Boakye Agyarko’s ‘Painful’ Exit: Fate or Destiny?

The people of Hwoa Ye Mmobo may be biting their fingers in sorrow and disappointment, following indications that their hopes of being connected to the national electricity grid anytime soon could be in jeopardy. But that is on the lighter side of things.

On a more serious note, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, until last Monday Ghana’s Energy Minister, will officially go down as the first Cabinet Minister under a New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to be given the boot.

The former Vice President of the Bank of New York and chairman of NPP North America was dropped by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, barely seventeen months in office over a deal that does not look good to many people.

Before he was shown the exit, Agyarko was nearly the ‘darling boy’ of majority of NPP faithful. Having solved the ageless ‘Dumsor’ and reducing electricity tariffs, he had become a household name in Ghana, with many describing him as a God-sent to the Akufo-Addo government.

In fact barely two weeks before he was sacked, he was in the positive side of media reportage and exhibited a great sense of humour on the floor of Parliament when the MP of Abirem engaged him over electricity for communities in his constituency.

Little did anybody expect that the very bill he was in the House to submit, and for which he caught the attention of the media, was going to create the anti-climax of his political career. Today, Boakye Agyarko is in the news and being discussed over a controversial matter, just as he was during his vetting in Parliament.

At the vetting, the president’s nominee was accused of attempting to bribe members of the vetting committee so as to give him the nod, an accusation he vehemently denied.

Life had not been that rosy for Boakye. He won the sympathy of the same committee when he told his story thus:

“In June 1983, for those who will recall, there was a mutiny led by Lance-Corporal Halidu Giwa. I was picked up by the Military and sent to the Airforce Station and put against the wall and shot. I almost lost my life, and through the intervention of Monsieur Le Veloire and my two sisters who are seated behind me, I was able to leave Ghana through London to France, and then settled in the United States under very difficult circumstances”.

Since then, he worked hard and diligently enough for government and party, until the yoke of AMERI entangled him. The most controversial deal in Ghana’s political history, which contributed to the fall of the President Mahama administration, is beginning to stain the Akufo-Addo government, starting with Agyarko.

Will this life’s trial be one of the hurdles in his life and end his political career? Was it fate that brought him this far, or he was destined to end this way?

THE PUBLISHER is amazed that as he went through his current vilification, none of his three deputy ministers ran to his defense as should have been the case.

The paper is wondering whether the minister single-handedly came up with the new deal and was therefore being made to face the music alone.

Whether Boakye Agyarko’s predicament is due to fate or destiny could be seen in the coming days, months, and maybe years. Only time will tell.