Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako Jr has said people like investigative journalists Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Manasseh Azuri Awuni, as well as former Attorney General Martin Amidu, private legal practitioner Ace Anan Ankomah among others are his “contemporary heroes.”
“I hasten to suggest that a new era of citizen activism, civil society advocacy, and judicial assertiveness has dawned in our collective efforts to grow and consolidate multiparty democracy driven by the principles of accountable and responsive governance.
“Citizens like Martin Amidu, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Kojo Anan Ankomah, we call him Ace, Kofi Bentil, Bright Simons, Massaeh Azuri Awuni, Sydney Casely-Hayford, Franklin Cudjoe, Prof Stephen Asare, he is a legendary litigant, and I love his spirit, I have to be honest with you, Madam Margaret Bamful, Henry Nana Boakye, etc., are a new generation of focused activists, advocates and agitators who are striving to grow the culture of accountable and responsive governance in Ghana. And they are my contemporary heroes,” he told an audience on Thursday when he delivered a lecture on the 13th Kronti ne Akwamu lecture organised by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana on the theme “Search for Accountability: Government Under the Fourth Republic”.
Mr Baako said “some recognition and compliment go out for and to corporate entities such as OccupyGhana, Citizen Ghana Movement, Imani Ghana and Tiger Eye among others. These citizens and corporate entities represent a new spirit, a driving new force, a new phenomenon which I sincerely believe if are well cultivated and directed, will inspire a qualitative consolidation of our democracy and enhance accountable and responsible governance to greater heights never experienced in Ghana.”
Speaking about his personal political convictions at the same lecture, Mr Baako said he does not like the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a party.
“I’ll be dishonest if I say for instance I like the NDC or I endorse the NDC, I’ll be dishonest. Don’t take me seriously. I don’t, for good reasons, the party I mean,” he told the audience.
Mr Baako, however, noted that “when an NDC administration is in government and it initiates policies that are positive and progressive, I support them, those policies, and I’ve done that many times and a lot of my friends in the NPP get angry with me and they attack me left right centre … but when it comes to my political stance on a party like NDC [I don’t like them] because of their genesis.”
“You see, they overthrew our party (CPP) in the third Republic and then when they came, they formed three or four parties and today the CPP is in the belly of the NDC virtually. Yes, 90 percent of their constituencies that they hold are traditional CPP constituencies. It is going to take a long time to fight to regain our strength so I have a problem with NDC and then the coup d’état that brought the PNDC into being; it was a matter of conviction, matter of principle, I went to jail for that, for opposing them, I was in jail for two years, just because of the opposition to the coup …
“…And my own very good friend former President Rawlings, also I have a little difficulty with. I like him personally, he is a fantastic personality, socially, but his politics I detest,” Mr Baako added.
He also said even though he is a member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), he votes for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in presidential elections.
“I’m a member of the CPP, yes that’s true, but I have difficulties with the party’s policies and decisions and the party leaders know that.
“I prefer to focus on growing the party through parliament rather than boxing the two together – presidential and parliamentary – with our limited resources. In a multiparty democracy, if you have even 10 Members of Parliament, you have a voice and I’ve been saying this for a long time and I was in the tiny minority. I was one time dragged to the disciplinary committee, so I took a backseat. But you’d be surprised, go and check, come elections, I mobilise logistics and funding for CPP constituencies. At least I adopt about 20, 30 and I do that. The evidence is available. This time I printed T-shirts and posters of select constituencies where I think we have the potential in order to gain the parliamentary presence.”
He said as far as the presidential election is concerned, “Unfortunately I’ve told the CPP that I can’t follow them, they don’t agree so I vote NPP. Yes, because the other alternative is the NDC and I can’t, so I vote NPP. That’s the truth, you can call that bias, I can live with it”.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
