Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of Operation Mango Tree.
This was our mass action at the CPP headquarters demanding for the reinstatement of Ernesto Yeboah and Nii Armah Akomfrah, who were then National Youth Organiser and General Secretary respectively.
I was also a member of the party at that time and Secretary to the Youth League. In the run-up to the 2016 elections, renowned journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni uncovered that then President John Mahama had received a Ford Expedition vehicle from a contractor contrary to the code of conduct of public officials.
How could somebody who was bidding for state contracts be gifting the Head of State a car?
The Youth League of the CPP took the matter up and formally petitioned CHRAJ to open an investigation into bribery and corruption allegations against the president in relation to the Ford issue. As secretary of the Youth League, I signed the letter.
Photo: Hardi Yakubu
CHRAJ launched an investigation. We were expecting support from the party leadership. In a normal, anti-corruption party, that’s what anybody would expect. But this was not one.
We got massive backlash.
The flagbearer of the party, Ivor Greenstreet, was in support of John Mahama’s action. Ernesto Yeboah as leader of the Youth League on whose authority the petition was sent was suspended by the Central Committee, largely a body of questionable characters with few exceptions.
When Nii Armah Akomfrah as General Secretary spoke out in support of Ernesto and the Youth League’s anti-corruption stance, he was also suspended. They then referred the two cases to the Disciplinary Committee.
The committee cleared the two of them of any wrongdoing and applauded their anti-corruption stance in line with party principle. It said they must be re-instated. But that was not done.
This directive was flouted by the Central Committee. They later issued a statement that they had sacked Ernesto from the party. The CPP sacked Ernesto Yeboah and suspended Nii Armah Akomfrah indefinitely for fighting corruption.
Operation Mango Tree was launched at the party HQ demanding the right thing to be done. It was one of several actions taken to make sure the party leadership followed the Nkrumahist principle. Leadership was more focused on making money.
The party was intractably corrupt and in good conscience, we had to redirect our energies into something more positive rather than flogging a dead horse. I personally could not see how I could criticise NPP and NDC for being corrupt while being in the CPP. The current CPP doesn’t reflect Nkrumaism.
It is using the identity to prop up the system while Nkrumah’s CPP remains proscribed under the 1992 sakawa constitution. This was for us just one lesson on the road to our non-partisan stance.
The good thing about the Economic Fighters League is that there are people who felt the same way in NPP and NDC and joined us to change the system for a better future.
The NPP, along with the NDC, this imposter CPP and others are all just parts of a system designed to oppress us. The system must fall. The People must stand
