Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Okoampa Requires Immediate Psychiatric Examination!


Okoampa Requires Immediate Psychiatric Examination!   

Feature Article | By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.*

A rejoinder to: "Quashigah Requires Immediate Psychiatric Examination!" by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Feature Article | Sunday, 1 August 2010

Full Title: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Requires Immediate Psychiatric Examination If Not Already Certified As A Raving Lunatic!    

 

Preliminary Remarks:

As Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., calls for the immediate psychiatric examination of the Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Mr. Richard Quashigah in his latest article, I invite the Ghanaian public to find out if such a call has any merit, and to share my very profound indignation and revulsion at the casual impertinence of an unintelligent hypocrite whose notoriety as the most unpatriotic Ghanaian on the world wide web is more than legendary! On the 29 of July, 2010, the Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Richard Quashigah told Joy FM the that “NPP’s harsh hostilities towards the STX project though unfortunate, is understandable.”  He was also quoted as saying '"the intransigent position of the NPP on the STX deal is consistent with the party's philosophy - opposing anything that is good for Ghana... The NPP has an attitude and that attitude is to oppose anything that is good for this country,” he added.' (See: NPP Are Enemies Of Progress: NDC Propaganda Secretary, 29-Jul-2010, Peacefmonline.com)

Is my grandson now parading in Ghana as a patriot? Wonders will never end! In the first place, I am very remarkably surprised to read the latest article by my grandson. Why this surprise is very remarkable is because it comes at a time I was beginning to naively believe that my grandson has ran out of any possibilities of pulling surprises as the most despicable commentator on the web. Having known no Ghanaian on the world wide web who is as unpatriotic and equally busy working on a daily basis to bring his own country on its knees at the feet of his imperialist owners, than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., I was almost certain he could no longer surprise me! I mean what I am saying. I cross my heart. I am going to drop a few hints about this before I end this article, so please, bear with me. I even thought it was very clear that in my bid to identify, defend, and advance the interests of main-street Africans, I have clashed enough with Okoampa to enable him to do a soul-searching safari on his own, repudiate and ran away from his current as a pawn of Wall Street, and come back to join our very decent society as a changed person!

But no, Okoampa has not changed one bit! This leaves me with no choice other than to focus again on some of the areas he needs to urgently work on before he even qualifies for the attention of peace-loving, patriotic and proud Ghanaians! He owes the people of Ghana very serious apologies before he can even comment on sensitive issues such as patriotism in Ghana! I thank my God I did not get a heart-attack out of the shock, when I saw Okoampa pretend to be the patriot in any Ghanaian situation. It would have been "the most unkindest cut of all" I he had succeeded to literally kill me with his lies! I find the level of nonsensical lies and hypocrisy extremely severe, dangerous, and suffocating, even by Okoampa's own awful standards! The real alarm lies in the fact that whenever a traitor puts on the clothes of a patriot, it is the responsibility of all real patriots to expose such a fellow immediately and irrespective of the consequences! I wrote in my comment under this article on Ghanaweb: "My dear grandson, ...I found your place in this debate to be rather incongruous. Particularly when the issue involves patriotism, you and I know very well that you are the last person whose opinion should matter to the ordinary Ghanaian." This article attempts to explain what I meant.

 

Kwame Okoampa, A Ghanaian Patriot?

Fellow Ghanaians, I write this article to off-load a burden on my conscience and expose a villain. I cannot simply remain silent over this. It is not necessarily my primary objective to catalogue the political sins of Okoampa against the good people of Ghana. I simply cannot stand the ugly histrionics of Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., going scot-free after presenting himself to Ghanaians as a fellow patriot in his latest article! That is not acceptable. Hence this article has been written with the intention to make sure that Okoampa receives the rebuttal he requires to enable him undertake appropriate self-censorship without any further external stimulus from friends and foes alike. Please read on, you will not be disappointed!

My first significant experience of Okoampa's quisling status was upon reading an article of Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr., over a tactical retreat manoeuvre by the US Embassy in Accra concerning the establishment of US Africom headquarters in Ghana and other military bases including an air force base at Tamale and a naval base somewhere along the coast. Guess where I got these gruesome details from? Asare Gabriel Ochere-Darko, the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute! In Obama’s Visit – What’s In It For Us And U.S.?, Ochere Darko argues:

"Furthermore, the U.S. is, understandably, bent on establishing a regional command for Africa, similar to U.S. Forces Korea, with a homeport situated on the African continent to protect their interests. West Africa is its natural home, given the need to protect energy interests in the Gulf of Guinea. Liberia has offered but simply cannot match the kind of convenience available in Ghana. It can be a win-win situation."

"Kwesi Pratt was one of the first to raise the alarm about oil and US military bases in Africa." Crossedcrocodiles writes in Ghanaians Discuss AFRICOM & Obama’s Visit. He continues:

"In a 2007 interview he said:
Kwesi Pratt: I am very alarmed after reading what is called the Cheney Report. When Bush came to power, he set up a committee chaired by Dick Cheney his Vice President to assess America’s energy requirements up to the year 2015. The Cheney Report actually says that by the year 2015, twenty percent of American oil requirements will be supplied by West Africa and therefore it is important to maintain a foothold in West Africa in order to ensure that oil supplies from West Africa to the United States of America will not be interrupted." (See: Ghanaians Discuss AFRICOM & Obama’s Visit,  by xcroc, June 3, 2009, http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com)

It must be noted that even though Mr Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., was the first to raise the alarm in Ghana, the US desire to capture the control and use of the hydrocarbon materials from particularly our sub-region, if need be, by the means of military action, has been beyond dispute:

'In May 2001 the Cheney report warned that the U.S. would grow increasingly dependent upon foreign oil in the years to come and recommended that as a matter of policy the Bush Administration work to increase production and export of oil from regions other than theMiddle East, noting that Latin America and West Africa were likely to be the fastest growing sources of future U.S. oil imports. ... Three months later, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner declared that African oil "has become a national strategic interest." This statement is particularly noteworthy in that it uses the language of the Carter Doctrine in the Middle East, in which President Carter went on to declare that the U.S. would intervene by any means necessary to protect its national interest in Middle Eastern oil. In April 2002, Donald Norland, former U.S. Ambassador to Chad told a Congressional subcommittee: "It's been reliably reported that, for the first time, the two concepts -- 'Africa' and 'U.S. national security' -- have been used in the same sentence in Pentagon documents." ('Understanding AFRICOM: A Contextual Reading of Empire’s New Combatant Command, b real, February 2007, http://www.moonofalabama.org,

Thus, not only were the denials by the US Embassy in Accra very cynical, but sinister. It would not have bothered me too much if any other person within the NPP had responded to Quashigah, other than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.! After all, are we not talking about patriotism now? If so, then what is the basis of the repugnant histrionics by this famous political sell-out before he is allowed to further throw dust into our very vigilant eyes? If the NPP really needs someone to defend it from the unassailable truth of being a neocolonialism entity, and by definition, an unpatriotic and pro-Imperialist party established to see to the business interests of their imperialist owners, Okoampa should be the last person to do so! The very fact that none other than Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., should respond to this issue of patriotism is not only significant, it is also a sign that he requires an immediate psychiatric treatment for thinking he can take Ghanaians for fools! If he does not get a psychiatric examination, he shall continue to pile trouble after trouble on his favourite candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo.


Mr. Kwesi Pratt's patriotism in the interview is clear:

Kwesi Pratt: "Consequently, the United States is planning to establish military bases across West Africa including Ghana. And I am very worried that at a time when we are celebrating our national independence we are going to tolerate the establishment of foreign military bases, especially American military bases on our soil. The great Osageyfo Dr. Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, and all of them emphasized that Africa ought to be free from foreign military bases and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot allow that dream to die. That is why, it is important for us to resist all attempts to establish foreign military bases on African soil especially forces of the United States, must be prevented from establishing on African soil. Clearly because they are not on African soil to protect our interests, they are on African soil to facilitate the exploitation of our resources for the benefit of the tiny minority that controls the wealth of the American people and who are sitting on top of this world exploiting the Chicanos, exploiting the African Americans and exploiting all of the other independent and healthy forces in the United States of America. We have to resist all attempts to build U.S. military bases in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa." (See: Ron Wilkins' Interview With Kwesi Pratt on the 50th Anniversary of Ghana Independence, Pan-African News Wire, May 07, 2007, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com.)

 Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., on the contrary, enters into this debate like the goat recently nominated by Nana Akufo Addo to represent him in the Upper East Region. Even the planners of US Africom have since acknowledged that the initial approach was a mistake!Okoampa did not mind whatever the Americans were willing to ram down our throats! There he goes:

"In the lead-up to President George W. Bush's five-nation African tour-of-duty," Okoampa laments, "the Director of Public Affairs at the United States' Embassy in Accra was prompted to vehemently deny widespread rumors and allegations regarding Mr. Bush's official visit to Ghana, from February 19-21, climaxing with the bilateral ratification of an agreement between the American leader and Ghana's President John Agyekum-Kufuor allowing the establishment of an American military base in the country." (See: U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to Deny!!!, by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)

It must carefully be noted that even though Okoampa himself accepts and welcomes "Mr. Bush's official visit to Ghana, from February 19-21", as "climaxing with the bilateral ratification of an agreement between the American leader and Ghana's President John Agyekum-Kufuor allowing the establishment of an American military base in the country," for some very strange reasons he still manages to refer to the opposition to these bases as being based upon "vicious rumors and allegations"! "Allegations" that are more or less his own! In U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to Deny!!!, he writes:

"Indeed, one does not have to look far to conclude that such political mischief is the incontrovertible brainchild of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC), the pseudo-political party that militarily occupied Ghana for nearly twenty years. Then also, this is not the first time that the bugbear, or specter, of the establishment of a U. S. military base is being bandied about. It is also significant to observe that the NDC's ideological twin-sister, the so-called Convention People's Party (CPP), has been in the thick of such vicious rumors and allegations." (See: U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to Deny!!!, by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)

 Okoampa concludes that nothing could be dumber than patriotism when the US wants to be your master! For Okoampa, our country is not even worth anything to die for! We can only develop in freedom when there are US guns pointed on our heads! Listen to him:

"And so pretending to play dumb, in the dubious name of patriotism, is absolutely no perspicuous demonstration of ideological advancement as these political nincompoops and outright charlatans would have unsuspecting compatriots believe. And if these charlatans and cognitively challenged rumor-mongers cared to know, they would have since long discovered to their rude awakening, the fact that the hitherto self-proclaimed inveterate enemy of U. S. “imperialism,” Chairman Rawlings, educated all his three officially known children right here in the United States, and not Cuba, Libya or Russia."...Indeed, it comes as great news to learn of the United States having emplaced heavy military equipment in the country in apparent, and auspicious, readiness for any barbaric, or troglodytic, attempt by the enemies of constitutional democracy to reverse the onward march of Ghana towards the Danquahist ideal of “Development in Freedom.” (See: U. S. Embassy has Absolutely Nothing to Deny!!!, by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article | Mon, 18 Feb 2008)

The real problem is that it seems the Danquah Institute has accepted some money to sell the US Africom project to Ghanaians! Okoampa should have been dismissed from any self-respecting Institute. On the contrary, we saw the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute doing his own article to promote the US Africom project. He even cleverly made it to look as though it was irreversible because the Kufour Administration had gone very far with it already. In US MILITARY BASE IN GHANA: From "Baloney!" To "What’s In It For Us"? Part One, Saturday, May 30, 2009, I argued that:

"I feel greatly incensed by the casual manner Mr. Ochere-Darko breaks this news as though it is simply a matter of business, and not even making any attempt to explain the basis of the conspiracy that he confesses in the article. What does this mean? According to Asare Ochere Darko, even though the NPP government did not allow Ghanaians to have a say in whether or not they want a US military base on our soil, it is too late for the Atta-Mills government to say “No”! In other words, without any national debate, whether we like it or not the process has already been started and they cannot be reversed, so we are as good as being already occupied by a foreign power!"


Ochere Darko's never answered my questions:

"Is this supposed to mean that the NPP government was simply throwing dust into our eyes whilst plotting secretly to undermine our national independence and sell us to the Americans? Fortunately for Ghana and Africa, the elections did not go their way. From the article under discussion, it seems to me that with Obama and Atta-Mills in power, the same special interests behind the establishment of the military base in Ghana, the military industrial complex of the USA, are acting as ventriloquists, using their local stooges, to revive their diabolic plot, and rope the two newcomers into the deal. Who else could fit better in the role of selling Ghana to the imperialists more than the very right hand man of Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, the great Asare Ochere-Darko, himself? If you should ask me what it was that worried me most in the article, I believe I would put my finger on the following seven words written by Mr. Ochere-Darko: “After all, the process has already started.” Most of us are still dazed by the question. What this man is virtually telling Ghanaians is that for months, the NPP has been secretly plotting with foreign powers to establish military bases on our lands without letting out a word about it to the Ghanaian public. " (See: US MILITARY BASE IN GHANA: From "Baloney!" To "What’s In It For Us"? Part One, Saturday, May 30, 2009, see also on Ghanaweb: US Military Base In Ghana, Feature Article of Wednesday, 3 June 2009, Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea)


This publication and others provoked a reaction by Mr. James Victor Gbeho, ex-diplomat and adviser to President J.E.A. Mills on Foreign Policy. Under the caption, Gbeho: US can’t force AFRICOM on Ghana, (Monday, I June 2009. Myjoyonline.com) which proved to be enough to dispel the silly effects of the Ochere-Darko's stupid article.  Mr. Gbeho "assured the public that government has its head properly screwed on and will not enter into any agreement with the United States of America if the people do not approve of it." "Ambassador Gbeho" was obviously reacting to the implications in the Mr. Ochere Darko's article, that the "process" of establishing the Africom headquarters and US military bases in Ghana "had already started" secretly under the Kufour NPP Administration, and was culminating with the planned visit of US President Barack Obama to Ghana on July 10 and 11, 2009, and therefore felt the need to clear the air on what the visit portends for the nation:


"Sections of Ghanaians have publicly objected to the US government’s desire to base its continental military force, United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), in Ghana." Mr. Gbeho was reported to have said on Citi FM’s breakfast show Monday, that "Ghanaians have some justification to be apprehensive about the country’s relations with the United States, given the way the latter has conducted its affairs in Latin America, in Asia and other parts of the world. …there is a genuine fear; a fear that came to the forefront just before the visit of President Bush to this country recently; a fear that was articulated not by government but by the Ghanaian people through the media and so on; and which forced President Bush to deny a few things.” Assessing public dissent against the AFRICOM project, he said "far from being a done deal, the people can rest assured that the government has its head properly screwed on and would not betray the people’s trust." (See: Gbeho: US can’t force AFRICOM on Ghana, (Myjoyonline.com, Monday, I June 2009.)




Are You Talking About Patriotism And The Judicious Use Of Our Newly Found Oil Wealth? 

To begin with, why are you so concerned about the judicious use or otherwise of the newly found wealth, if one could link the use of the sovereign guarantee behind the contentious Ghana-South Korean STX deal, to nothing else other than that? The very oil wealth about whose judicious use this debate is all about has been a subject of your jealousy and extreme chagrin that Ghana seems stands to boost her economy by the billions of dollars with this discovery! You have even gone as far as expressing your happiness at the news that the Ivory Coast was claiming our jubilee oil field in the heat of the recent boarder dispute between Ghana and La Côte d'Ivoire! How this makes you a patriot worthy to be listened to by "the diligent but woefully underpaid Ghanaian worker" needs to be properly explained to me. In any case, what is your beef here? You are happy at the prospects the Ivory Coast even claiming by force of arms, an oil discovery well into 60 kilometres away from the nearest landmass of the Ivorian border, and you want people to go and examine their minds when they say that you are not patriotic!

 Listen to Kwame Okoampa himself: 

"I am glad that, finally, the Ivorians are beginning to assert their right of access and enjoyment of Ghana's purportedly new-found oil wealth... It also didn't quite make a lot of sense to me that an oil find that lay so dangerously close to Ghana's border with Côte d'Ivoire would also have been so [godlessly] uncharitable as to neatly parcel itself out for the exclusive benefit and enjoyment of Ghanaians while the war-seasoned Ivorians continued to languish in penury.... What is also wickedly fascinating is the sudden fit of alarm that seems to have gripped the hitherto light-headed Ghanaians. All of an auspicious sudden, it is beginning to home-in to these soft-headed, happy-go-lucky and good-natured “Niggers” that premature gloating over a pure gift of nature may yet turn out to be too good to be true.(See: "Who Are These “Parliamentarian Drivers”? By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Feature Article of Tuesday, 16 March 2010.


I have already complained about this before, but I was more concerned with the lack of courtesy rather than patriotism as Okoampa has long ceased to surprise me. I have to confess that reading from a Ghanaian openly supporting La Côte d'Ivoire and even suggesting war was a little bit surprising, even by Okoampa standards. But even more surprising is the sheer impudence of such an individual taking upon himself to lecture anyone about patriotism and the judicious use of our oil wealth!

The question I want to primarily ask Okoampa is why does he pretend to be bothered about the judicious use of our oil wealth when he himself wanted the Ivorians to take it away from our hands? What I want to make clear to Okoampa is that without the oil remaining in the hands of Ghana, the debate about its judicious use would not even be on the horizon. I raise this issue in order to put it to you that you are clearly equivocating and engaged in Orwellian double-talk to facilitate the sale of your extremely nefarious political wares. And whilst I am at it, I shall find time to expose some of them, particularly as they bear on sovereignty and patriotism and imperialist designs on our oil and its security implications for the people of Ghana.

Suffice it to say for the time being that, as I wrote in a previous article: 

"Okoampa continues by making demeaning remarks about his fellow countrymen. To use such language indicates contempt for Ghanaian men and women. Why would any Ghanaian who consider his country's vital interests so dispensable, still present himself as a member of a "Think Tank" and expect respect from his fellow Ghanaians? What does it mean if this man presents Nana Akufo Addo as his favourite candidate, and Akufo Addo approves of this association with him? Is Akufo Addo telling us that the Danquah Institute "think tank" is fast becoming nothing but a nest of politically virulent and toxic ideas contempt for the Ghanaian people?" (See: Is It Not Time For Akufo Addo To Distance Himself From The Danquah Institute Altogether?).

 

The Danquah Institute, The NPP, And The STX Deal
  
The first time I heard about the STX contract was on the website of the Danquah Institute: "Press Release: DI Raises Redflag on $1.5B STX Korean Credit Plus Oil Deal from Equitorial Guinea". It might be necessary to dedicate another piece to do justice on the substantive issues of the STX deal. My objective here is to simply challenge Okoampa and the Danquah Institute that they are not the patriots that they want unsuspecting ghanaians to believe! It is not surprising that Ochere-Darko has been able to mobilize the entire party structure behind this campaign. The STX deal is not the only thing the think tank has been thing about and making their thoughts public. One issue that has bothered me has been the way people associated with the Danquah Institute has been promoting the US Africa Command Headquarters project. The easy influence of a major political party by such vipers is a serious source of concern.

It must be noted that the level of the NPP, this is the third time party is towing the line of the Danquah Institute within a very short time! Some worried observers see this as a drill or a rehearsal of the shape of things to come should Akufo Addo be elected the President of this country. Considering the type of noises coming from this group, it is very important to raise the alarm that they are up to no good! Ant that the wheeler and the dealer at the centre of it all, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo must of necessitate not up to any good!

The reason why my grandson needs to see a psychiatrist is therefore, also because it is very important for the Akufo-Addo busy-bodies like him not to give the game away so soon! If he does not see a psychiatrist, Okoampa would open the eyes of Ghanaians so wide to what the Akufo Addo camp has been up to, ever since Bush said "Baloney!" to the US Africom Headquarters rumour in Accra. Right now, my own real fear in all this, is that considering the unprecedented leverage the Danquah Institute  now wields within the NPP, particularly the current Akufo-Addo-led National Executive committee of the NPP, exemplified in the speed by which the NPP has proved to be extremely susceptible to the negative influences of the Danquah Institute, the question that every concerned Ghanaian must be asking ought to be, "Are we safe?" Kwame Okoampa and the Ochere-Darkos are just a tip of the iceberg! My real worry is why has Akufo Addo surrounded himself with a lot of people of doubtful intentions and abilities and what does this say of this man's own intentions and abilities? The only known Ghanaians who embraced the US Africom project are all to be found in the Danquah Institute! Is this a co-incidence?

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!! 

*(The original version of this article contains important links to the references made within. For further information and follow-ups, I invite the interested reader to my blog. I tweet some of my comments on facebook and on twitter. I am interested in the political grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation. If you agree or disagree with me, you may follow my thinking and reactions in a more comprehensive manner by coming to theodikro.blogspot.com. I keep most of my comments in one place. You may give me a follow on Twitter if you want to know "where I am coming from": /twitter.com/TheOdikro,  or check out my blogs: 1. Feature Articles: nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com, 2. Comments: theodikro.blogspot.com) Thanks!