GADANGME ELDERS WARNED NDC’S ROJO ‘Don’t be part of the [nonsense]’
It is emerging that the reason why National Democratic Congress’s leading member, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, failed to appear as a witness in the ongoing 2012 Election Petition was that he was cautioned by GaDangme opinion leaders against “denting his reputation as a Ga in politics.”
Rojo, together with NDC’s Asiedu Nketia, was initially reported to have been assigned the responsibility of representing the NDC. Based on the GaDangme intervention, however, Rojo declined, compelling Mahama and the NDC guns to push another character that would match that of comic first witness Johnson Asiedu Nketia in ‘playing’ Mahama as the petitioner.
Alarm bells
According to insider and top GaDangme sources, just when the pressure was mounting on Rojo Mettle-Nunoo to appear as a witness for petitioner John Dramani Mahama, discreet calls started coming from top GaDangme sources in the US and UK, cautioning the usually moderate NDC indigenous Ga leading member not to “mire himself and Gas” as a consequence.
‘Don’t do it’
“Rojo, the call went…if you know that this thing is one of your party’s things, please don’t be part of it…don’t dent the image of Gas.”
The opinion leaders, The Thunder was reliably told, included US and UK GaDangme community voices.
Others were a distinguished Ga patriot resident in Ghana and a member of academia as well as two leading members of the NDC, who worked several years with the late Jerry John Rawlings.
‘Truth is divine’
The opinion leaders reminded Rojo of the need to be cautious not to give Gas a bad name, particularly when its youth is being blamed, together with Zongo youth, of leading the assault on a distinguished Ga lady, privileged to be heading an august body like the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
“I believe you know we have a tradition that enjoins us as Israelites, not to join an enemy in fighting a brother and sister…and you know that…please, don’t do it…” the terse telephone call added.
Clash of identity
The clash-of-identity incident follows a phenomenon in the NDC about the waning presence of top-notch Gas still active and influential in the NDC.
Rojo ignited the controversy when he started looking for documents in the corridors of the Electoral Commission during the December 2020 results collation event, when the source of those documents was supposed to be with his NDC polling agents on the grounds in constituencies and the regions.
Since 2008, he has been NDC’s rep extraordinaire at the EC and always ‘spot on’ in spotting trouble, including one during the tenure of Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan in which he had a brush with Kwabena Agyepong, former JA Kufour Press Secretary and iced NPP General Secretary.
Waning Ga presence in NDC
Rojo’s own brother, Quaynor Mettle-Nunoo exited the NDC on the eve of Jerry Rawlings’ exit and Professor John Evans Atta Mill’s handover to John Agyekum Kufour.
Former Interior Minister in the Rawlings administration, Okaidja Adamafio also exited later, joining Obed Asamoah to form the Democratic Freedom Party. Though he returned after a JEA Mills intervention, he has since kept a low profile.
Another youthful activist whose father’s house in Katamanso gave offered sanctuary to the NDC during its formative years, then Prince Afotey Agbo, has exited quietly and technically to fill his father’s position as Chief of Katamanso, though he strives to balance both roles as a father figure of the legendary Ga community of Katamanso.
Other high profile appointees, who exited around that same time, included former Greater Accra Regional Minister Mike Gizo and, later, the grandmaster of indigenous Ga grassroots politics, Enoch Teye Mensah.
Eccentric Dr. Kpessa Whyte replaced Rojo, set to defend to the hilt John Dramani Mahama and his abortive political interests.
TheThunderGhNews was again told that one of the Ga opinion leaders drew Rojo’s attention to a Ga fable about the monkey who was forced to carry the burdens of all the beasts in the forest during a period of scarcity that caused them to seek refuge and solace on another planet.
The story goes that, because Monkey was the ugliest among the lot, the lot fell on him to carry the belongings of the whole contingent of beasts. Upon hearing the news, Monkey held his face in his hands and began to weep, which is why Monkeys hold their hands in their face when hunters aim shots at them.
Rojo got the moral in the story and capitulated, tail between legs, at least, by the time we went to press.
** The Thunder Gh News | News In Flash! here
Follow us on Twitter: @TheThunderGh
#TheThunderGhNews