President Bush was bush

"I know there are rumors in Ghana: all Bush is coming to do is to try and convince you to put a big military base here. That's baloney. Or as we say in Texas, that's bull."

The above were the exact words the US President George Walker Bush used at the seat of our Government standing with our President John Agyekum Kufuor on 20thFebruary 2008.

I have since been dumbfounded at the frightening levels of inferiority complex exhibited by some Ghanaian media practitioners and social commentators in response to President Bush’s uncultured and disgraceful outbursts.

I Heard a Metro TV newscaster say that President Bush has enriched our vocabulary – would you believe that! I didn’t know that here in Ghana, we desperately need vocabulary enrichment in insults and vulgarity. I have heard other pathetic commentaries from government apologists who justify these comments with glee and go further to thank President Bush for dealing with the perceived opponents of the NPP who held the fear that the US will establish a US Military base in Ghana.

To me, this is yet another evidence of the lack of confidence of many members of the black race and it hurts that as we mark the 42nd anniversary of the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, we are faced with the stark reality that his agenda to build the African Personality who will prove that he is equal to any other race on this planet may have failed. Can anybody imagine the backlash and anger that would have been generated if these same words uttered by President Bush had emanated from another President from a black country? Indeed Bob Marley was right when he advocated for emancipation from mental slavery – the shocking ovation and praise for President Bush from cross sections of Ghanaians for his insults and desecration of our culture, our sensibilities and our seat of Government only confirms the staggering degree of mental slavery probably worse than Bob Marley imagined.

What we should be asking is whether President Bush can address the US Congress in such foul language? Even in his Texas, can he address senior citizens using bull? The point must be made, that this is a US President who either had very little or absolutely no respect for the Ghanaian people. President Bush may have gotten away with his despicable conduct in the presence of our President and may have been hailed afterwards by dim-witted, inferiority complex, stomach journalists who fancy their pathetic loud praises would earn them a US Visa, but he surely wouldn’t get away from people like me. It will forever be a scare on my conscious if I do not register my disgust and put it to President Bush that we may be poor, we may require assistance in HIV/AIDS, we may have need for his insecticide treated mosquito nets and 17 million dollars (never mind that he has given military ruler Musharaff of Pakistan 20 billion dollars), but that and may I repeat for emphasis that doesn’t take away our human dignity, the respect for our culture and sensibilities and our equality with him and any other human being on this Earth.

President Bush and every other white supremacist must know that the good Lord created as equal and if he is a true Born Again Catholic as he professes then he must be ashamed of himself and quickly go to the Lord for forgiveness. Secondly, he should know that the founding fathers of his country including the good old Thomas Jefferson would be turning in their graves that the 43rd President of America will so much make contemptuous the celebrated American Independence Declaration of “all men are created equal.”

What President Bush also portrays is his intolerance which may account for the chaos he has plunged this world into as he engages in useless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and talks tough on Iran even though all independent experts and the UN have cleared Iran from any so-called nuclear threat. This has led to the unprecedented global oil price hikes and world insecurity that affects us all in the Global Village. Need I say that a lack of tolerance also reveals a lack of true democratic credentials?

It must also be pointed out to President Bush that it wasn’t Ghanaians who made the recommendations in the Dick Cheney Report, it wasn’t Ghanaians who advised Donald Rumsfeld to begin so-called military partnerships all over Africa and most importantly, it wasn’t Ghanaians who went to African Countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Liberia amongst others to convince them to host a US military base. In any case, if America didn’t have such plans then why has it been widely reported and known to be true that it is only Liberia that has agreed to this US Military base proposition. Finally, what Bush said wasn’t even an outright denial, he only spoke against a big military base and announced that “that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t consider having some kind of an office here.” What our stomach US Visa applicant journalists should have been demanding to know from Bush is what kind of office he means especially when we know that the new US Embassy in Accra which is the biggest in Africa has so many offices already.

There are many discerning and decent people in Africa and for that matter Ghana contrary to what Bush thinks and I must say in the clearest possible terms that no US President can come here and inflict on us vulgarity, incoherence, lack of logic and insults and think he will go scot-free. I am sorry President Bush but the other time, you were really bush!

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the author of the book, A State of Coma; he has several other publications to his name. He was NUGS President and is currently a leading member of the CJA. He welcomes your comments.