By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

It ought to be very clear to him and his family and clansmen and women, by now, that Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe is a veritable psychiatric basket case in dire need of prompt medical attention. After spending the past 8 years maligning then-Candidate Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and failing miserably, the so-called founding member of the now-ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) would have his audiences, supporters and sympathizers believe that he, somehow, has the requisite credibility to presume to second-guess Ghana’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justices on his choices of cabinet appointees (See “Nyaho-Tamakloe Questions Akufo-Addo’s Choice of Defense Minister” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/27/17). What chutzpah!

Of course, the former short-lived President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) is entitled to his own inalienable speech rights like any other Ghanaian citizen. But he equally ought to understand that as far as the leadership and political career of President Akufo-Addo are concerned, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe has far less value than a nuisance. He is beneath contempt! Indeed, the stomach-oriented Trokosi Nationalist Opportunist would be far better off channeling his wicked thoughts and energies into helping the Mahama Brothers and their Trokosi Nationalist Associates figure out how to regain the Jubilee-Flagstaff House, so that the former captain of the Ghana Armed Forces could begin, once more, receiving his daily share of their treasury loot.

He also knows fully well that his chances of getting the Mahama Brothers and their Looting Brigade back into the basement vaults of the Bank of Ghana will not happen anytime soon. Perhaps not even in our lifetime. But, of course, what is quite refreshing here is the fact that his impugnation of the leadership acumen, flair and credibility of Nana Akufo-Addo did not get him very far; and so it is not clear precisely why he seems to think and believe that setting himself up as a media annoyance, or gadfly, against the former Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa South would get him any farther. Chances are that President Akufo-Addo is getting a good kick out of this infantile gimmickry of his sometime fellow political trucker, or so Nana Akufo-Addo once thought.

But, of course, it must be clear to all by now that the man is too busy trying to clean up the horrible and noisome mess left behind by the thuggish Mahama Posse to have either the time or luxury to entertain the political buffoonery of former President John Agyekum-Kufuor’s former diplomatic point man to the Balkans. I also don’t know why Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe seems to think that his captain’s experience in the Ghana Armed Forces authorizes him to determine for the President who best qualifies to serve as the country’s Defense Minister. I mean, we are not talking about a relatively more professionally disciplined military establishment like the Nigerian Armed Forces but one where any dumb-ass Flight-Lieutenant could just get into the cockpit of a World-War I generation helicopter and get all the generals salaaming him.

Now, let’s cut to the chase, as it were. And the fact of the matter is that if age, rather than common sense and high moral principles, were the overriding determinant for selecting a Defense Minister, then, in all likelihood, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe would have to live until at least 100 years from now before he could be safely presumed to have become qualified to serve in the Akufo-Addo cabinet as a minister, let alone a Defense Minister! Which, of course, is just another long-winded way of saying that Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe would really need to be literally born again. At 39 years old, Mr. Dominic Nitiwul, the Deputy Parliamentary Majority Leader, is definitely not too young, by any measure, to be named Defense Minister. There are generals in many of the most highly disciplined and best equipped armies around the globe who are 35 years old and even below. And so what is all this poppycock about the NPP-MP from Bimbilla’s not being “mature” enough to serve as Defense Minister? Maybe somebody ought to remind this popinjay that Chairman Jerry John Rawlings was “dictating” to Ghanaians at 31 years old. Or would Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe also insist that the Trokosi people have a special genetically wired genius for leadership?

Needless to say, at 39, Mr. Nitiwul is easily the psychological grandfather of his critic. At any rate, let Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe rest assured that if President Akufo-Addo needed any expert advice on who best qualifies for the portfolio of Defense Minister, the last person that he would be tempted to seek such counsel from would be the man who has done nearly more than any other “senior” member of the New Patriotic Party to ruin the hard-won image and reputation of the legendary architect of the Repeal of the Criminal Libel Law.

Indeed, if I had to disqualify Mr. Nitiwul from being confirmed as Defense Minister, it would be on account of the fact of the then-Deputy Parliamentary Minority Leader’s having once unwisely and selfishly crossed party and ideological lines to egregiously campaign for the National Democratic Congress’ then-Parliamentary Majority Leader Mr. Alban Bagbin at the expense of the former’s own party, in the Nadowli-West Constituency, in the Upper-West Region.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
January 27, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]