In the teeth of a series of critical assessments, I gave my verdict, and it is as clear as crystal – ‘Working with Rawlings’ is more or less the tabloid’s “Alice In the Wonderland” fairytales – Kwamena Ahwoi’s memoir is premised on parochial subjectivity and tasteless propaganda – it is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
And if the stinging notices and withering reviews it has received so far is anything to go by, then the tragic failure that the book and the author have become will surpass the most tragic literary gaffe ever.
For a memoir that is startlingly insincere about many things, Ahwoi’s utter lack of self-criticism, and sanctimonious defensiveness would seem to indicate some sort of ambivalence on his part.
That’s what it is.
But if you’re in doubt with regards to my conclusion, answer this question dispassionately and connect the dots.
Is it remotely possible for a presidential candidate to nominate his/her running mate without meeting the person?
Well, the ‘gospel’ according to Kwamena Ahwoi has it so. Indeed, one of the palpable misrepresentations that came jumping out at me while reading the book, and still unsettles me is his claim that as at the time President Rawlings made Prof Mills his running mate in 1996, the two had NOT met.
Yes, on pages 120-123, Kwamena Ahwoi made the claim that Rawlings had never met Rawlings, at least not until Mills got the nomination.
Kwamena Ahwoi claimed that after he clinched the deal for Mills to partner Rawlings who badly needed a running mate to enable him file his presidential nomination, he (Kwamena Ahwoi) called Rawlings from his office at the Ministry of Local Government: “Rawlings was ecstatic. ‘Lock your door, mo nua’ [Rawlings said]. ‘Don’t let him leave your office for somebody to go and change his mind. I am sending some people over.’ So, I locked my office with myself, my brother Ato and Professor Mills inside. I opened a bottle of Club beer while we waited and chatted. Within 30 minutes, Nana Ato Dadzie, Chief of Staff to President Rawlings and Tsatsu Tsikata arrived with the presidential nomination forms, in which President Rawlings had filled his personal details as required by the Electoral Commission. Professor Mills took the forms and duly completed his portion. At long last, the hunt for an NDC vice presidential candidate was over. The NDC was ready for the 1996 presidential election battle… After the telephone encounter with President Rawlings, I next called Kofi Totobi-Quakyi, the Minister of Information, on the telephone and briefed him about the ‘good news’. Within twenty minutes Totobi-Quakyi was in my office. The group (myself, Professor Mills, Ato Ahwoi, Nana Ato Dadzie, Tsatsu Tsikata and Totobi-Quakyi) then discussed the next steps. A meeting was to be arranged with President Rawlings for the first face-to-face encounter between the two of them…” (pages 122-123).
Folks, who in this country didn’t know that Rawlings actually appointed Mills as IRS Commissioner and had met with him during his term at IRS? As a matter of fact, Prof Mills was appointed by Chairman Rawlings as acting IRS Commissioner in 1988 and made the substantive Commissioner in 1993 until 1996, and it is quite incongruous for anyone to claim the two never met until Mills’ running mate nomination.
One would have thought that Kwamena would have followed best practice to have fact-checkers and reviewers go through the historical accounts he presents in the book especially as some of the records are a matter of public record, but no, he would rather throw in some of these outright lies just to further his parochial interest. It is amazing to notice several slips on rather easily verifiable facts.
I can get past the fact that Kwamena Ahwoi is disingenuous because that is who he is. What I can’t believe is that he’s able to publish such outright untruths and still want to be taken serious as an academic.
Along the way, Kwamena Ahwoi also mentions other disconcerting situations when Mills, he says, took a few bottles of beer with him while he brood over the running mate decision. Was it very necessary to bring Mills’ love for Club Beer into the narration? What was really the point? In other words, Mills made the decision to be running mate under the influence of alcohol? The irony was almost poignant: This is so like Kwamena Ahwoi- it says everything about his abject self-righteousness and delusions of grandeur.
In one particularly disturbing passage, Kwamena Ahwoi directed the same derision at Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. He claimed to have met him at a drinking spot and then suggested his name for the top job as electoral commissioner.
You see his level of thinking? This is more of a self-righteous and self-serving sort of fatalism that sounds remarkably similar to the explanation he is rumoured to have given years ago after the “shit bombing” of a reputed media house.
Let’s demolish another obvious untruth told by Kwamena Ahwoi on page 136-137:
“I was under intense pressure from President Rawlings, who I suspect was himself under intense pressure from Mr. Eddie Annan (a known NDC financier and a close confidante of President Rawlings and his wife) to authorize the MCE of the Accra Metropolis, Nat Nunoo Amarteifio, who was later replaced by Mr. Ishmael Ayittey, to sign the contract [with City and Country Waste]. When President Rawlings realized that I would not give authorization until I had finished my with consultations, and checks and seeing that this was going to result in considerable delay, he went behind me and directly ordered Mr. Ishmael Ayittey to sign the contract. The sequel to this event was that when the NDC lost the 2000 elections and the NPP came to power in 2001, they abrogated the contract and sold the [heavy duty waste management] equipment to private individuals. City and Country Waste sued the AMA and in the case in which I gave evidence for the company, and which travelled all the way to the Supreme Court, City and Country Waste was awarded damages to about US$17 million.”
Now, that is another monstrous misrepresentation. Mr. Ishmael Ayeetey did not replace Nat Nunoo Amarteifio as MCE of the Accra Metropolis. It is a palpable falsehood, and as the then Minister for Local Government, Kwamena Ahwoi should have known this. The local authorities and District Assemblies are under the Ministry of Local Government and it is egregious for Kwamena Ahwoi not to have known that Ishmael Ayeetey was appointed as Mayor in 1992 and left office in 1993. After him came Nat Nunoo Amarteifio between 1994-1998, and then Samuel Adokwei Addo between 1998 – 2001.
To the extent that Kwamena Ahwoi got the name wrong- ‘Ayittey’ instead of Ayeetey speaks volumes.
By his own recounting, Kwamena Ahwoi alluded to the fact that he went to court to voluntarily testify in favour of a company that was awarded a contract without his consent as the then local government minister. Where was his conscience when he was in the witness box? How much did he benefit from Eddie Annan when he was compensated? You see why I call him a profiteer of the Rawlings’ Revolution?
As someone who takes writing/literature as a serious art of communication, I find the numerous and blatant disregard for truth contained in the book to be unpardonably reckless and intellectually unedifying. We cannot excuse some of these inexcusable misrepresentations by Kwamena Ahwoi. Even people with who have mental health challenges won’t engage in this sort of attrition and expect to be given a free pass.
The book is bloated with self-importance, and it can certainly not pass for an academic work. Everyone involved in this work must bow down their heads in remorseless shame.
Revolutionalists don’t tell it all but since Kwamena Ahwoi has decided to, we must as well help him recover from the clear case of selective amnesia that he seem to be suffering from.
I shall return.