back. And that means counting the cash at the end of the day. At the moment, drugs are dispensed at the hospitals and health centres. We are not factored into the equation… To be honest with you, I wish John gets the nod.”
Read his lips further: “I tell you what; it’s not only pharmacists who are praying for a John Mahama win. Those dealing in generators have lost a chunk of their businesses since Akufo-Addo came to power in 2017. Go to Anointed Generator Company and ask how many generators have they sold since 2017. With the lights on all the time, the generator business is gone. They are praying for the return of Dum-so.”
I left the pharmacy shocked and perplexed. Apparently, in Ghana, politics generates its own interest which brings to mind a video clip doing the rounds in the media and political circles in this country at the moment.
It depicts retired boxer Brimah Kamoko, popularly known as Bukom Banku, engaging in a wide throw-about boxing match with former Trade Minister Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen. The man, who is touring the country and promoting the butterfly as his effigy for the December 7, 2024 presidential election, decks the one-time African champion to the canvas.
Bukom struggles to get up from the ground and declares himself knocked out. Alan wins by a knock-out, according to Bukom Banku’s state at the end of the bout.
It is an exhibition bout that could have a very wide political connotation, I can state. Bukom Banku is now more of a comic character than a man with a future in the ring. Since his bout with Ayitey Powers, quite a while ago, both the winner and loser have become agents of Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC). That is where my worry is.
Did Banku come to the Alan event by accident and decided to entertain the mainly butterfly fans, or was the episode part of a grand scheme of an alliance developing between the butterfly and the umbrella Jerry John Rawlings once hoisted at Government House?
Since Bukom Banku engaged Ayitey Powers in that comedy of a boxing match, both the victor and the vanquished have become errand boys of Mr. John Dramani Mahama. It looked far-fetched, but I would not be surprised to learn that the boxing match between Mr. Alan Kyerematen and Bukom Banku develops into a huge event on the march to December 7, 2024. Politics in Ghana does not cease to amaze!
Already, tongues are wagging over the direction of Alan and his Butterfly Movement. Instead of outlining his own direction and articulating what he intends to do as a presidential candidate, Mr. Alan Kyerematen chooses to lambast the administration of which he was a key member.
For more than six years Alan has been the face of Trade and Industry in this country. He has been in charge of Akufo-Addo’s key innovation project – One District, One Factory. The success or failure of the project could be attributed to him. If you add more than six years of the same role under the Kufuor administration, Alan must be the longest reigning Minister of Trade and Industry this country has ever produced.
If goods in the country are expensive or not it owes its genesis to Alan Cash; why is he attacking Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as Vice President without mentioning his role?
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I am getting the impression that the Butterfly man appears to have some other project other than the presidency in mind. Ghana has had many dare devils trying on their own to reach Government House as independent candidates. No one of them has managed to annex fiver percent of the popular vote. I will like to believe that in all his calculations, Alan knows in his heart of heart that Jubilee House is far from the flight of the Butterfly.
Why would he put money and soul in an exercise that, in all calculations, is bound to fail?
I am afraid there is more to the Butterfly Movement than carrying the creator to Jubilee House. I must be blunt here. I do not think Alan is as rich as his accolade suggests. I am suggesting here, that after the Super Delegates Conference gave him a bloody nose, he decided to show the party and its leadership where power lies.
For me, the formation of the Butterfly Movement is not to win political power, which has eluded independent candidates since independence on March 6, 1957. I will give readers an example as to why the Butterfly Movement, in all honesty, will not succeed.
In 1979, Mr. Ackah Blay Miezah, one of the world’s greatest conmen, armed with huge money conned from American investors into his Oman Ghana Trust Fund empire, launched the People’s Vanguard Party to challenge the People’s National Party which sprang out of the Convention People’s Party of Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah, and the Popular Front Party, the fore-runner of the New Patriotic Party.
In spite of the bouts of huge expenditure Blay Miezah employed to seek power, he and his Vanguard Party flopped heavily at the polls. In Ghana, as well as in the major democracies of the West, political power is dominated by two parties. It will take a lot for one man to break it. Alan knows that as a fact, I tell you.
That is why, in my opinion, all this Butterfly stuff is only an aberration. One day it would fade out as many others that come and withered out of national politics.
Sorry, if I have sounded too harsh in my assessment. It is simply that I do not suffer many fools gladly. Truth is like a cork, it would not sink no matter how much pressure is applied on it.
Alan is advised to concentrate on his Movement and stop attacking the candidature of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the government that served him so well in six years, at least.
The Butterfly will be no match for the Elephant if both choose the rough road to politics. At this stage, I would like to recommend Yaa Porno’s hit song ‘Obiaa Wo Ne Master… Kennedy Agyapong Wo Ne Master’, featuring Stonebwoy.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
